After the completion of two seasons, HBO canceled the show in March 2013, partly due to low ratings, despite critical acclaim.

[2] Amy Jellicoe is a 40-year-old woman who returns home to Riverside, California, after a two-month stay at a holistic treatment facility, a result of having a mental breakdown at work after finding herself demoted, which was triggered by her self-destructive ways (including heavy drinking and an affair with her married boss who likely demoted her as a way to keep the affair a secret), which in turn was triggered by a miscarriage and a rather bitter divorce.

Amy returns to her old life with a new cultivated approach and perspective, which includes daily meditation and exhorting the power of self-help and inner healing.

While trying to heal Levi and mend her relationship with Helen, Amy also re-enters work at Abaddonn Industries.

The series appeared on HBO's development slate in August 2009 with Laura Dern set to star as the lead, Amy Jellicoe.

"[32] Time's James Poniewozik wrote a piece titled "Enlightened: The Best New Show No One But You, If You Are Bothering to Read This Post, Is Watching".

In it he writes that: "Enlightened, I guess, is the Velvet Underground of this TV season: that handful of people who are into the show are really into it.

So there's something pretty brave about a show that's not cynical or sarcastic or defeatist, one that's not set on a street corner in Baltimore or inside Al Qaeda's torture barracks, and still manages to be absolutely heartbreaking.

"[34] The show appeared on several "best of" lists at the end of 2011, with some critics citing its ninth episode, "Consider Helen", as a standout.

"[38] Michelle Dean of The Nation demands "everybody should be watching HBO's Enlightened" writing that it "is one of the few strokes of real, original storytelling left in prestige television right now.

"[39] Hank Stuever of The Washington Post in his review of the second season says "This HBO exercise in exquisite portraiture (I still won't call it a comedy) returns Sunday night, and it is the most hauntingly nuanced and carefully written show currently on TV.

"[41] With continuing low ratings, creator Mike White in an interview spoke about the show's uncertain fate, in turn sparking a circle of critics to publish pieces on the show, pleading for more awareness and raving about its tremendous quality.

[44] Upon reviewing the season 2 finale, a longtime champion of the show, Time's James Poniewozik touched on the renewal prospects, writing: "And in Enlightened, whether it planned things this way, HBO has the best thing TV is doing right now—a show no other network would probably make, telling a story that the movies couldn't tell, not at such length and depth.

These include: In July 2021, White told The New Yorker that HBO has expressed interest over the last two or three years in "a one-off short season or a movie that wraps everything up."