And Their Eyes Were Watching… Joan of Arcadia

By Aubree Rankin

Joan of Arcadia has proven to be the biggest and best surprise of the 2003-2004 TV season.  Airing Friday nights at 8:00 p.m. ET/PT on CBS, Joan of Arcadia is not only family friendly and free from gratuitous sex, foul language and violence, it is entertaining, moving, and popular with viewers.  When CBS announced plans to air a program about a teenaged girl who gets messages from God, many people were skeptical.  The premise sounded silly, or as if it would mock religion and faith.  However, the show has shown incredible sensitivity on issues of faith while providing insights about family struggles and creativity with both the characters and plotlines. The PTC is proud to announce Joan of Arcadia as the most recent recipient of the PTC Seal of Approval, for families with children ages 10 and up.

The series centers on the Girardi family, who recently left their hometown and moved to Arcadia for new jobs and a fresh start.  The father, Will is the new chief of police; his wife Helen is a secretary at the high school; and their three children all still live at home.  Before moving to Arcadia, their eldest son Kevin was in a car accident and was left paralyzed from the waist down. With his dreams of a college sports career derailed, he now works for the local newspaper.  Daughter Joan and youngest son Luke are high school students.

Stories on Joan focus on all members of the family, following Kevin as he comes to terms with his disability or Will as he tries to clean up the often corrupt police department.  Helen is depicted as a very strong mother, yet she is still mourning her son's accident and his lost potential, while trying to help Joan and Luke fit-in at a new school.  Luke is a typical "nerd" character who is obsessed with science, but several episodes have shown his affection for his siblings and him overcoming his shyness with girls at school.

As the title suggests, the heart of the show is Joan's peculiar relationship with God. In each episode, Joan has conversations with, and receives instructions from God.  When the Almighty appears to her, the human form is different every time, but the messages are always clear—Joan needs to have faith and try things God's way.  Joan is usually skeptical and questioning, but God is patient with her and gives her many words of wisdom and insight.  The words of the God characters themselves describe why this series is so powerful and applicable to any viewer.

"People don't have to listen when I talk, free will is one of my better inventions."  Joan frequently asks God, why, if he is all-powerful, God lets humans make mistakes or situations go badly.  When God needs Joan's help, God always requests things, or asks for her obedience, but God can't use a magic wand to force her hand.  This creates a good tension in the episodes—will Joan do what God asks?  In one episode, Joan is apprehensive about getting her driver's license because she fears having an accident like the one Kevin's.  God pushes her to take a drive in the country with Luke, and at first Joan seems too scared to do it.  What Joan doesn't know is, her father is being held hostage by a criminal, and only Joan's drive down a deserted road will help the rescue.

"Don't play the other person's game, play your own."  Joan is new in town and there is a strong temptation to conform to the "normal" high school ways.  But often God's requests require her to stand out in an unflattering way.  But as Joan learns in an episode where she tries out for the cheerleading squad, hanging out with "cool" kids put her in a situation where she alienated people who really cared for her in exchange for empty approval from the popular girls.  Slowly, Joan is learning that being an outsider is sometimes preferable to compromising her integrity.

"Help kind of moves around, like light.  Even a little bit is good."  Joan, like most teens is self-centered and bases her decisions primarily on how they'll affect her.  But God is teaching Joan in each episode to look outside her own needs and wishes and think of others first.  In one episode God asked Joan to befriend the school bully.  At first she was afraid of the boy and also worried about how spending time with him would affect her friendships.  But Joan obeyed and came to some understanding of the boy's serious problems.  Joan couldn't save the boy from getting into trouble, so she felt she had messed up God's instructions.  But God surprised Joan by listing the names of 12 people at the school that would have died in a school shooting by the bully if Joan hadn't been a force for good in his life.

"That's what I'm all about, your next chance to do the right thing."  Joan is human and her contact with God doesn't make her immune to mistakes.  In one episode, God wanted Joan to keep her friend Adam out of an art show.  Joan didn't have faith that God knew best, so Joan didn't listen.  As a result, Adam sold a sculpture, which made him want to drop out of school to pursue a career as an artist.  In a moment of desperation, Joan tried to remove the possibility of Adam dropping out by wrecking his sculpture so he couldn't sell it.  This action ended with Joan suspended from school and a rift in her favorite friendship.  Joan was heart-broken at the mess she made and felt like a failure.  But God didn't give up on Joan and or let her give up on herself.  Her maturing process is bittersweet, but her underlying faith and character leaves viewers believing she'll succeed eventually.

The Parents Television Council encourages networks to produce more high quality, family friendly series, making the argument that millions of viewers crave clean, compelling family shows.  Proving that clean doesn't have to be uncool or boring, Joan is not only a ratings hit-the series is critically acclaimed as well, already winning a nomination for an American Film Institute Award in December.

 It is important that PTC members watch programs like Joan of Arcadia and encourage others to do so as well.  Shows that stay on television and spawn similarly formatted programming are ones with high numbers of viewers. By watching, PTC members can  know they are contributing to a new trend in quality TV.  Hopefully, the great success of Joan of Arcadia will inspire more quality productions in the future.

Joan of Arcadia Family Guide Page