Joan of Arcadia at 20: Still Rapturous in its Teenage Machinations from God
Photo Courtesy of CBS
At the heart of the Great Cultural Debate of what constitutes quality programming (i.e. respectable; prestigious; meant to be thoroughly watched and analyzed) versus popcorn TV (frivolous; mainstream; meant to be watched ironically or with detachment) is where we stand on teen dramas—or, more specifically, whether there can be dramas about teens and dramas that happen to focus on teens, and whether they both can coexist as equals in popular culture.
A good litmus test may be how audiences received the CBS drama Joan of Arcadia, which starred Amber Tamblyn as a small-town teen who suddenly receives visits from God (or at least the Judeo-Christian take on the deity). Well, maybe not God in His/Her/Their true form. In this case, God would, without warning, take the form of a random human and send her on seemingly trivial missions that turn out to have greater purposes.
The series premiered in September 2003 during what was an unusually high peak for this very specific kind of trope (see also: 2004’s Wonderfalls, two versions of ABC’s Cupid—one in 1998 and one in 2009—2007’s Reaper, and 2008’s Eli Stone). But while those shows might have concentrated on actions that had life-changing results for strangers, Joan focused on everyday mundane changes in a place where every small thing already feels cataclysmic: high school.
Her tasks might seem mundane at first (why would God care so much if she took AP chemistry?) but would eventually show how important it is to leave your comfort zone. (Taking that class allowed her to re-examine other students she had misjudged and, again, because this is high school, romantic storylines ensue). God’s messages are always vague and open to interpretation, both a blessing and a curse for someone who is 16 and therefore predestined to question authority. She will go on to learn to dismiss preconceptions about cheerleaders and outsiders, and question God’s views (or what she thinks are God’s views) about premarital sex and organized religion. So, really, Joan goes through so many things teens go through irregardless of whether God sometimes appears to them in the form of a lunch lady or mime.
But God’s mysterious ways also affect Joan’s home life.
As the series starts, Tamblyn’s lead and her family have moved to a new town, as her dad Will (Joe Mantegna) becomes the chief of police and her older brother Kevin (Jason Ritter) slowly accepts life as a paraplegic after he was injured in his friend’s drunk driving accident. Joan’s mom Helen (Mary Steenburgen, who would go on to star as another mom of a young woman who hears things in NBC’s Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist) and brainiac younger brother Luke (Michael Welch) will also experience their own crises of faiths at some points during the course of the show.