Enlightened: Season 2

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Product Description ------------------- Created by Mike White and Laura Dern, this half-hour HBO comedy series centers on Amy Jellicoe (Dern), a well-intentioned employee of a Southern California corporation who, after flipping out and going to anger-management rehab, emerges with a singular, if at times hilariously misguided, mission to make her company more responsible. When we last saw her, Amy finally presented her research outlining Abaddonn Industries’ toxic sins, but after being laughed out of the room, she became even more determined to expose the company not only as a polluter, but a bastion of corporate greed and corruption. Having convinced co-worker Tyler (White) to let her use his IT pas to retrieve incriminating emails, Season 2 picks up with Amy immersed in gathering evidence against Abaddonn. In this season’s eight episodes, Amy enlists the help of journalist Jeff Flender (Dermot Mulroney), and as they work together on a searing exposé, she dreams of a “bigger” life and develops romantic yearnings for the handsome, well-travelled reporter. Meanwhile, Amy’s ex Levi (Luke Wilson) is still at Open Air Center in Hawaii, but it remains to be seen whether he will embrace recovery and return as the man she always wanted him to be. Touching, earnest and laugh-out-loud funny, Season 2 of Enlightened follows Amy along her personal journey to make change – and the unexpected impact it has on those around her. .com ---- The tagline for season two of the unclassifiable HBO series Enlightened is "Peace Had Its Chance." Not that there was much peace in the 10 episodes of season one, but in this even more remarkably observed collection of eight half-hour installments, battle lines come into clear focus and Amy Jellicoe's scheming moves inexorably forward. Created by costars Laura Dern and Mike White, Enlightened is the meandering, unhurried story of Amy (Dern) and her mission to bring truth and beauty to the world--enlightenment, if you will--usually at the expense of everyone around her. She thinks she's helping them and the universe exist in better harmony, but her actions are often as self-serving and uncharitable as the wrongs she thinks she's righting. Sadly, the eight episodes of season two are the end of the show. All of them were written (and many directed) by White, who exhibits remarkable sensitivity and grace in his nuanced consideration of human behavior. After her meltdown and moral awakening in season one, Amy is now toiling away in a doomed data entry department of the evil Abaddonn Industries, conspiring with her reluctant new friend Tyler (White) and a quirky cast that includes her mother Helen (Diane Ladd, Dern's real mother), her ex-husband Levi (Luke Wilson), and a hunky reporter (Dermot Mulroney) to expose the criminal behavior of Abaddonn's charismatic chief (James Rebhorn). The outcome is not nearly as important as the study of these people's lives and the compassionate, funny, heartbreaking, disjointed events that befall them, with or without their active participation. The episodes take time to look in other directions and consider alternate perspectives about doing the right thing and what that means to each individual in the cast. In one we seemingly break away from the story to follow Levi on a trip to rehab; in another Tyler's lonely life is explored along with his chance for redemption. Overall, Amy has become more skilled at manipulation even though she believes her motives are pure. She hurts people and gets hurt, not always recognizing the difference. Laura Dern is a wonder in perhaps the best performance of her career, and the fine work Mike White has done in the past as a writer and actor is fully surpassed with his deeply affecting portrayal of life and philosophy that rings so true. A viewer campaign to save Enlightened did not crack the cold hearts of HBO executives, but the 18 episodes of its two seasons represent another astonishing entry into what television can be and its power to affect us like no other medium. The two-disc set contains limited features: a few episode commentaries and short observations on each one in interviews with Mike White. --Ted Fry