Enlightened : Krista

I loved when Amy told off Krista "You *beep* me for the last time!" Even though she didn't deserve it at that moment, Krista has been such a sh!tty friend to Amy and kind of a bad person overall. She did kind of become nicer at the end of this season, but overall I was happy Amy finally stood up for herself, even if it was at the wrong moment at kind of made her look crazy. LOL

Also, so glad Krista finally had her baby, seemed like she was pregnant forever!


Occasionally I'll hit somebody with my car. So sue me.

lol

Krista's the one that's been putting up with Amy's many cruelties and manipulative BS for ages now; she's told Amy exactly how she feels about her and their friendship many times, and for whatever reason Amy pretty much forces herself into Krita's life, like she owes her or something.

It's annoying.

"Cruelties"?

Amy was never cruel to Krista.

As much as I love this show, it sure does attract some real nuts as fans. You people don't get it.Krista, Janice etc. are normal people. Amy is a destructive nutcase. A funny nutcase (in the context of a television show)but a destructive nutcase nonetheless.

That may be the case. But she's never actually been "cruel" to Krista. Maybe "annoying" or "obnoxious", but never outright cruel or vicious. People act like she's intentionally harmful to her, when all she really does is try to be friends with someone who's simply not interested. That doesn't make her "bad."

I understand perfectly well these people's reaction to Amy in the workplace. She is a toxic employee who is prone to drama. People go to work to make a living and pay their bills so they can keep their homes, cars etc. Work is not a playground or a sewing circle. Get in the orbit of someone like Amy, and you may well wind up unemployed yourself, as the Amy's of the world tend to grab onto anyone who offers a helping hand to drag down with them.

It is nice to be able to be friendly with your co-workers, but they are not your friends.."friendly" and "friends" are not the same thing. Smart people keep these two worlds separate. Although I love Amy as a comedy/drama character, she is exactly the kind of person I would avoid like the plague in the workplace. In fact, if anything Krista is probably too nice to her. Myself? I would keep Amy completely at arm's lengthdeal with her in a collegial and professional way, but never let her get close, and never speak to her any more than is absolutely necessary (i.e "good morning" and "good night" and any business related question that could arise..nothing else.)

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I understand perfectly well these people's reaction to Amy in the workplace. She is a toxic employee who is prone to drama. People go to work to make a living and pay their bills so they can keep their homes, cars etc. Work is not a playground or a sewing circle. Get in the orbit of someone like Amy, and you may well wind up unemployed yourself, as the Amy's of the world tend to grab onto anyone who offers a helping hand to drag down with them.

It is nice to be able to be friendly with your co-workers, but they are not your friends.."friendly" and "friends" are not the same thing. Smart people keep these two worlds separate. Although I love Amy as a comedy/drama character, she is exactly the kind of person I would avoid like the plague in the workplace. In fact, if anything Krista is probably too nice to her. Myself? I would keep Amy completely at arm's lengthdeal with her in a collegial and professional way, but never let her get close, and never speak to her any more than is absolutely necessary (i.e "good morning" and "good night" and any business related question that could arise..nothing else.)

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With all due respect, I think the show is a satire on people such as yourself and those who contribute to the overall structure of the business world that thinks workers should thrive in an environment where people only say good morning, good night, and speak only of business related questions that arise.

You may not get it because those who are the subjects of satire often aren't aware of it. Amy is certainly a type of character that is being satired as well. But Mike White is exposing two diametrically opposed sicknesses and what happens when they face off. But make no mistake, he's characterizing both Amy and Abandon (as well as those who flourish there) as mentally ill archetypes.

If I may quote you
"With all due respect, I think the show is a satire on people such as yourself and those who contribute to the overall structure of the business world that thinks workers should thrive in an environment where people only say good morning, good night, and speak only of business related questions that arise".

You're absolutely right, because Amy's behavior at work was really appropriate. The fact that she was never on time, didn't understand her job, spent the majority of the work-day distracted and distracting her co-workers oblivious and totally un-caring when they too would get reprimanded after being pulled unwittingly into one of her daily diatribes was perfectly normal behavior.

Anyone is their right mind would RUN in the other direction if Amy came along at work. The show is so much deeper than you posit in your simple argument. . Obviously the writer is satirizing the corporate world; the soul-draining office culture and the executives that perpetuate it against this back-drop, he's brought in this wonderful yet deeply flawed, narcissistic character.


Fwiw, it's ridiculous to assume you know if the show is satirizing the OP-He/she didn't say they thought conversations should be limited to a simple good-morning and good-night - talk about generalizations! it was a ridiculous dig that sounded child-like.

"Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it." Norman Maclean

The bit where Amy bullies and badgers Krista while she's bedridden is a key example. It's the text book definition of cruel; even after Krista says she can't deal with stress, that she doesn't want to talk about anything that can overwhelm her, Amy goes on and on, totally dismissing Krista's thoughts and well-being in the process, and continues with her BS.

Amy is a bully; having good intentions doesn't give her a free pass or excuse for carrying on in the manner that she does.

lol

Straight from the horse's mouth; even Mike White believes that Amy is purposely trying to screw with Krista:

http://tvline.com/2013/03/03/enlightened-season-2-finale-hbo-mike-white-laura-dern-renew-cancel/

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TVLINE | The other scene in the finale that was amazing and amazingly horrifying was Amy bursting into Kristas hospital room right after shes given birth and chewing her out for tipping off Szidon to the article not knowing all along that Krista is totally innocent, that it was Tyler who gave her up to Eileen. Talk to me a little about the dynamic of the Krista-Amy relationship.


To me, there is a reading of that relationship as one of baby envy. Actually, a reading of the entire show is what kinds of hijinks people can get into if they dont have kids to distract them. Its really something that I can relate to. So, it always felt to me from the beginning of the pilot and poor Sarah Burns had to be pregnant [on screen] for like three years but theres the idea that Krista is pregnant and is living the life Amy could have had, had not a couple bad things happeneded to her. The backstory is that Amy had a miscarriage and then, out of that, she ended up getting a divorce. Its the idea that had things gone a different way, would Amy be Krista? Krista is living the life that, in a sense, Amy may have at one point wanted and it makes her crazy. In a way, its sort of unraveling, whether consciously or unconsciously, the threads of pleasure that Krista is deriving from this simple life that shes just living without any intent to drive Amy crazy. But just by existing, Krista makes Amy irritated and frustrated, and she wants to shove in Kristas face all of these other issues and shake her cage. That is something thats interesting to me. So, their final interaction at least in this season is Krista finally had the baby, and her family is happily enjoying this big, personal moment. And Amy still has to turn it into a much more conflicted drama.

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THANKS for this response and resource. Nice to hear it from the creator's mouth.

I agree with you, Amy was not a cruel character. She was struggling with life trying to live in a society and not an economy, not unlike how many people feel these days.

I have felt deep sympathy for Krista from day one of this show. She is simply doing her job, and because of Amy's "issues," she gets dragged into her drama. If your boss were to have a mental breakdown, and you were tapped to take her place, would it be considered backstabbing? I don't think so.

Then Amy wouldn't let up. She kept forcing herself on Krista including showing up to her bedside (multiple times). Amy is so self-absorbed she naturally thought a woman who was about to have labor induced took the time to rat her out. And to not have the decency NOT to go to the hospital to curse her out, child-in-hand, in front of her family just totally took the cake. I was glad Krista's family finally took matters into their own hands and physically pushed her out of the room.

It would be nice for Krista to get an apology from Amy, should the show continue.

[Dismounting from soapbox, now]

I agree completely. The people you see on this board who hate Krista so much come off as seriously disturbed people themselves. Any sane person would sympathize with Krista's predicament. If anything, Krista has been too nice to Amy. Myself? I would have just shut Amy off a long time back and refused to have anything to do with her beyond the strictly professional level.

Amy is not perfect, never was, but she's the protagonist, people should sympathize with her. Is there anything different to like about Krista or Janice? They're average, ordinary, the world is full of people like them.

The Amy-Krista-Janice tug of war. Pretty interesting dynamics at play.

The scenes of Amy trying to befriend Krista make me feel really uncomfortable and creep me out. I find myself sayingwhat is she doing! I wanted Amy to let the Krista thing go. I heard myself sayingwhy is she forcing herself on Krista when she knows she doesn't want to be friends with her? If Amy realized that, and I know her character really does, which is also weird that she knows it, that by the second or third "painful to watch" attempt, she would have let it go. That's kind of perverse.

I ask myself, what's that all about? What's really going on there?

For anyone who sees something like that happening, it's pathetic. When someone debases themselves trying to make someone like them, when that person obviously doesn't reciprocatebut they keep tryingman, that's painful.

I felt bad watching her ingratiate herself, almost begging for Krista to accept her over and over, and yet, also having the sense that Amy doesn't really like Krista that much. Given that this is a story, a satire, I'd have to say that Amy's impulse to win Krista, whether Mike White planned it that way or not, has something not so very nice beneath its surface.

It's not really friendship she seeks. Amy's not stupid. So why does she want Krista? I think it's driven out of competition with Janice TO WIN Krista's friendship, but not really wanting a close friendship with Krista. Krista is more likeAmy's human bank account where she can make minimal deposits but huge withdraws. It isn't going to work. That's exactly what people have done to her, and she didn't like it.

Amy is very aware that she has little in common with Krista, and might be even a little resentful of Krista's normal, happy but ho-hum life. For Amy to pursue going down that path and with reasons (don't let Janice win) which are most likely insincere, is unworthy of her, and unworthy of the (I want to do good) person that she aspires to be. Because in essence, Amy would be using Krista.

She raged at Krista so easily. Again, small deposits, big withdraws. Compare that with how she reacted when she found out it was Tyler who ratted her out. She even smoothed it over for his girlfriend. Why? Because Tyler was her friend, she likes and cares about him somewhat, and she did get him involved, kind of against his will. But the minute she thought it was Krista

Amy's pride and dignity needed to kick in when she returned to Abadon. She shouldn't have continuously sought approval from the people that will never like her. That's rather over the top. To find a reason for it, I think it comes more from a need to win, or have the last word, or I'll show themShe'll never win that game, so why does she want to? It's a path that leads nowhere and has no heart. I have a hard time watching some of these scenes.

I like her and want her to do well. At least in the phone scene after she realized that Jeff was using her, she didn't make a big drama out of it, nor hardly confronted him as the old Amy would have. She declined his offer to visit and quietly ended the call. Beautiful.

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She raged at Krista so easily. Again, small deposits, big withdraws. Compare that with how she reacted when she found out it was Tyler who ratted her out. She even smoothed it over for his girlfriend. Why? Because Tyler was her friend, she likes and cares about him somewhat, and she did get him involved, kind of against his will. But the minute she thought it was Krista

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Good point.

Totally agree.

You know how that apology would turn out, don't you? It's just another opportunity for squirm-inducing awkwardness. But that's what I love about Mike White's humor. The harder his characters try, the harder they fall.

Of course, I agree with all of your observations, but I still love Amy. And I do feel for Krista. Both characters have dimension and motivations that are true to their characters. And that's the mark of astutely observational writing.

Neither of them were good or bad necessarily but both had ill will towards each other; Amy because she felt it was unfair that Krista's status was raised considerably from having been her assistant and Krista from viewing Amy as an emotionally unglued woman who was someone she wanted to keep her distance from but keep close enough to keep an eye on her and try to convince Amy all was ok between them when clearly it wasn't.

They both sort of used each other and were very fake towards each other. Amy was so desperate to be part of this crowd that she used Krista as a sort of way in and would confide in her as a way of showing her trust but the moment she told Krista anything at all she'd immediately feel exposed and suspicious of her.

Krista really wanted nothing to do with Amy but she acted kind and sweet to Amy's face to try and deceive her and give her a false sense of security. They really were enemies.

@missyjoy25

I don't know that Krista necessarily didn't want anything to do with Amy. I think Krista felt genuine appreciation for Amy having helped her. But Amy's overbearing personality created ambivalence in Krista, as well as others. So I'd say the emotion was ambivalence rather than wanting nothing to do with Amy.

Love isn't what you say or how you feel, it's what you do. (The Last Kiss)

Krista was a two faced bitch.

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Krista has been such a sh!tty friend to Amy and kind of a bad person overall.

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How so? Krista was the one who tried to stop Amy from having her outburst that set the plot in motion. If Krista really wanted Amy's job, she wouldn't have tried to stop her. I always thought any flaws Krista showed were meant to be seen from strictly Amy's perspective, and not as fact. While Krista did try to keep Amy at a distance (for good reason), she was never completely fake; Krista let Amy know when she had gone too far, like during the babyshower.

Amy pinpointing Krista as the bad person and saying "I know what you did" after she just had a baby, pretty much sums up who was in the right and who was in the wrong all along.

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