Joan of Arcadia - Entering the Light, Joining the Dance

I had to think long and hard about what item would be up for my first review. Hey, the first page in a book, the pilot episode in a series, or the opening number is always special right? Well, I racked my brains hard. I knew I wanted something substantial and very meaningful so I knew it had to be.... (drumroll please!).... Joan of Arcadia!

The Short of It: It's an amazing series. Go out there now and GET IT!

The Long of It:

Joan of Arcadia came to me in a weird way. Impulse-buying in the dirty, mean streets of Quiapo where I get my bootleg dvd's. Normally, I would read all the reviews in the Net before I buy a box of anything that would mean me shelling out several hundreds. But. This green box with a picture of a girl looking out just called to me.

Joan of Arcadia is basically the story of an average girl who talks to God. Oh no! It's about saints! And religion! Well, that's what you might think but it's not. Everything is low-key and there's no preaching from a pedestal. There's just Joan muddling away in her everyday.

Joan's family

Hers is a normal family. Dad is the county's sherriff. Older brother is the once-hunk, now-cripple who's dishing out the angst. Mom comes across as some sort of worrywort. Younger brother is the neglected genius who's relatively quite sane. Sans the witty repartee. And Joan is just, well Joan. She's not a looker. She gets pink slips. And agonizes over what to wear for the first day of school just like you and me.

On this particular day, she gets on the bus. (Warning! Spoilers to follow! Read at your own risk!) There's been some hullaballoo but I'm not telling you what. Anyway, this Cute Guy with brown hair and a brown coat joins her in walking to school. There's a lot that goes on but in a nutshell, he tells her he's God. (Okay, should I start writing with a capital H now?)

Joan and Hunk God

Of course, Joan thinks the guy is cuckoo. I mean, wouldn't YOU? Maybe it's the latest pick up line. Joan whips out her dad the sheriff as threat material but then Cute Guy renders her speechless right there in the very middle of school with...

"I know who your father is, Joan. He's Will Girardi, born September 4, 1955, Chicago. His father was Gerald Girardi. His mother was Eleanor Monroe. He had an uneventful childhood, attended Mother Cabrini High School and Morton Junior College. After that he joined the police force in 1980. Then he met your mother, one Helen Brodie. She was an art school dropout. You're the middle child of three. About a year and half ago, your older brother Kevin was in a car accident. Fractured his back, left him a paraplegic. You have one other brother, Luke, who's fifteen. Your favourite colour's green. You love salt on cantaloupe. Jim Doss broke your heart in eighth grade. You're afraid of clowns."

Silence. Stretching interminable. But everything happens in a hearbeat.

I'm sure that in her head, Joan groped for a logical explanation. I mean, there's the Internet. And private investigators. Not to mention stalkers!

So Joan walks away from the Crazy Cute Guy but when she gets out from school, he's still right there. Exactly where she left him. She tells him to get lost but he doesn't. Instead, he calls out to her to remind her about a promise she didn't keep. And she turns back to him slowly and asks what it is. You get the feeling that Joan is afraid to hear it but hear it she must.

And Cute Guy says seriously with a whimsical smile on his face, "Let's see, that you'd study hard, stop talking back, clean your room and even go to church, if I recall, if I let your brother live." "Omniscience. Look it up."

Okay, a finger on the pause button here. How would YOU feel if a guy comes up to you, tells them they're God, and proceeds to tell you your most secret prayers which have NEVER EVER been uttered in the cruel light of day. Freaky.

And that's how it started. Later on in the show, it won't be just Cute Guy God visiting her. Like he says, he's not always in this form. Sometimes, he's Cafeteria Woman God, or Little Girl God.

Joan and Little Girl God

My personal favorite aside from Cute Guy God is Goth God. But whatever form He takes, God gives out some "suggestions" to Joan which pretty much turns her life upside down but always with suprising results.

So how did it keep me from work all week?

The production is great. Great actors and actresses, great chemistry, directing, cinematography, and most off all, AMAZING script. Sometimes, you've got a really intelligent script but it gets mangled in the hands of an incompetent director. Not so with this one. Everything just comes together to form one really excellent show.

The characterization is also excellent. Aside from her family, Joan has the rebellious Grace Polk and spaced-out Adam Rove. (Adam spent some time on my desktop for obvious reasons. ^^)

The Sub-Rejects

And there's all the nuggets of wisdom that you can pick up. It's said so casually but it is ever so meaningful. I've promised myself to watch this several times for all those other lines I missed. It's like that really great book you have that has layers. There's something new every time you go through it. It's the same with Joan of Arcadia. There's something for everyone. And we're not talking about things like hair styles or fashion.

One of the most unforgettable episodes for me is when Bob Marley God tells Joan to learn to skip rope. Why? I'd love to tell the story but there's already way too much spoilers here. Just wanna say that for this episode, what struck me was how we all touch each other's lives. Just one word or action is enough to change somebody's life. Drastically.

Here are some dialogues from Joan of Arcadia.

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Joan: So, my true nature is to be a catalyst? That is mad anti-climatic.
Electrician God: Anti climactic. Anti-climatic means you're against the weather.

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Pizza Delivery God: What, no tip? I got it here under thirty minutes.
Joan: Like that's hard for you.
[she closes the door on him]

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Joan: God smokes?
Liquor Store Clerk God: I don't inhale.

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Electrician God: Are you looking for me?
Joan: Um, I'm not sure.
God: Cause when you're alone, that hideous Titanic song makes you cry.
Joan: Why do you have to be so mean?
God: Why do you have to keep questioning me? Most people would be on their best behavior. Joan: Okay, look whatever. I was thinking about what you said when I asked you to cure Kevin. How it would show favoritism and that I'm an instrument of God. Then I realized, you want me to become a scientist, so I can discover a cure for Kevin.
God: Newsflash Joan, you don't need to let me in on your thinking process, I'm omniscient.

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[Joan is talking to God in the hallway of her school. God appears as an older woman selling cupcakes]
Joan: So what do you want me to fail at this time?
God: Now what makes you think you failed? You did exactly what I asked you to do - you observed.
Joan: Hmm! And what good did that do anybody? Ramsey's going to jail, Adam hates me even more...
God: Observation is a more powerful force than you could possibly reckon. The invisible, the overlooked, and the unobserved are the most in danger of reaching the end of the spectrum. They lose the last of their light. From there, anything can happen.
Joah: [sighs] Okay. Fine, I observe Ramsey, his life is still ruined.
God: His life wasn't the only one at stake.
Joan: What do you mean?
God: [Starts pointing out different students in the hallway] There's Laura Eason, ninth grader. She plays the flute. She would have been one of the first to go,
[gunshot sound]
God: coming out of Orchestra at the wrong time. And Andrew Bayer - he would have tried to save his friend Lawrence DiStasi and lost his life
[two gunshots]
God: . And Gavin Price
[gunshot]
God: , and three other students in the cafeteria. And Mr. Harvey. And Ms. Schmidt in the library. And finally, Steve Ramsey himself. And for each of these faces Joan, there are twelve more whose lives would have come to an end today - lives altered forever by you. By the simple effect of being present, by entering the light, by joining the dance.
[Joan wipes away a tear]

Oh and btw, anything with the Dalai Lama in its opening credits has to be good.