Enlightened: Season 1

METASCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 22 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 114 Ratings

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6.9

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6.9	Your Score
6.9	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 114 Ratings

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Season Details & Credits

HBO | Season Premiere Date: October 10, 2011

Starring: Mike White, Diane Ladd, Timm Sharp

Summary: Amy Jellicoe (Laura Dern), a corporate executive who suffered a breakdown, comes out of her Hawaiian mental-heath treatment center with a new outlook on life.

Creator: Mike White and Laura Dern and Mark Mothersbaugh

Genre(s): Comedy, Drama, Health & Lifestyle

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Season 1 Episodes

tbd
S1:E10. Burn it Down
Air Date: December 12, 2011
tbd
S1:E9. Consider Helen
Air Date: December 5, 2011
tbd
S1:E8. Comrades Unite!
Air Date: November 28, 2011

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Metascore

Positive:

Mixed:

Negative:

Critic Reviews

100

Linda Stasi

Oct 10, 2011

This engagingly uncomfortable series is not like anything you've seen before. Read full review

Matthew Gilbert

Sep 21, 2011

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

Phillip Maciak

Oct 10, 2011

[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

Tim Goodman

Oct 5, 2011

Dern, Wilson, Ladd, White and Sharp are excellent in this strange little vehicle. Read full review

Troy Patterson

Oct 19, 2011

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

San Jose Mercury News/Contra Costa Times

Chuck Barney

Oct 7, 2011

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

Alan Sepinwall

Oct 10, 2011

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

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User Score

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6.9

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User Reviews

koalafalafel

Oct 23, 2013

It doesn't surprise me that some people don't find this show funny. I don't find Tosh.0 or Two and a Half Men Funny. People have different tastes.
I think Enlightened is kind of brilliant. It's a perfect blend of dark comedy, satire, and drama with a socially conscientious flair that isIt doesn't surprise me that some people don't find this show funny. I don't find Tosh.0 or Two and a Half Men Funny. People have different tastes.
I think Enlightened is kind of brilliant. It's a perfect blend of dark comedy, satire, and drama with a socially conscientious flair that is desperately needed in this age. It's a show for the hopeful cynics and idealists with the ability to laugh at themselves and the absurdity they see in the world around them. Nate Fisher was annoying in his struggle for meaning and hope too, but at least Amy Jelicoe does something about it and perseveres. Turn Six Feet Under into a half hour comedy about hope in place of death, and you'll come up with something pretty close to Enlightened.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

Alambna

Dec 15, 2011

This show is amazing. With the first few episodes I wasn't sure what to make of it, and at that point my boyfriend stopped watching it with me because he "can't handle Amy." Not many people can. The main character is deeply flawed and often annoying. She makes painful social missteps, isThis show is amazing. With the first few episodes I wasn't sure what to make of it, and at that point my boyfriend stopped watching it with me because he "can't handle Amy." Not many people can. The main character is deeply flawed and often annoying. She makes painful social missteps, is completely self-absorbed, either overly friendly or mad as hell, and prone to new-ageisms. So yeah, we all know this woman. Which is one of the most amazing things about this show: that they dared to make a realistically flawed middle aged female. Also, the writing is superb, and the show just gets better as the season progresses. Occupy Abbadon!… Expand

1 of 1 users found this helpful10

greenhorses

Oct 13, 2011

This series is a call for those who are tense and trying to keep up with a good life with success but ruining it at the same time...and that's it! What can be more identifiable nowadays in a world full of rational power? This approach to the spiritual subject in the edge between a lifeThis series is a call for those who are tense and trying to keep up with a good life with success but ruining it at the same time...and that's it! What can be more identifiable nowadays in a world full of rational power? This approach to the spiritual subject in the edge between a life lesson and a parody makes it special for me. The humor and the characters are a lot like those of a Todd Solondz film. I love the ending. Watching the last scene in the elevator made me think of a spiritual enlightened direction of the authors. Dern and White should stay as a team for a long time. This is the most comfortable fiction show I've ever seen.… Expand

3 of 5 users found this helpful32

donaldist

Jun 23, 2016

For a needlessly precise numerical rating: 75/100, or a B+
Enlightened slowly ramps up in quality per episode as the show finds its voice, so the season rating of B+ (I'm a slightly harsh grader) is indicative of overall quality. I expect a higher grade for the highly acclaimed secondFor a needlessly precise numerical rating: 75/100, or a B+
Enlightened slowly ramps up in quality per episode as the show finds its voice, so the season rating of B+ (I'm a slightly harsh grader) is indicative of overall quality. I expect a higher grade for the highly acclaimed second season, but this is a very good score in my eyes.
Anyway, this is a fascinating character study of a purposefully unlikable character, Amy Jellicoe (portrayed by Laura Dern in what might be her very best performance, and that's saying a lot), who claims she has a new worldview after rehab and thusly attempts to do the right thing, mostly out of inflated self-worth and arrogance. The show expands a bit beyond her after the first couple of episodes, but Amy is nearly always at the center. That is, except for "Consider Helen", which might be one of the top contenders for best television episode of 2011, a look at the show if it was from the point of view of Amy's mother, Helen (Diane Ladd, Dern's real-life mother, and nearly as excellent here), a quiet, emotionally removed woman who keeps a stolid routine that masks dark ghosts in her past.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

TVCritical

Feb 14, 2012

I applaud this show for being very moral and mature and praise HBO for being a cable network that finally has a show like this. The show is great at intorducing moral issues such a environmentalism & human rights through a woman who tries a little too hard to get other people to help in suchI applaud this show for being very moral and mature and praise HBO for being a cable network that finally has a show like this. The show is great at intorducing moral issues such a environmentalism & human rights through a woman who tries a little too hard to get other people to help in such causes and usually fail in very comical & dramatic ways. The show has superb acting in its cast members Diane Ladd, Amy Hill, and especially Laura Dern. Although not everyone in the cast are good actors such as Timm Sharp, Sarah Burns, and most of their guest stars while Luke Wilson & Mike White are only decent actors. This show is good but tend to very standoffish that disconnects it from viewers due to its almost all its characters being very cruel, uncaring, and unlikable leaving only the lead character Amy Jellicoe to being the only good character on the show and if the very self centered, condescending, and manipulative Amy is the only good character on this show then it's gotta be very hard to watch this show unless someone do something to the characters to make them more likable and they also have to spruce up the stories/writing in this show too because these stories aren't that interesting they are near drop dead boring so if the writers make the stories better then that along with making the characters actually likable will make this show watchable if not then well kiss this show GOODBYE.â… Expand

0 of 1 users found this helpful01

geedup

Jul 25, 2013

I checked this show out because of the high score from meta users. I watched 5 episodes and found NO enjoyment in it. Plot surrounds a woman who has emotionally imploded and goes to rehab herself. become enlighted, sort of speak. She returns to the community she lived in and struggles toI checked this show out because of the high score from meta users. I watched 5 episodes and found NO enjoyment in it. Plot surrounds a woman who has emotionally imploded and goes to rehab herself. become enlighted, sort of speak. She returns to the community she lived in and struggles to keep herself whole. Good premise but lazily uninteresting. Always seems she is going to go off on people, but really doesn't. Waited and nothing. Self-doubt and constant re-assessment become a central idea to the show and after 5 episodes, i got the idea. Maybe this show is geared for women, but I didn't enjoy it at all.… Expand

1 of 2 users found this helpful11

thatsme

Oct 11, 2011

I guess it was okay. Not very funny. Laura Dern is stepping down a level, and the writing doesn't support her character. Needs a major overhaul. I have no idea how this will be a continuous series, as the storyline isn't very broad.

2 of 3 users found this helpful21

SEE ALL 39 REVIEWS

Seasons & Episodes

79

Series Overview
Season 2

95
- Season 2 Overview
  Air Date: January 13, 2013
Season 1

74
- Season 1 Overview
  Air Date: October 10, 2011
- tbd
  S1:E10. Burn it Down
  Air Date: December 12, 2011
- tbd
  S1:E9. Consider Helen
  Air Date: December 5, 2011
- tbd
  S1:E8. Comrades Unite!
  Air Date: November 28, 2011
- tbd
  S1:E7. Lonely Ghosts
  Air Date: November 21, 2011
- tbd
  S1:E6. Sandy
  Air Date: November 14, 2011
- tbd
  S1:E5. Not Good Enough Mothers
  Air Date: November 7, 2011
- tbd
  S1:E4. The Weekend
  Air Date: October 31, 2011
- tbd
  S1:E3. Someone else's life
  Air Date: October 24, 2011
- tbd
  S1:E2. Now or Never
  Air Date: October 17, 2011
- tbd
  S1:E1. Pilot
  Air Date: October 10, 2011