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5 Things That Make Enlightened Just About The Best Show On TV

The HBO show getting scores of attention on Sunday nights is Girls, but following it in airtime and gaining ground in terms of critical attention is Enlightened. This strange and strangely beautiful comedy brought to us by Laura Dern and writer Mike White, most famous for writing School of Rock. Like many others, I arrived at the show late, not picking up on it until the first season had completed. I think I was bitter that HBO cut Hung and How to Make It in America and, most of all, Bored to Death before its two new Sunday night shows began. I'm sure this is why I resented Enlightened in particular, since it received little attention initially.
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[h2]2) Tyler provides a perfect balance to the Amy character[/h2]

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Creator Mike White plays Amy’s co-worker and friend Tyler. Tyler is the opposite of Amy. While Amy suffers from a deluded self-image and a complete lack of self-awareness, Tyler is cripplingly self-conscious. Amy is offended that she is being forced to work in the basement despite having years of experience in sales, and makes it her mission to get back upstairs. Tyler used to do technical support, but is content where he is. He is the type of character, the type of person who has had the ambition beaten out of him by life and circumstance.

In a lot of instances, this results in Tyler being easily manipulated by Amy, because he’s attracted to her and that’s usually the way these types of relationships go. The second season propels their friendship to new levels when they plot (well, when Amy does) to expose the company for wrongdoings and they form a kind of conspiratorial alliance. The character really comes to fruition in an episode told from Tyler’s perspective. We usually hear Amy’s voiceover, but in Tyler’s episode, we hear him in his own words, which are more direct and less poetic and flighty than Amy’s, but equally, possibly even more emotionally resonant.

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