I’ve been on an Enlightened-thon watching the 2012 Golden Globe winning HBO TV series “Enlightened” for several days now, so this is a home tour on the mid-century style house on “Enlightened,” where the main character Amy Jellcoe lives, along with my review of the HBO TV show.
Enlightened is a comedy, drama starring Laura Dern, as Amy Jellicoe, an executive who in front of her co-workers at Abaddonn Industries, has a full-blown psycho-type breakdown after her affair ends with her boss who downgrades her position to an account she feels is beneath her worth. Amy then takes a sabbatical from work to a treatment center in Hawaii called Open Air where she’s enlightened and has inner peace and happiness. She now has the key to unlock the mysteries of the universe and wants everyone to know it and follow her out of the darkness into the light.
The house in Enlightened at 5511 Senford Avenue in Ladera Heights, California is a mid-century style house that I adore and would not make any changes to at all down to the design on the garage door. My husband and I wondered about the rocks on the roof. At first I thought it was just a typical California desert-type terracotta roof, but on closer look it is rocks and quite beautiful at that. I’ve learned that this kind of roof is Ballast Roofing used for many reasons such as wind protection and most likely used on this house for keeping it cool.
Beautiful Senford Avenue where the house is located with its perfectly manicured lawns and palm trees.
Amy having her meltdown in the office as she rants at her boss about what he has done to her.
Amy returns from Open Air Treatment Center to Abaddonn Industries a healed woman. She is whole now, and filled with hope for the future and overly confident she will be get her job back. The show has Amy talking her thoughts out loud to the TV viewers in a lilting voice with cloud dancing music that takes you away like you’re at Open Air Treatment Center and all your worries are gone. Amy wants us to know “You can walk out of hell and into the light.”
After being enlightened, Amy reconnects with her ex-husband Levi, played by Luke Wilson. She drops off a therapy book at his door that he could care less about as he has his own set of problems since their divorce with using alcohol and drugs to escape reality.
This and the above photos are of the apartment where Levi lives reported to be in Pasadena, but I don’t have an address yet. UPDATE: A reader commented below saying the address for Levi’s apartment is 502 S Catalina Ave, Pasadena which is so great to know!
Amy always wears bright cheery dresses to work in sharp contrast to everyone else at Abaddonn Industries who wear dark business suits.
She doesn’t get her executive position back much to her bewilderment, but is stashed in the basement doing data entry with the rest of the rejects/hard to place employees/employees who are “difficult.” Here is Tyler, played by Mike White who is also a writer and Executive Producer on Enlightened. Tyler is lonely and the perfect patsy for Amy’s destructive plan to take Abaddonn Industries down.
Abaddonn in the Bible is a Hebrew term and means destroyer or where the ”damned” lie in fire and snow, one of the places in “Hell” that Moses visited. – Wikipedia
For Amy, this is what Abaddon Industries begins to mean to her. It is the enemy, the place where evil lurks and must be destroyed. She is delusional and still half-crazy.
Per movielocationsandmore, her TV workplace is filmed at Warner Towers at 21600 Oxnaud. This is a scene from the show where Amy’s thoughts are:
“Of course the world is vast and complex. To understand it you can reflect you whole life away and what have you done? Nothing! At some point you must do. It is not enough to have good intentions, you must act on them.”
In another episode showing the Abaddonn Industries building Amy’s thoughts are:
“What if this kingdom really is cursed?
It is cursed, with a lunatic logic death drive..its castles made of glass, and concrete, and cancer. Would if somehow you knew how to break the spell and only you could bring the light. Would if somehow you had found the key that could unlock the chains,
the magic key that could free us all.
Would you use it?
You have to use it!!”
So begins her twisted whistle-blower plans.
She doesn’t fit in and is shunned by her past work friends and must show them the light. She is a do-gooder, wanna-be for the wrong reasons at the most inappropriate times that is made clear at a baby shower where she makes a speech about people who don’t have it as good. She wants everyone to join her women’s activist group and only ends up putting a damper on the whole happy baby shower atmosphere.
Beautiful Diane Ladd plays Helen Jellicoe, Amy’s not good-enough Mom and is Laura Dern’s mom in real life, so I love that this mother-daughter team are on Enlightened together. The two have starred in movies together before. Most notably Rambling Rose for which they both received Oscar nominations.
Inside the Enlightened house is mid-century furniture and accessories. Everything looks like it has been there since the 1950s.
Amy’s mother, Helen, likes birds.
and has a magnificent rose garden.
Many of the rooms in the house are decorated with this deep orange color that is the same as the roses Helen grows.
A peaceful Good Morning World scene from the show.
Even Helen’s dog, Ginger, is orange, and Levi’s apartment is coral-colored so I wondered what the significance of this color implies for the show other than it is a warm and inviting color. ”Orange offers emotional strength in difficult times. It helps us to bounce back from disappointments and despair, assisting in recovery from grief.”
The kitchen with its 50s wallpaper and matching airy curtains and the hanging lamp over the table.
I enjoy the show for the plot and characters as much as for looking at the furniture like these flowery iron scroll chairs.
The pool with roses is a beautiful scene like many scenes from the show that are shown to the audience accompanied by soft music playing leaving the viewer feeling like they are floating on air, which is a better feeling than I get after watching other popular violence-themed shows.
Have you seen Enlightened is my obvious question and if so, how do you feel after watching?
Source link for Orange is Empower Yourself With Color Psychology
I truly think this show was written about me and my life. I hate to sound narcissistic, but I have so many similarities with Amy Jelico. I had to be a whistle blower for an employer that we stealing from their clients. This was for an estate that my employer was cleaning out and it became a free for all. Come to find out, the estate was willed to several family members and I had to bring the courage inside me to call the other people that were involved in this estate and bring them and the attorneys involved up to speed. Depositions were served, testified, and have arrests might even ensue. The saddest part of this entire whistle blowing situation was my employer was one of my very best friends for over 20 years.
I grew up in So. California, we had a ranch style house in OC. It too had a rock roof. I loved the sun shots. The still of the air when Amy is in her own thoughts. The way the light plays off her hair and the warmth of the scenes. It brings me back to warm spring days with the smell of the roses and orange blossoms blooming.
The characters at Abvidon are so typical of OC/LA corporate. I have realized that being out of OC for 20+ years now, that the corporate women put such an emphasis on the “pretty, ugly, cool, uncool” scenario. I am learning to embrace the “uncool, over 50″ crowd and it is a good thing. I like the simplicity of a nerd, the truthfulness of a friendship that is not based on having the latest LV purse or Chanel bag.
As my fb job company name, I put Cogentiva! and as my title, I stated I was the Enlightened one! LOL!
My Goodness Mrs.B, you have been through the wringer at work! It is so interesting to me how you say Abaddonn is typical of OC/LA corp world, and I love your description of the still air when Amy is in her thoughts, etc., and the warm spring days and smell of roses and orange blossoms blooming!
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I’ve been a big fan of “Enlightened” from the get go. You answered my questions about the roof. The address of Levi’s place is 1000 San Pasqual, Pasadena. Glad to have come across your website.
It’s so wonderful to hear from an Enlightened fan and Thank You So Much for the address of Levi’s apartment. You made my day today Bill.
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Hi Sue;
Thanks for your nice reply after I wrote where Levi’s apartment is from the “Enlightened” show.I had said that the address is 1000 San Pasqual, Pasadena. After looking at it on Google Earth, it it evident that the apartment shown is indeed the one used as his home in the show. However, the address shown at the top of the Google Earth page says 502 S Catalina Ave. San Pasqual is the next cross street, which is why it brought me to approximently the correct location.Did’nt want to pass on incorrect infomation.
Bill W.
You’re absolutely right Bill, thanks for saving the day with the corrected address. It is just so fun to actually see where the apartment is located, street view and all!
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I’ve never seen this show, but I grew up in a similar mid-century house, an L-shaped ranch on a concrete slab in a Levitt development. My parents got rid of their mid-century furnishings and decor long, long ago, though.
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Try to catch the show for a different TV experience. I had to look up “Levitt development” and learned a lot, so thanks for sharing Ginger.
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When I saw your blog in my e-mail, I was struck by the term “mid-century”. I realized that description would fit my childhood home that my parents built in 1950 and our first two homes. We live in California and never had the rock roof you show, but her house could be in our first neighborhood. I don’t think of those houses as old because our present home was built in 1928. But, my parents’ home (my sister still owns it) is over 50 years old.
thanks for the trip down Memory Lane.
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Your most welcome Carol for the trip down memory lane. There is such a love for older homes, mid-century homes, and collectors love mid-century furniture. I would love to see your sisters’ house as well.
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I love this show! Laura Dern is so amazing as Amy. And it’s great to see Luke Wilson in a good role – he was stellar in “The Royal Tenenbaums” (now there’s a set for you to deconstruct!). It’s funny that you highlight the mid-century home she lives in – my house looks similar to it from the outside. Years ago, before I knew what was what, I did work to the interior to make it more traditional, and I regret it to this day – added crown moulding, changed the windows – but from the exterior, it still retains it’s original look – albeit with a much more sound and functional tile roof! Great post.
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So glad your a fan of the show too, as I am lovin it. I would love to see a pix of your 50s style house or even do your whole house. You made me look up The Royal Tenenbaums because I don’t remember seeing it other than maybe I saw a few scenes in passing. It looks like a great movie for me to investigate.
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I’ll have to look it up on Amazon – that sounds like a really neat concept! Wouldn’t it be fun to be a set decorator on that show?
Oh yea, set decorator would be an IDEAL job on a show like Enlightened.
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wow Sue – I had never even heard of that show before (don’t have HBO here) so I truly am “enlightened”! The set decoration is amazing! I love that vintage mid-century stuff. Is the show set in the 1950′s or do the characters just live in dated homes?
I love that mid-century rancher – it reminds me of a 1950′s rancher in my old neighborhood that just came up for sale – it even has one of those gravel/rock roofs!
Darn, I wish you could see the show Sarah. The show is set for the current time period, but Amy is living back home with her mom and it that house that I show here complete with Amy’s mothers decorating still intact from the past. Wonder if you could get the HBO show online. I saw Season One is available to buy via Amazon I believe.
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