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Lights out: 10 shows that ended too soon

Wed, 20 Mar 2013 20:24:00 +0000

With HBO pulling the plug on "Enlightened," we look back on some of the best series cancelled before their time

We shall no longer be “Enlightened”

Wed, 20 Mar 2013 11:44:00 +0000

HBO canceled Mike White’s “Enlightened” last night, opting not to pick up the show and Laura Dern's indelible Amy Jellicoe for a third season. Despite being singular and truly great — lyrical, searching, tough, thematically and tonally not like anything else on TV — the show never attracted much of an audience, a figure that HBO doesn’t always care about, but sometimes does. A little over 200,000 people watched each episode of “Enlightened.” For those of us who spend time in certain pop-culture-minded corners of the Internet, reading about TV, it seemed that despite this very paltry number, “Enlightened” was gaining momentum. Certainly Mike White was doing everything he could to make a third season happen. (Hope White’s doing OK. His interviews hustling for a show pickup were full of sweetness and so, so much anxiety: "I'm afraid this will be the best thing I ever do. I think it will be. That it might be over is sad.”) But it wasn’t enough.

“Enlightened” cancelled by HBO

Wed, 20 Mar 2013 04:00:00 +0000

Amy Jellicoe's story ends here.

"Enlightened," the series created by "Year of the Dog" director Mike White, has been cancelled by HBO after two seasons. The series, about Amy (Laura Dern, who won a Golden Globe for the performance) struggling against a destructive corporate culture and her own demons, was something of a cause celebre for critics, in light of its low viewership by HBO standards and moody, melancholic tone.

Salon's Willa Paskin wrote after the season 2 finale, an accidental series finale of sorts: "[I]t’s sweet that 'Enlightened,' a show all about the cost of caring too much, should inspire such dedication." And, on Twitter, fans are calling for Netflix to intervene and provide a third season.

Why can’t I hate “The Americans”’ Elizabeth Jennings?

Fri, 15 Mar 2013 22:50:00 +0000

Likability, well on its way to becoming a dirty word, is on everyone’s lips these days: Why aren’t Anne Hathaway and Taylor Swift likable? Why are Jennifer Lawrence and Mila Kunis? What does it matter if Hannah Horvath or Amy Jellicoe is unlikable, so long as they are interesting? Why are women, both real and fictional, constantly being assessed for likability while men doing similar things get a pass? And what is with our current, not gender-specific cultural obsession with the unlikable anyway? And with making the unlikable lovable?

“Enlightened” makes us all into Amy Jellicoes

Mon, 04 Mar 2013 19:53:00 +0000

HBO’s “Enlightened” finished its second season last night, amid deep anxiety from its devoted admirers that the second season will also be the show's last. The series, created by Mike White and starring Laura Dern, is truly like nothing else on TV: Lyrical and unflinching, poetic and brutal, idealistic and incisive, gorgeous and painful, it is steadily, quietly up to something new. It has a searching thoughtfulness, an earnest interest about how one should be in the world, and how this can run afoul of how one is in the world. It is genuinely philosophical, which perhaps means it’s up to something old, something much older than TV anyway.

HBO, please renew “Enlightened”!

Sun, 03 Mar 2013 20:00:00 +0000

ENLIGHTENED — the television series co-created by Mike White and Laura Dern — opens with a scene of extreme disillusionment. Even prior to that first shot of Amy Jellicoe’s mascara-teared face, a close-up of which has become the show’s iconic image, the viewer senses that something is amiss. Just before we’re introduced to the face of our heroine, played by Dern, we’re aware of a sound. Someone is crying. Issuing from a blank screen, the crying already startles, but perhaps even more so because it’s a kind of irrepressible sobbing, verging on hysteria. Our reaction to the faceless weeping isn’t, and isn’t meant to be, one of sympathy or tenderness, but of disquiet, even fear. The disconnect lasts only seconds, as Amy’s contorted face floats into view. From there, Amy goes on a bridge-burning rampage through the office that — again, while lasting only minutes — becomes integral to how we will view the entire series. While most narratives proceed toward building connections, securing attachments, Enlightened begins by breaking them. During Amy’s path of detachment, however, the inverse was happening with me: I was falling in love with Enlightened.

Laura Dern: “We shouldn’t be able to watch CNN and then go to sleep”

Sun, 06 Jan 2013 20:00:00 +0000

HBO's "Enlightened" is not quite like anything else on television: Moody and lyrical, ostensibly comedic, it focuses on the trials and tribulations of Amy Jellicoe, played by Laura Dern, a former addict and rage queen who is actively, painstakingly, not only trying to get her life back in order, but change the world. In the new season, which begins Jan. 13, Amy attempts to take down her corporate overlords at Abaddon, a move so brazen and crazy, it just might work. "Enlightened" is Dern's first television show — her movie credits from David Lynch through "The Master" are too numerous to mention. We spoke just after the Sandy Hook shooting, and during our conversation, she revealed a deep level of empathy she feels for her character's rage, innocence and desire to change the world.

"Enlightened" has such a unique tone in that it’s both very bleak about how hard it is to be a human, but also extremely positive about our ability to change things. This season Amy Jellicoe, intense and naive as she is, makes a difference. Her naiveté makes her try things that someone who knew more than her would think it was ridiculous to attempt.