"Maybe I'm a little pissed but that has nothing to do with this," says Laura Dern in the upcoming second season of Enlightened, the HBO show we think you all should be watching. She's talking about her deep-rooted, unhealed anger toward the world which her character has been trying for many months now to wash away through meditation and the most superficial interest in new-age philosophy. And that anger has now brought her to the point that she's going to bring down the corporation she works for, because they haven't treated her right. But self-aware she is not.

Seriously, we don't do a lot of TV plugging around here, but this is some amazing television — dark, witty, poignant, hilarious, powerful, and at times deliciously uncomfortable. It's the story of Amy, a woman in her 40s who takes a leave of absence from a company she works for in Riverside, California following an affair with her boss, the breakup of that affair, and her subsequent, very public nervous breakdown. She goes off to a retreat in Hawaii and returns in the pilot of the first season to live with her mother (played brilliantly by Dern's real life mother Diane Ladd), and take a significant demotion at work only after threatening a sexual harassment lawsuit. She also returns to hang out with her ex-husband, the unapologetically druggy Levi (played by Luke Wilson), whom she loves but who remains a toxic presence in her life.

Season 2 picks up with Amy and coworker and co-conspirator Tyler (played by Enlightened co-creator Mike White) attempting to bring down the company and its environmental practices (something Amy began investigating in Season 1) after figuring out that they might get laid off. Seriously, watch Season 1. It's terrific. It deals with a particular kind of twenty-first century malaise and anxiety in an edgy, smart way. And you'll thank us later. Season 2 premieres January 13.