It’s a truth universally acknowledged that I have watched a lot of television. Like, probably my lifetime share plus at least three other peoples’ lifetime shares and I am not even middle-aged yet. So a lot. A. Lot. And yet, I don’t know if I’ve ever encountered a show as dark as Enlightened. It’s been given a short run on HBO, alongside it’s polar opposite the spritely and campy and loveable, Bored to Death, and for my own sanity I hope some jerkfaces don’t go and cancel it. It’s a comedy, from the brain of that little brainiac, Mike White, and yet the laughs are balanced with small moments of big emotional upheaval.

In the opening scene Laura Dern plays a woman on the verge of a breakdown. And a few seconds later she’s fully in that breakdown. After the title sequence we’ve jumped forward in time. She’s at a retreat. Things seem tranquil. Clear water. Comfy clothes. Regimented activities. Bliss. Bliss?

Within that first thirty minutes she’s back in the real world, a place where the magic of Retreatland has no logical space, and where she has to find ways to bring herself some sense of peace. And yet, how the hell is that possible? What is bliss? What is tragedy? What do you do when meditation fails? When rational behaviour gets you nowhere? What does it mean to help or be helped? How are we supposed to cope when we are set adrift? Life is hard and this show isn’t going to let you off easy. Sometimes we can’t help people or ourselves. That’s just the way it is. All right?

Each episode I feel lumps pile in my throat. Because it’s a truth universally acknowledged that truthful, universal storytelling is hard on the emotion bone. I talk often about television being therapy for the destitute. Destitute being me, at the very teensiest. And television has gotten me through some rough times. When there is no one else to listen, these characters illuminate something, and darken other corners. So what we have here is something to contemplate.

Ahem.

What do you think it means?