Joan of Arcadia

In a season filled with terrible reality shows and cookie cutter sitcoms, a small show from CBS made its way into the territory of classic television in the making. While I'll admit the show drew me with the charming previews and attractive main star; I was rather hesitant to watch this but stumbled upon a gem in television, one of the rare gems in television in a shallow and short attention span audience.

Joan is the middle child in a middle/low class family who begins getting messages from god through the various forms of people who come to her asking her to perform certain deeds.

While she's not always sure what god's intentions may be for her she always manages to perform the deed and learns something that affects her life.

Many religious themed shows have rarely ever been able to send out watchable storylines with the religious undertones without completely botching them. "Seventh Heaven" a recent hit show with religious themes fails in every aspect possible by preaching of love, family, etc. while coming off as cheesy, campy, and very sappy. While that show continues to run out of steam with its horrible storylines and characters, this one manages to push it to the side.

Somehow "Joan of Arcadia" is real and that is due to many winning aspects including the excellent cast of actors who give this show the kick it needs. The often under rated Joe Mantegna gives an excellent performance as the father and leader of the family who works as a police officer while being forced to confront his rapidly feigning power, Mary Steenburgen plays the mother who often rules the household in the father's absence with a soft voice but a hard fist, Jason Ritter son of the late John Ritter plays the paralyzed oldest brother who must confront his disability while adjusting to life as disabled, Michael Welch plays the brainy youngest child who must adjust to his families problems while living as an individual, and best of all Amber Tamblyn stars as the title character who is extremely likable and charming; Tamblyn is excellent as Joan who takes God's often vague directions in stride and a sarcastic and often witty one-liner.

It'd be easy to make the character of Joan whiny and self-absorbed but the excellent writers pull her character off well and make her a heroine for the female viewers and eye candy for the young male viewers.

The writing is what make this series a joy with its often gripping and heartbreaking storylines and refreshing wit; while the earlier episodes in the series were mired in sloppy continuity and lack of any true direction, it picked up thankfully and has managed to achieve its purpose with amazing plot twists and often heart breaking character development.

"Joan of Arcadia" preaches themes without becoming preachy and becomes natural in its story telling while the excellent actors get into character flawlessly. Each character is likable and each character is more realistic and involving than any bargain basement reality show, and by the numbers sitcom and manages to mark its territory into classic television.

What make this the quintessential drama is that despite its religious backdrop it never preaches to people and never tells people that one religion is true, it only shows a young distraught girl being led by god personally and comes of age.

This is surely a godsend.

I stumbled upon Joan of Arcadia near the end of the first season and quickly found one thing out: This is a great show!

God speaks to Joan to have her try to make a DIFFERENCE in this world. The show is all about the choices we make in our lives that make a difference in the world around us. Through the choices Joan, her friends and her family make, we can learn something. Don't worry, it doesn't come off as all about religion, or all preachy. There is a great cast (especially Amber Tamblyn, Joe Mantegna and Mary Steenburgen), solid story lines and some really great music in between. I have been extremely impressed with Amber Tamblyn; she is perfect for this part.

Sometimes sad, very often funny, there is always something you can relate to. Give it a chance; you will enjoy it!

This show is stunningly good. The acting is great, the directing great, sound, visuals, sets, story etc it is all great. I can really only think of two negatives. The first being the son Kevin (Jason Ritter) that was written to whiny boohooing in the first 4-5 episodes and I also got the feeling that Jason was the least competent of the actors, but both Jason and the writing got better as the episodes pass by. The second negative is the ending episode and the end of the show which really was not that greatly done and this show deserved so much more and I would say deserve at least two more seasons.

The great is all the rest. I especially like how God is not only teaching Joan but also us in the audience. Well, not "teaching" as much as asking questions about morality, physics, religion and philosophy. This show is also wholesome family drama that do not shy away from difficult topics but also do not Hollywood linger on them for effect and gore. Topics like teenage pregnancy, sex, rape, murder, death, religion and homosexuality is brought up and discussed without being too much preachy and not with too much political correctness. This show feels real and down to earth, which is weird since God is a key player. And who can forget the main music score?

This is a real gem of a show and I highly recommend to everyone. And those of you growing up today with all the dumb shows this is what great TV used to look and sound like. I also think there is great potential to remake or continue with the show. Perhaps Joan has her own children? Or we can start with another city and another set of characters.

A slightly week 9/10 since there are 2-3 episodes that feels unnecessary or as fillers, but excluding that and my objections above this is as good as TV get and you should all watch this greatness.

CBS recently canceled this truly original and uplifting show because it had lost viewers, and the age of the typical viewer (according to the lovely Neilsen ratings system) was over 50 years old. So what does CBS do? Say that a show about ghosts would "skew younger" than one about talking to God. Shame, shame, on you CBS. You promised that the show would be moved to another time slot before you canceled it, and you canceled it after making Barbara Hall introduce a new character that would hopefully bring in more viewers, while leaving the exit point for the show all the more sloppy and unresolved.

Some other network needs to pick this show up now. It's been nominated for an Emmy, which it also might be again this year, and won the People's Choice Awards. It's got an estimated eight million viewers, which is pretty good considering it was up against Dateline and in a time slot when people are out and about (early evenings on Fridays, also not a time when a lot of the teenagers are home, so that also explains why the average age of the viewers was so high). It's really sad that a show which makes you think, feel, cry and laugh at the same time can be thrown away so easily, while all the reality TV junk and crime dramas that are all-too-similar are thriving. This show was the finest ever to grace TV, and I highly recommend it to anyone that is sick of the few choices left to watch on television anymore.

It was disheartening to see that the first review was the one negative review in the bunch. When I opened the rest a sigh of relief echoed my quiet office. I think "Joan of Arcadia" is hands down the best show on TV. It has excellent actors, great writing, and each episode is more entertaining or satisfying than the last. This show touches me every time I watch it. The vehicle used is entertaining, the characters are wonderfully written, and a profound message is sent out without ever preaching. Having just been through the most faith-rocking year of my life, the truths illuminated in this series have provided comfort, insight, and peace. With all the faithless programming available, this show is a breath of really fresh air!