On Demand Weekly

ENLIGHTENED - Starring Laura Dern

By Jean Tait

Miguel Arteta and Mike White are the pair who brought us CHUCK AND BUCK (which didn’t thrill me) and THE GOOD GIRL (which brought out the best in Jennifer Anniston). Here, they are working with Laura Dern (who, aside from getting involved with Billy Bob Thornton, can do no wrong), so I was cautiously optimistic about “Enlightened.”

Then Entertainment Weekly listed it as one of the least-favored new fall shows.

Now I’ll admit, it is a little slow. This is a leisurely character study, not a rip-roaring soap or a police procedural that ties up a plot in a half-hour. It’s an exploration of human relationships, and that it does extremely well.

Amy Jellicoe (Laura Dern) crashed and burned in a very public way at her job, leading her to a Hawaiian rehab facility that teaches her new methods of dealing with her anxieties. When she comes back to the real world, however, the people who witnessed her breakdown don’t adapt to shiny, new Amy the way she expected them to. She has to learn that spiritual awakening is not so easy when not on a lovely beach in Hawaii with an all-supportive group. A couple of “om’s” doesn’t make problems go away.