Joan of Arcadia

kestrell and I have started watching "Joan of Arcadia". I had been mildly aware of it when it was still current but never actually watched it. Kes wanted to watch it for the "YA story with a bit of fantasy" angle. We were both quite surprised to find that the show has a strong disability angle as well, as Joan's older brother lost the use of his legs in a car accident. For my part, I was pleasantly surprised to find that Joan's mom was played by the ever-watchable Mary Steenbergen.

The show has interesting characters and decent writing overall, though I admit to being more interested in the plot threads of the adults than I am with the teenagers. Plotting is a bit weak, but that's because they have a literal deus ex machina built into the structure of the show. The writer's don't need a logical event to start off any given episode, they can just have God tell Joan to do something seemingly random.

In fact, the one character on the show that I loathe with a passion is none other than God himself. He reminds me of the character from the last Lemony Snicket book, in that he never gives 'orders', just 'suggestions' -- really, really *strong* suggestions.

Each episode, God arranges a little learning experience for Joan. Individually, these lessons are usually ones I agree with, or could at least see as valuable. But the *overall* lesson, the one that is subtly or blatantly reinforced every episode, is "submit to authority". God gives her instructions, but never explanations; she is supposed tio follow them, literally, on faith. Whenever Joan disobeys God, bad things happen to her. God takes the position that these are not punishments, only the consequence of her not following His good advice -- which I call bullshit on.

In one specific episode we watched recently, Joan took a principled stand against the school administration, and her rabble-rousing best friend (Grace) turned it into a mini-revolution. The administration complained that this wasn't what school was about. Grace: "What? Civil disobedience isn't educational?" Vice-Principal: "We have lots of thick books where you can read about civil disobedience." God took Joan to task and made her shut down the protest, complete with lectures about respecting her teachers. Even though the episode made it 100% clear that the teacher in question was not actually worthy of respect. I'm sorry, God, but that was a bad call, beginning to end.

Joan of Arcadia

kestrell and I have started watching "Joan of Arcadia". I had been mildly aware of it when it was still current but never actually watched it. Kes wanted to watch it for the "YA story with a bit of fantasy" angle. We were both quite surprised to find that the show has a strong disability angle as well, as Joan's older brother lost the use of his legs in a car accident. For my part, I was pleasantly surprised to find that Joan's mom was played by the ever-watchable Mary Steenbergen.

The show has interesting characters and decent writing overall, though I admit to being more interested in the plot threads of the adults than I am with the teenagers. Plotting is a bit weak, but that's because they have a literal deus ex machina built into the structure of the show. The writer's don't need a logical event to start off any given episode, they can just have God tell Joan to do something seemingly random.

In fact, the one character on the show that I loathe with a passion is none other than God himself. He reminds me of the character from the last Lemony Snicket book, in that he never gives 'orders', just 'suggestions' -- really, really *strong* suggestions.

Each episode, God arranges a little learning experience for Joan. Individually, these lessons are usually ones I agree with, or could at least see as valuable. But the *overall* lesson, the one that is subtly or blatantly reinforced every episode, is "submit to authority". God gives her instructions, but never explanations; she is supposed tio follow them, literally, on faith. Whenever Joan disobeys God, bad things happen to her. God takes the position that these are not punishments, only the consequence of her not following His good advice -- which I call bullshit on.

In one specific episode we watched recently, Joan took a principled stand against the school administration, and her rabble-rousing best friend (Grace) turned it into a mini-revolution. The administration complained that this wasn't what school was about. Grace: "What? Civil disobedience isn't educational?" Vice-Principal: "We have lots of thick books where you can read about civil disobedience." God took Joan to task and made her shut down the protest, complete with lectures about respecting her teachers. Even though the episode made it 100% clear that the teacher in question was not actually worthy of respect. I'm sorry, God, but that was a bad call, beginning to end.