'Enlightened' Renewal: 8 Reasons HBO Must Bring Back This Show

We still don't know whether "Enlightened," one of television's finest shows, will get a third season. And rather than go into another rhapsody about how wonderful the show is , I decided to think like a brand manager and offer HBO a few thoughts on why canceling the show would be a terrible idea from a business perspective. Amy Jellicoe (Laura Dern) may spend her days fighting her status as a cog in a corporate machine, but "Enlightened" is just one small part of HBO's roster, and canceling it would be relatively easy for the network's executives.

It would also be a terrible idea, and not just because the show's sure to turn up on a lot of Top 10 lists later this year.

Here are a few reasons HBO should keep this show around. Eight reasons, in fact -- one for every episode of the show's outstanding second season.

1. The fan outcry will very loud. When HBO canceled "Deadwood" seven years ago, that news was processed by a radically different Internet ecosystem. On blogs and such, there was much rending of garments from Al Swearingen fans, but social media was still in its early days. Now fans can and do regularly take to Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr and many other outlets to register their dismay at how their favorite media properties are treated -- and there's no reason to think they'll let up in a timely fashion should "Enlightened" go away. For a network that lives on buzz, angry anti-HBO chatter that lasts a long time and blankets social networks is something to fear.

Against all odds, because it believed in "Enlightened," HBO executives renewed the show once before. There are even more reasons to renew it this time around.

Don't let us down, HBO.