Enlightened: The Complete Second Season

In the second and final season of HBO's Enlightened, Amy Jellicoe (Golden Globe winner Laura Dern) must decide whether to make the world a better place from inside or outside of the system. She kick-starts her plan to blow the lid off Abaddon Industries—the corrupt company where she's been employed for 15 years—by meeting with Jeff Flender (Dermot Mulroney), a somewhat self-satisfied Los Angeles Times reporter, who agrees to write a story if she can gather more information. After an unexpectedly cordial meeting with Abaddon CEO Charles Szidon (James Rebhorn), however, Amy starts to rethink her plan. Her collaboration with Jeff also takes on a more personal dimension, which proves problematic when ex-husband Levi (Luke Wilson) returns from the same Hawaiian rehab facility where Amy found enlightenment the year before. Initially resistant to help, co-worker Tyler (writer-creator Mike White) becomes so involved that he ends up framing another employee for the data that he and Amy have been downloading. Once their supervisor, Dougie (Timm Sharp), gets wind of their scheme, the pair gain an unexpected ally, one who attempts to seduce the CEO's loyal assistant, Eileen (Molly Shannon), but she falls for Tyler instead, adding yet another wrinkle to the plot. Amy can be exasperating; but Dern and White justify viewers' patience with a satisfying resolution to a complicated storyline. Compiling all eight episodes from 2013, extras include episode commentaries and behind-the-scenes featurettes. Recommended. (K. Fennessy)