The external appearance of the new Amy is enough to know that things aren't going to continue as they were as if someone had hit a pause button while she was away. She's let her wavy hair down and chooses bright, flowy sun dresses, which alienate her from the grey mass of three-piece suits and hair gel in the building. Her first thud of truth comes when she discovers that her former assistant, Krista (Sarah Burns), has been promoted to her job and taken her office. Krista is friendly, but seems ever aware of Amy's unpredictability, and tries to keep her distance as much as possible. This unavailability of "openings" on her former high-level floor causes her to be relocated to a new department of Abaddonn called Cogentiva. It's like a giant glass chamber run by a dorky surfer dude named Dougie (Timm Sharp) and littered with techie weirdos and misfits, and one introverted computer-whiz Tyler (Mike White, show creator) that, like Amy, was relocated from a different department, and they become buddies.The metaphor of the good-looking people lounging in their large workspaces while the outcasts are crowded in a basement punching numbers all day is not subtle, but it's organic in how it ties to Amy's ultimate singular focus of being an "agent of change."
The internal struggle for Amy throughout the show is coming to grips with the fact that she no longer is one of the cool kids, and maybe never was. Her only outlet to her former work circle is Krista, who is too nice to tell her directly what she and everyone else in the office is thinking, that she's a ticking time-bomb bound to explode again. It's not only her infamous public meltdown that is blockading her from winning her old cronies back, it's her total lack of awareness of others' lack of comfort around her, and her preaching against the unethical environmental practices that Abaddonn is participating in. Every encounter with Krista is clear to the audience that this is a one-way relationship, that Amy is rather unenlightened to how people are reacting to her. Even when she catches Krista red-handed ditching her at lunch, or after she ruins Krista's baby shower by launching into a feminist work collaborative pitch, Amy still marches up to her old office the next day as if they're best buds. Eventually she learns that her new work dungeon actually serves a crucial purpose, its giant hard drives are monitoring everyone's work productivity. She recruits Tyler to help her hack into some executives' computers, and hatches a plan to take the company down for its harm to the environment. Her mission is admirable, but she's doing it for the wrong reasons. There are many shots of Krista and the old crew smiling and laughing at a business lunch while Amy passes by with a desperate sense of wanting to belong. Her takedown of Abaddonn is a reverse on the old adage: If you can't join 'em, beat 'em.
Her desire for the former status quo in the workplace makes sense when we see Amy's life outside of Abaddonn's glass walls. She's still in love with her separated husband Levi (a never-better Luke Wilson), and is urging him to go to rehab as his substance abuse problem is worsening. We see how Levi got this way, and how Amy got so bad before rehab, in flashbacks showing they had a devastating miscarriage and their beloved dog died, which fueled both their dire needs to escape reality. Amy, while in rehab, lost her apartment and now is living with her shut-in mother Helen (Diane Ladd, also Dern's real-life mom). Amy attempts to crack Helen's tough exterior with outwardly showy love, but the mending of their dark past,which includes a family member's suicide, is often too tall a task for Helen to reciprocate in. The best episodes of the show are when we step away from Amy because it's refreshing to get a perspective of someone who doesn't take life's bruisings and rough-ups with such resilience. We get to see Tyler's first awkward attempt at a adult relationship with a gentle co-worker (Molly Shannon), and Helen's daily struggle with past letdowns while Amy's at work, in respective episodes dedicated to them. In the finest half-hour TV episode so far this year, Levi arrives at the same rehab clinic that transformed Amy, but being sober does not sit well with him, nor do the team-building exercises he's encouraged to participate in. He sneaks off one night with a couple of rich, spoiled kids down the beach to party at a hotel. They booze and snort, and they gabble about what suckers the other rehabbers are for buying into the gospel. But as the night creeps into the wee hours, the youthful rebels show their true colors as heartless and lost. Christopher Abbott, the recently departed Girls cast member, is one of the wildlings and after getting sick in a toilet, reveals he's "such a piece of shit. I don't even wanna wake up tomorrow. There's so much I hate, and so little I love." It's the kind of monologue that's immediately relatable even if you haven't gone off the deep end with drugs or booze. It beautifully encapsulates the identity crisis that almost every young person experiences (or knows someone that goes through it), that which is the question Why is life worth living? For Levi, it's a wake-up call that he's been lying to himself for years about why he's stoned all the time, and it's clear to him now that if he has Amy on his side, he doesn't need extra supplements to make him feel something.
It's not really a spoiler to say that Amy executes her operation because this show is so much more about the little interactions between characters than plot. Creator Mike White clearly originates from the quiet, nerdy outcast crowd the most, but you sense from his writing that he's a seasoned vet of observing human behavior. He nails the nature of the suits, the surfer dudes, the spoiled assholes, the free spirits, the soon-to-be mothers so genuinely, and yet doesn't judge them for how they treat each other. He's created a completely justified world when it comes to behavior toward other social groups, even the corrupt president of Abaddonn seems to be more level-headed than Amy in some scenes. Dern is the glue that holds it all together, simultaneously fierce yet fragile, endearing yet frustrating, has purpose and yet is still wayward. We so want for her to get back on her feet, and yet it is impossible not to root against her sometimes. White and Dern seem like a mismatched pair creatively speaking but really they are perfect for each other. White's idiosyncratic writing voice and Dern's unabashed earnestness and melancholy, not to mention peculiar body type for a lead actress, was the perfect remedy to concoct this flawed heroine.
Alas, Enlightened is no more, it wasn't picked up for a third season. Despite the protests of many super-fan celebrities on Twitter, the show never got traction with a regular audience. I can only speculate that in the cruel landscape of female-protagonist shows, it was in a no-man's land, between the straight comedies (Parks & Recreation, Veep) and the action/procedural programs (Homeland, The Good Wife). But, what about Nurse Jackie & The Big C? Aren't they similar in tone and still on the air? I guess it's appropriate with Amy's current position on the social hierarchy that Enlightened remains the kid that just never fit in. The last episode worked as a series finale though, with Amy dazed after getting fired for exposing the company. Sure, a few executives are going down, but the skyscraper will still stand, Abaddonn is too big to fail. She's left asking herself, "What was it all for?" Uncertainty surrounds every aspect of her life going forward from here. One thing's for certain, I enjoyed going down the rabbit hole with her.
-Rex
Season 2 of Enlightened is available on HBO On Demand. You really can start watching here without going back to Season 1, you get a sense of what's going on after a couple episodes.
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