I've been watching this interesting show on HBO called Enlightened. There's a bit of media flurry going that I luckily just stumbled upon. Lucky because now I have more insight into the show, there are some good links for folks to check out, and who knows, maybe the show will be renewed.

I'd read when it started that Laura Dern and Mike White were the co-creators, they're both listed as Exec Producers, and I'd noticed that MW is the writer for most of the shows. It turns out he writes ALL of them. There are many things I love about this interview; these are my favorite: [link]

"There are so many people in this world who are in their own way little heroes, people who are cleaning up the messes created by the guys with the guns or the overgrown kids fucking everything up. There is a little part of me that feels like I have a little bit of creative capital, and I’d rather use it to put a different face forward as the center of the world."

"...I definitely feel, especially as you get older, the world is very anxiety-inducing, and the idea of trying to swim a different way, trying to be kind or trying to be compassionate or trying to get over yourself, that’s a worthy thing to work on. And it does require work. Part of me wanted Enlightened to reflect those values. My impulse is to create an aesthetic that’s about a humanistic approach to a world and trying to create compassion for all the characters."

"I like the idea of the show being a celebration of that kind of person but also acknowledging with those kind of people there can also be delusions of grandeur or a Joan of Arc complex. There is this bloviating side to Amy, too. But people who can read a room and are completely gracious, they aren’t always the ones who agitate for real change. It’s often the person who keeps putting her hand up, like, Okay, okay, okay."

He also talks about feeling like there's been a lack of interest because the main character is a woman, and men won't watch a show with a female main character unless it's aggression-based.

yeah, I am all over this show. It makes me squirm with discomfort for the characters, but I really dig it.

Here's the Salon article (the above is from Vulture) [link]

AV Club: [link]

Fresh Air with Terry Gross: [link]

It's not cynical, not ironic. Shares that with Portlandia, and is a quality that I associate also with some favorite actors, like Jason Segal, Steve Carrell, John Krasinski - aren't usually nasty-mean-funny.

Last night, I watched the episode where Tyler (the character played by Mike White) is narrating what it's like to be like a ghost, to float through life never being noticed, then he connects with a character played by Molly Shannon (also being non-ironic, non-cynical, and non-satirical). It was just amazing, so sweet, heartbreaking.

yes! that is one that made me squirm big-time! I agree though.

From AV Club: here's the link again: www.avclub.com/articles/enlightened-is-tvs-best-show-right-nowand-it-needs,92934/

"In many weird ways, the previous HBO series Enlightened reminds me most of is The Wire. They’re both shows that are utterly unlike anything else on TV and seem to have arrived sui generis, fully formed. They’re both shows about the ways that people are crushed and ground up by the systems put in place to protect them or give them meaningful work."

"... in many ways, Enlightened is the necessary antidote to The Wire. This is not to say that the earlier show isn’t important or groundbreaking or fantastic, just that it looked up at the institutions we humans had built and offered a weary sigh of resignation."

"...In the second season, a character tells Amy that she hopes so much that it can scare people, and that’s almost the show’s point. It is not worth it to lose yourself to despair. It is not worth it to give up hope entirely. It is not worth it to believe the system will defeat you forever. Things change. Systems are worn down. But people endure. If the characters on The Wire might offer up those weary sighs when asked how to effect change, Amy Jellicoe might pull you aside and say (in the most irritating way possible) to relax. To breathe. To let it go."

"There is time. There is SO much time."

Finally finished watching House of Cards. Anyone else?

yes, we finished a couple of weeks ago. what did you think?

I thought the strongest part of the series was the beginning. the ending was a bit of a whimper.

Le n, I felt the same about ending with a whimper.

Me three - I still enjoyed it, and will watch the second season when it comes out, but it seemed like the stakes at the end should have been higher. I'm not sure the show earned narratively the amount of tension it was trying to generate.