It’s that time of year again. Stockings are being hung by
the chimney with care, Menorahs are being attractively displayed in windows,
and I begin the holiday tradition known as the Network Television Holiday
Break. Every year, shows abandon me, sometimes for over a month, and I, in
turn, evaluate the new programs I have started watching and decide – who will I
stay with in 2012?
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| Amy, Trying Too Hard |
Enlightened (HBO)
Awkward, depressing, lonely. Enlightened is obviously one of the best new shows on TV this year.
The show, created by Mike White and Laura Dern (and starring Dern), is about Amy
Jellicoe, an ‘enlightened,’ self-centered anti-hero. After an emotional
breakdown and Hawaiian therapy, Amy returns to her old company with a fresh
outlook on life, only to realize that making her way in her new job is rife
with conflict (mostly self-imposed, though that becomes tricky as the show goes
on). The performances are top-notch. Dern and Diane
