I finished Season 1. I've been reading the old thread too, following the links and taking in the responses. I'm having a hard time processing it. Ironically some of the comments foreshadow the backlash to Girls (e.g. ronito and Brian Fellows sound like some of the criticism of Girls). I almost don't understand how anyone can like Enlightened and not appreciate Girls (except in the hipster sense that Girls came afterwards and took all the shine). At least Girls provides some laughs... I'll save the rest of my thoughts until after I completed Season 2 ― unless anyone wants to go over the Girls/Enlightened comparisons (shame anaron is banned :-( )― but a small shoutout for the Consider Helen episode. I had heard a bit about that episode be before watching and it definitely delivered on the hype.
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Enlightened Season 2 |OT| Even agents of change get cancelled sometimes.
- Thread starter anaron
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Stumpokapow
listen to the mad man
I will say that Enlightened steps up its game significantly in S2, but I think Season 1 is pretty great as well. I'll add that I think that Enlightened asks far more significant questions (even if it does in an anxious-bordering-on-mentally-ill way, and is never able to fully answer them). I've never seen a show do "malaise" or discomfort the way Enlightened does. I think it has a very strong social conscience, in a way that few shows do. It's not quite righteous and targeted the way Sorkin writes, it's fuzzy and unfocused and confused. It's lonely. It's lost. Really really interesting stuff. It's so calm but so scared. I think it does a remarkably good job of portraying the thought process of a person who sees themselves as an "agent of change". Actually, it's had odd parallels to my personal experience, as I'm finishing up a master's course on protests against globalization, and the way the authors I read speak about imagination, and the really fuzzy character of their proposals, their lack of concrete ideas, just the sense of discontent with the world and the need to make it better... White seems to have a very very good grasp of what these people are like.
I do enjoy Girls, but I think the first season was stronger than the second, and the second is a little too self-aware.
Both share strong authorial vision, but very different authors. Both have fairly snappy dialogue. They have different tones, though. Enlightened is probably closest to Parenthood in the way it shows conflict between characters. Enlightened is far less cartoonish than Girls, which has a feverish quality. Enlightened feels a little bit like a slow moving train, like it is being hauled inevitably to its destination, while Girls doesn't really have much intra-episode momentum.
That being said, Girls' best episode is Hannah leaving NYC for an episode, and Enlightened's best episode is Levi... err... well, you'll get to it, but point is that Levi is somewhere that Amy isn't. There's something peculiar about delocating a character that gives some essential insight into their personality and their reactions to things. The more episodes I see of more TV shows that do this, the clearer to me that this is a really great technique. House of Cards' best episode was Frank at his alma mater. Louie's best episode this last season was "Miami"...
Edit: Filled out my answer a lot more.
I'm drained. Trying to decide between rewatching Season 1, taking a break by seeing The Comeback which I've only just discovered while reading all the articles and comments linked in the old Enlightened thread (it's supposed to be funny and I need some laughs) or plowing ahead into Season 2. Enlightened is the most difficult block of television I've ever watched although the payoff was well worth the journey.
RatskyWatsky
Hunky Nostradamus
Maureen Ryan has a good article up titled:
8 Reasons HBO Must Bring Back This Show
I think she brings up some pretty good points:
8 Reasons HBO Must Bring Back This Show
I think she brings up some pretty good points:
dead souls
Member
I love this show and I really hope it's renewed but what a stupid article from my least favorite critic that isn't named VanDerWerff. Christ, Maureen Ryan is an idiot.
Enlightened "appeals to younger generations of potential HBO subscribers"? There aren't enough LOLs in the world for that statement. The whole reason the show may be canceled is that it is appealing to almost no one given the terrible ratings.
The rest of her points aren't much better.
Enlightened "appeals to younger generations of potential HBO subscribers"? There aren't enough LOLs in the world for that statement. The whole reason the show may be canceled is that it is appealing to almost no one given the terrible ratings.
The rest of her points aren't much better.
RatskyWatsky
Hunky Nostradamus
Outside of points 4 and maybe 7, I don't see anything wrong in what she's saying. What do you disagree with specifically?
dead souls
Member
Plenty of things. She's vastly overestimating how big the fan base for the show is. There simply won't be that much of an outcry if the show is canceled because most people aren't even aware that it exists. Much as I'd love any excuse to slam Girls bringing it up just further weakens her argument because as we've all discussed previously HBO is getting more buzz and more ratings with it for what I would imagine is a similar budget. The whole article just seems riddled with fanboy/girl logic.
RatskyWatsky
Hunky Nostradamus
I mean, the vocal minority is a thing. Even if just a few thousand fans bombard HBO's Twitter, Facebook, etc. that's enough to create the kind of outcry she describes in her article.
dead souls
Member
Sure, but at the end of the day why should HBO give a shit about that? Almost any show can get a couple of thousand people raging about its cancellation, so networks shouldn't even really consider that kind of potential feedback in their decision making process at all in my opinion.
The bottom line for HBO is that I can't imagine anybody cancelling (or signing up) for HBO based on what they do with this show. Certainly not enough people to really matter. I hope it comes back, but if it does it seems like it will just be one of those "Wow, premium cable channels have really different standards than every other type of network" things.
I believe you, but where do you get this information from?
Did he say he'd delete his Twitter if the show wasn't renewed?
At least it's unconfirmed, right? Right?
dead souls
Member
Sad, but at least the season finale made for a pretty good series finale.
You should prolly channel it toward HBO's audience that only wants to watch dragons and vampires and tits and vampire tits.
LOL.
But I'd say it's audiences in general, not necessarily that of HBO.
Of course if Enlightened had 10% of the support from the beginning that Girls had, more might have tuned in. Critics didn't embrace the show until it was kind of hip to do so and break from the Girls worship.
I'm not literally blaming Girls. Just saying that Enlightened's support came a little too late.
Mushroomer25
Member
Patton Oswalt seems to be rallying for the show to be picked up by another network.
I could see Netflix snapping it up. Or going through Kickstarter for an 8-episode run (maybe doing the plot for season 3 as a feature).
I could see Netflix snapping it up. Or going through Kickstarter for an 8-episode run (maybe doing the plot for season 3 as a feature).
RatskyWatsky
Hunky Nostradamus
Awful news. I knew I shouldn't have expected a third season but I was really hoping HBO would see all the critical acclaim and just say "fuck it" to the low ratings. Oh well, at least it went out on a pretty perfect end to the series and we got 18 absolutely fantastic half-hours of television.
I discovered Enlightened while reading epsiode reviews of Girls (season 2). A few writers and commentators kept mentioring another show that was just as good, or better, and piqued my curiosity. What little I had previously gleaned from ads and the zeitgeist about Enlightened can be summed up by this celebratory Time article. Enlightened had won Golden Globes for comedy. I tjought it was the TV version of Eat, Pray, Love; just some New Age horsemeat.
I gave the show a shot but struggled to complete the first episode. Like old Sepinwall, I didn't find it enjoyable at all, I couldn't find "a way in". It was the Thinkprogress article, linked in the OP of this thread that gave me the impetus to push ahead and watch some more. As Stump poimts out above, Enlightened asks some important questions, interesting questions, questions rarely seen posed on TV shows. I completed the first season and found the final scenes (of Amy being forced to attain some self-awareness―listening to her co-workers speak behind her back―and courageously telling them off) to be very rewarding. Season 1 ends poised on a knife edge as Amy vows to take down the company. How could I not want more?
According to the show's timeline the period between season 1 and season 2 is quite short. My expectations of a whole new greatly improved Amy for Season 2 proved to be unfounded. Indeed for most of the drama I was mouthing along with Tyler, "Are you fucking kidding me?!" at Amy's antics. I can watch shows despite not liking the main characters: I don't much care for Hannah on Girls, and loathe Walter White and Dan Draper of Breaking Bad and Mad Men respectively. But Amy... I want to like her, I want to support her endeavors but she's driving me insane. At the end of the series I liked the Amy the least of all the characters on the show and even felt some sympathy for the Abaddon CEO ― well I did until he used the c-word anyway. That was a well executed ending to parallel the opening scenes and provide a suitable bookend for the journey the show dragged us through. Sometimes it stretched the limits of believability**. I didn't actually agree with its depiction of activists and I wouldn't this as an enlightenment tool of organizing. Yet it presented a view of reality and a way of looking at the world that I have rarely seen on television. No other show has impacted me as much since The Wire. I'm glad I watched it.
**a regular reporter at the LA Times who also happens to agree with Manufacturing Consent? Does he also ride a unicorn? It was good though to see that book, along with A People's History of the United States, displayed prominently
I gave the show a shot but struggled to complete the first episode. Like old Sepinwall, I didn't find it enjoyable at all, I couldn't find "a way in". It was the Thinkprogress article, linked in the OP of this thread that gave me the impetus to push ahead and watch some more. As Stump poimts out above, Enlightened asks some important questions, interesting questions, questions rarely seen posed on TV shows. I completed the first season and found the final scenes (of Amy being forced to attain some self-awareness―listening to her co-workers speak behind her back―and courageously telling them off) to be very rewarding. Season 1 ends poised on a knife edge as Amy vows to take down the company. How could I not want more?
According to the show's timeline the period between season 1 and season 2 is quite short. My expectations of a whole new greatly improved Amy for Season 2 proved to be unfounded. Indeed for most of the drama I was mouthing along with Tyler, "Are you fucking kidding me?!" at Amy's antics. I can watch shows despite not liking the main characters: I don't much care for Hannah on Girls, and loathe Walter White and Dan Draper of Breaking Bad and Mad Men respectively. But Amy... I want to like her, I want to support her endeavors but she's driving me insane. At the end of the series I liked the Amy the least of all the characters on the show and even felt some sympathy for the Abaddon CEO ― well I did until he used the c-word anyway. That was a well executed ending to parallel the opening scenes and provide a suitable bookend for the journey the show dragged us through. Sometimes it stretched the limits of believability**. I didn't actually agree with its depiction of activists and I wouldn't this as an enlightenment tool of organizing. Yet it presented a view of reality and a way of looking at the world that I have rarely seen on television. No other show has impacted me as much since The Wire. I'm glad I watched it.
**a regular reporter at the LA Times who also happens to agree with Manufacturing Consent? Does he also ride a unicorn? It was good though to see that book, along with A People's History of the United States, displayed prominently
Dr. Feel Good
Banned
Fuck this shit. Girls season 2 was an absolute train wreck, and this gets booted? Fuck HBO.
What if this season got a bunch of nominations for Best Comedy Series? Could that ever bring it back to life?
What if this season got a bunch of nominations for Best Comedy Series? Could that ever bring it back to life?
Eggplant Wizard
Member
Sad.
So with its two best and most unique shows ending within a year of each other, does HBO have any projects that might get picked up soon? Enlightened and Treme will leave quite the void.
So with its two best and most unique shows ending within a year of each other, does HBO have any projects that might get picked up soon? Enlightened and Treme will leave quite the void.
JacksUsername
Member
Really disappointed to hear that the show has been cancelled. At least it ended on such a strong note and will be treasured by its fan for a long while to come.
Spotless Mind
Member
Argh. Exactly what i didn't want to read.
The season 2 finale does work on many levels as a series finale, but i would have loved spending more time with these characters. Putting an end to the Cogentiva workplace probably didn't help. Presumably, they would have needed new sets or possibly more location work for next season.
Well, at least the show had what i'd classify as a perfect run!
The season 2 finale does work on many levels as a series finale, but i would have loved spending more time with these characters. Putting an end to the Cogentiva workplace probably didn't help. Presumably, they would have needed new sets or possibly more location work for next season.
Well, at least the show had what i'd classify as a perfect run!
JacksUsername
Member
Actually going through my first viewing of Carnivale now...about halfway through season 1 and loving it.
If you love season 1 (which is great but is slow to start rolling), I can't wait to see how you like season 2.
exactly, the list of HBO shows that were good but went out with a huge unfinished endings was getting pretty long... sad news here but a great two seasons.. thx
RatskyWatsky
Hunky Nostradamus
I really thought that HBO would renew it for at least one more season. I thought that surely the positives would outweigh the negatives when it came right down to it.
Oh well.
I'm disappointed for sure, but at the same time I'm glad that the show even existed in the first place. The season 2 finale worked very well as a series finale so at least we weren't left with a massive cliffhanger.
Oh well.
I'm disappointed for sure, but at the same time I'm glad that the show even existed in the first place. The season 2 finale worked very well as a series finale so at least we weren't left with a massive cliffhanger.
I do feel sad that we won't know what happens with Amy and Levi. I don't think they'll get back together, but I would have liked to see how their relationship evolved.
Good lord, when Levi returns from rehab and has that talk with Amy at the baseball diamond...some of the most heart-wrenching dialogue between two people I've ever heard. Not sure why. It was just so sad that the two of them hadn't turned out the way they would have liked.
RatskyWatsky
Hunky Nostradamus
Whatever you do, don't skip anything. It just might not be for you, but the first season is only 10 30 minute episodes so it's not like it's a huge time commitment or anything. Just watch it.
crackhead_bob
Member
Can't Netflix pick them up and start producing new episodes?
RatskyWatsky
Hunky Nostradamus
Patton Oswalt seems to think they can. I'm not sure though.
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