Enlightened
HBO | Release Date: October 10, 2011
CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
79
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 29 Critic Reviews
Positive:
23
Mixed:
6
Negative:
0
Watch Now
Stream On
Buy On

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
People WeeklyTom GliattoJan 17, 2013
Season 2 Review: The show is an absolute original. [28 Jan 2013, p.44]
100
The Huffington PostMaureen RyanJan 17, 2013
Season 2 Review: The show's must-see second season is one of the best stories I've experienced in a long time. Read full review
100
Entertainment WeeklyKen TuckerJan 11, 2013
Season 2 Review: Laura Dern and Mike White continue their bold, hilarious, tremendously moving exploration of Amy Jellicoe's ongoing attempt to give meaning to her life. [18 Jan 2013, p.74]
100
San Francisco ChronicleDavid WiegandJan 10, 2013
Season 2 Review: Self-delusion can grow fairly tiresome, in life and on TV, but what makes Amy sympathetic is that even though she almost convinces us at times that her personal fairy tale actually makes sense, we are always aware of her basic decency and, more important, her vulnerability. Read full review
100
Slant MagazineDaniel GoldbergJan 8, 2013
Season 2 Review: That Enlightened's propagandist and activist message is tinged with irony only makes it more perfectly tooled to our times. Read full review
100
New York PostLinda StasiOct 10, 2011
Season 1 Review: This engagingly uncomfortable series is not like anything you've seen before. Read full review
100
Uncle BarkyEd BarkOct 7, 2011
Season 1 Review: It's HBO's most mature half-hour series ever, rising above the material worlds of Sex and the City and Entourage to offer a road worth taking in pursuit of a "higher self." Read full review
91
Boston GlobeMatthew GilbertSep 21, 2011
Season 1 Review: Dern is fantastic as Amy--you cringe as her histrionics drive people away, and cringe again as she tries to suppress her feelings behind a veneer of New Age peacefulness. Read full review
90
Washington PostHank StueverJan 11, 2013
Season 2 Review: Enlightened comes through with a triumphant eight-episode arc that broadens its characters, quickens the pace and finishes strong. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesRobert LloydOct 10, 2011
Season 1 Review: Enlightened is to my mind the most interesting and ambitious series of the fall season. Read full review
88
Slant MagazinePhillip MaciakOct 10, 2011
Season 1 Review: [The] disappointment, and the full-hearted yet misguided ways Amy imagines she might transcend it, are the real subjects of the series, and Dern and White have both seemingly spent long careers in preparation for a project exactly as ambivalent, humane, and beautifully contradictory as this. Read full review
88
People WeeklyTom GliattoOct 7, 2011
Season 1 Review: It might be unwatchable if Dern, who's excellent, didn't allow Amy's laughable obtuseness to be pierced by glimmers of empathy and acceptance. [ 17 Oct 2011, p.40]
83
Entertainment WeeklyKen TuckerOct 24, 2011
Season 1 Review: By this third episode, the tone has become open, generous, and alert to every sort of character. Read full review
83
Washington PostHank StueverSep 21, 2011
Season 1 Review: It's a beautiful downer of a show that becomes more revealing and absorbing as it moves along. Read full review
80
New York Magazine (Vulture)Matt Zoller SeitzJan 7, 2013
Season 2 Review: Contemporary TV is suddenly filled with shows starring charismatic yet ostentatiously flawed heroines: Homeland, The Mindy Project, Girls, Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23. Enlightened stands out because its vision is so much wider. Read full review
80
The New York TimesAlessandra StanleyOct 10, 2011
Season 1 Review: The series embraces the absurdities of its subject with enough compassion to avoid outright parody. Read full review
80
PopMattersRenee Scolaro MoraOct 10, 2011
Season 1 Review: Each episode moves her closer to some sort of insight, demonstrating that enlightenment is a moving spot on the horizon. Read full review
80
Wall Street JournalMichael JudgeOct 10, 2011
Season 1 Review: This isn't just the story of one woman's search for relevance or power in a man's world; it's the story of one human being's search for meaning, one soul's search for redemption. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterTim GoodmanOct 5, 2011
Season 1 Review: Dern, Wilson, Ladd, White and Sharp are excellent in this strange little vehicle. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleDavid WiegandOct 7, 2011
Season 1 Review: If Amy really was enlightened, there'd be no show, but the fact that she's wearing her enlightenment like an ill-fitting coat gives the show both its comedic and plot trajectories. Read full review
70
SlateTroy PattersonOct 19, 2011
Season 1 Review: A black comedy working many shades of gray, Enlightened is about dark mornings of the soul and the fool's-golden glow of the new convert, and it measures the weight of the world with an eccentric scale. Read full review
63
USA TodayRobert BiancoOct 10, 2011
Season 1 Review: As not-quite-there as it may sometimes be, Enlightened is interesting enough to avoid the increasingly common HBO curse of egregious self-indulgence. Read full review
63
San Jose Mercury News/Contra Costa TimesChuck BarneyOct 7, 2011
Season 1 Review: Although the show features strong performances and is piercing in its emotional honesty, it also get bogged down in its own existential angst. Read full review
60
VarietyBrian LowryOct 7, 2011
Season 1 Review: The show's ethereal qualities are interesting in places but never particularly enlightening. Read full review
60
Pittsburgh Post-GazetteRob OwenOct 7, 2011
Season 1 Review: Whether viewers find Enlightened all that funny may depend upon whether they have a person similar to Amy in their lives--and whether they want to spend time with an irrational, hysteria-prone fictional character, too. Read full review
58
NewsdayVerne GayOct 10, 2011
Season 1 Review: A rare HBO misfire--but I do hope Amy finds peace. Read full review
50
TV Guide MagazineMatt RoushOct 10, 2011
Season 1 Review: I wish I were as invested in Amy's journey as she is, but as she blathers on about being an agent of change at her uncaring corporation, I find myself restless to change the channel to something that's actually entertaining or, yes, enlightening. Read full review
50
Zap2it (Inside the Box)David EcksteinOct 10, 2011
Season 1 Review: The biggest downfall of Enlightened is doesn't know what it wants to be. It's in no-man's land between a comedy, a drama and a satire. Read full review
50
HitfixAlan SepinwallOct 10, 2011
Season 1 Review: As set up by White (and Dern, who's a producer and a contributor on the pilot script), Enlightened feels too lightweight to work as a short drama, and too clumsy in its attempts at humor to work that way. Read full review
Current TV Shows
By MetascoreBy User Score
1 93 PEN15: Season 2
2 90 It's a Sin
3 89 Save Me (2018): Season 2
4 86 Painting With John: Season 1
5 86 Elizabeth Is Missing: Season 1
6 85 The Black Church: This Is Our...
7 85 The Crown: Season 4
8 85 Between the World and Me
9 85 I Hate Suzie: Season 1
10 84 The Good Lord Bird
11 84 How to With John Wilson: Season 1
12 84 Euphoria Special Episode Part 1:...
13 83 Lupin: Season 1
14 82 537 Votes
15 82 All Creatures Great and Small...
16 82 Kingdom of Silence
17 82 The Expanse: Season 5
18 82 Beartown: Season 1
19 81 Dickinson: Season 2
SEE ALL