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.

And I'm still not a fan of the release format, because I wasn't able to pop in here after every ep and say "OMG, you guys, THAT THING THAT HAPPENED!" Now that I've mainlined all 13 eps I don't really remember the specific things I would have wanted to talk about in each one.

(Obviously it's working well for Netflix as a commercial investment, but as a viewer who enjoys talking about TV on the internet, it was kind of a bummer.)

Here's something I didn't understand. Were we meant to understand that Francis had a romantic? sexual? relationship with his male friend while at the Citadel? (I know that's not the real college name but it was obviously the Citadel.) it just seemed sort of randomly thrown in there.

I did have this thought that politics is like parenting in that its all about finding someone's psychological weak spot and finding leverage to get them to do what you want.

Stephanie,

yes, I think the show was supposed to infer that. My only question with the whole Citadel episode was: what was the point? I thought it was among the weakest of the episodes. I suppose it was meant to humanize Francis but at that point, I couldn't give a shit. He is a 100% heel. He does not need humanizing. I am not rooting for him.

Jessica,

I see your point, but I was also thinking that there was not a lot I wanted to discuss about HoC as I was seeing it. There was the awful "daddy" sexual moment of course (but I want to forget that as soon as possible) and the wild inaccuracies regarding politics and unions, and Francis' crazy ass performance on CNN.

But beyond that, I don't know if the show merits the kind of deep discussion I might have with other programs. The other thing complicating all of this is that I've seen the original HoC, so I think I know the end goal a bit better than someone who hasn't seen the original so one of the major events that happened, I knew it was coming.

Hot damn, House of Lies. It's always been difficult to watch, for a nominal comedy, but the sex toy part (and Seth Cohen PORN KING) was by far the easiest part of the episode to make eye contact with. All the actors playing the Kaan family are on major fire.

And I actually went back to find out who wrote it too....and he writes for New Girl too.

You never can tell. Well, I can't, anyway.