New HBO Show, 'Enlightened,' Takes on Modern Meditation
Monday, October 17, 2011 at 09:16AM Enlightened is a new HBO sort-of drama, sort-of comedy starring Laura Dern and Luke Wilson (both apparently making a comeback together) that takes on modern meditation and taming one's inner rage.
"Can people really change? That's the question Laura Dern and Mike White ask in their new HBO series, Enlightened, which premieres Monday night. The show features Dern as Amy Jellicoe, an ambitious executive who has a nervous breakdown at her workplace. She goes to a rehabilitation center in Hawaii, where she experiences an awakening.
When Amy returns home, she wants to put her new philosophy into practice — meditating, communicating better with her mother (Diane Ladd), and fostering a healthier relationship with her ex-husband (Luke Wilson). But she finds her lessons of enlightenment being put to the test."
Show creator, Mike White (School of Rock, Chuck) funnels his personal experience with meditation in creating the show. White himself had suffered an on-the-job meltdown which was a catalyst for the 
show's script.
"From my experience, meditating can bring up the most stressful thoughts ... To actually try to stop that constant chatter of, 'I need to do this, I need to do that ... this is what's wrong with me.' I think that's the hardest thing for many people to do, especially in our modern, achievement-oriented [environment].
I find it interesting that arguably the hardest part of meditation (for me at least) is also what made HBO the most nervous about green-lighting the show.
"Everyone is running so manic, and what's interesting, too, is when we turned in the show, the more quiet, meditative aspects of the show made HBO the most nervous. Because people,
especially in TV, first they want their comedies funny, and they want their dramas juicy and kind of operative, and this is very internal.
"Especially these moments Amy has when she's going inside and where it slows down a little bit, I think that that's just something in general that makes a network executive worry that you're going to lose your audience, and people are going to click off or change the channel. That's not what people are looking for when they're zoning out in front of the TV."
The show has been well received so far, averaging a 7.6 out of 10 from user reviews on IMDB and some are even calling it "the best series HBO has." Check out 'Enlightened' on HBO, Monday nights at 9:30.
(Via NPR)
Reader Comments (2)
This show will be worth watching. Upon reading the review of the drama show I was excited with the situation. But above all, I also wanna know the answer to the question. Can people really change?
This looks like a great show, and it's cool to see a show that shines a light on something that benefits so many people. Meditation can feel frantic and jittery - sometimes, the mind races constantly and it's only after the meditation that a person starts to feel calm. We're going to start watching this for sure!