Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Quote of the Day

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I implore you go read this entire interview with Mike White (thx Mac) wherein he talks about Enlightened in terms of tone and plot and its relationship to those other lady-centric shows eating up all of the chat-space (that'd be Homeland and Girls). It will all just underline and circle and star and highlight every good thought you've had about this very smart individual. I couldn't respect him more. Here's him speaking about the difficult task of embracing his thorny heroine...

"I wanted to start with [what some might consider the ending]. At the end of a movie, they get married or they walk off together and you go, “Well, what happens then?” That’s where life really starts. It’s like you can have your numinous experience and you could dramatize that [as the movie "Eat, Pray, Love" did]. But I felt like it would be more interesting to look at what happens when you come back to your reality with all of these evangelistic notions of what goodness is or how to live, and then try to apply it to a world that isn’t really interested.

And honestly, I also think that the fact that it is a woman as the center of the show created a certain kind of [response]. It was just interesting for me to read some responses, because I think there’s something about “that kind of woman," a woman who is this kind of New Age spiritual seeker. You could tell that there was a certain percentage of the audience that, sight unseen, was like, "This is not for me." Or gave it five minutes and were like, “She’s not Julia Roberts.” She’s a woman who is still flailing. And it was interesting how there was this real strong aversion from certain quarters to her character."

The show still hasn't been renewed for a third season - Girls got its renewal like five seconds into its second season and both shows began airing on the same night, so, you know, eep. He basically asks us out here in the world with a soapbox to holler about how good the show is and let HBO know if they cancel it we will come to get the with pitchforks and pitchfork-related accoutrement, so that's what I'm doing. Accoutrement, dudes! Beware!
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1 comment:

triggerua said...

This show. This show is so remarkable that I watch each episode 3 or 4 times. I find myself pausing on things like Amy dishing up dinner in her mom's house. The composition is stunning. I want it to go on forever but if it ends I know that it is absolutely complete. I love a lot of things on tv but this series has stolen my heart.