Despite fans' pleas to keep the show going, HBO has canceled Enlightened after two seasons.
Enlightened is a show I love very much, for a lot of reasons. It only got better during its second season, as Laura Dern turned Amy Jellicoe into one of the most amazing, frustrating, lovable, annoying, deeply hopeful and brave characters on television, and Mike White's profound character studies explored every central character in beautiful and moving ways.
The show passed the Bechdel test all over the place, and made me laugh and cry with every episode. I am going to miss it immensely.
White wrote the finale of Season Two knowing it might not get renewed, so there is closure to the arc of the story, which is about Amy becoming a whistleblower against her corporate employer. If you have the opportunity to watch the two seasons the show was given, I encourage you to give it a go.
I'm bummed that the show isn't getting a third season, not just because I will miss watching it—and miss all its wonderful characters; Maude help me, even Dougie—but because HBO's lack of investment in a show like Enlightened, while continuing to back and massively market Girls, which doesn't have superb ratings, either, and hates its characters as much as Enlightened loves its, is disheartening.
Mike White recently said in an interview about the possible demise of the show: "I'm afraid this will be the best thing I ever do. I think it will be."
If it is, what a legacy. I'd sure rather be the guy who did two seasons of Enlightened than the guy who did eight season of Entourage.
RIP Enlightened. I will miss you.
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