My dad is in town, and we may not get a chance to watch Joan of Arcadia tonight.
TWoP will give me my recap in case I miss it, but I wanted to send up a flare, that this will be the rallying point around 9pm EST tonight.
I may be here, I may not. But at least the thread is started!
(It looks like a good one, in that God asks Joan to destroy something…hmmm…)
You can bet I’ll watch it, and if I’m not too busy I’ll see if I can bust it down for you, but I’m certain someone will beat me to it.
Well, it turns out I’m the someone.
I’m somewhat at sea on this episode. It seemed very ambiguous, and I thought the police subplot was weak. It was a clear case of self-defense, and I didn’t see any firm evidence that would lead the police to question the man’s story.
Joan destroying Adam’s statue to keep him in school…I can kind of see, as a 16-year-old, that she may have had no other option, but I can’t see God asking Joan to betray her friend in such an overt manner. Although, maybe he was teaching her a lesson in how to explore all options, not just the obvious ones.
But still, Adam is very hurt, and I can understand if he never forgives her.
And how cute that Grace’s father is a rabbi!!
HARUMPH!
Figures.
Anyway, cop-story aside (which it pretty much always is) I thought it was damn good. It was the most emotion we’ve actually seen out of Joan as a consequence of her actions, and that I found touching.
I liked this episode.
The A plot was pretty interesting. I liked that Joan was conflicted about what God was telling her to do and I liked that she got counseling from a Rabbi. I didn’t care much for the whole “God might be Satan” thing though. It just turned me off… especially the really weird and out there explanation that he gave for not being Lucifer. It made no sense.
I was sad when Joan started crying in the hallway. 
The B plot was okay and I would have liked it better if there had been some sort of resolution to it. Either by having the guy convicted as a murderer or getting off, either one. Don’t just leave the thread dangling like that. It’s annoying.
The C plot about Kevin using his handicap as an excuse to get away with shoplifting was better than the Cop plot but not as engaging as the Adam storyline. I think it would have been better if instead of saying it’ll never happen again at the end of the episode, he should have been unapologetic.
All in all, I give the entire episode a B-. Not as good as some of the episodes but nothing bad either. Slightly above average.
Sorry, Gordon, but I wasn’t sure how long my father would be visiting. He’s not a big TV watcher, and I didn’t want to be rude by flipping on CBS at 7:59pm.
But, as it turned out, he had two bowls of my Baked Potato Soup, we had a wonderful visit, and he left shortly after dinner.
I’m glad Kevin saw he was acting like an ass, but I can’t see store managers letting someone with a handicap get away with stealing. It’s demeaning and embarrassing.
It will be interesting to see if Joan and Adam make up…and I guess Chief has six months to solve a serial murder case or bust up a big cocaine ring and save his job.
Neither the music store employee nor the model shop’s clerk were said to be managers. Aslo, I used to work retail and for right or wrong, I didn’t get worked up over theft, even when I saw it happening - I could see that scenario playing out easily.
By the way, when I said that I wish Kevin had been unapologetic, I meant for the time being only. I would have preferred that to be a multiple episode subplot instead of something that was resolved, neat and tidy, in an hour’s time.
Good show; not as moving as last week, mind you, but I did have tears in my eyes. Joan is still learning the effects her actions have, sometimes they ripple outwards beyond what she might expect. Her Mom was right–there were other things she could have done to try to keep Adam from dropping out of school. Instead, she took the bull by the horns (or rather the chair by the seat!) and smashed his art work. It’s going to be a while, I think, before Adam can forgive her actions.
Grace Polonsky! Actually, Rabbi Polonsky seems like a really together guy and he even appears to understand his daughter, or at least more than she probably feels that he does. IMO, the Grace that we see in school is a complete & total ACT on Grace’s part. PKs can be quite wild, and I’m speaking from personal experience here. 
I’m going with an A- for this episode. 
The only part of the show I liked was Rabbi Polanski. The police subplot was laughably ridiculous to anyone familiar with the statutes in most places wrt self defense, and the art show main plot was just disturbing and left hanging…and, from the previews, won’t even be dealt with.
Gordon, eh?
C’mon, Ivy, I expect it from newbies, but you’ve been around for a while.
Rik, I agree about the art show plot, but in a way, that only makes it so much more like any other common HS experiance. You do some thing, maybe it was fun or not, and then you forget about it. That’s the way it goes, and though they may have not actially intended t that way in the show, it can easily be taken as such.
The saddest one yet. I hope Joan isn’t constantly going to be asked to do such awful things as a test of her faith or something.
Aes, do you want me to tape over this and MM since you saw it/them already?
I didn’t get to see MM. I got online right after Joan went off.
It’s up to you.
I watched JoA, it was an interesting episode. It was ok, but I’m more interested in next week’s episode where Joan learns about Joan D’Arc, is asked by God to ace a test, is accused of cheating, and takes on that massive, swollen unclean prick of a principle.
BTW, my favorite scene EVER of any episode I’ve seen so far is when God shows up as a substitute teacher in the hallway, that dickhead principle gets in her face, and God gives out a handful of wrath heavy whoopass, sending that pretty faces spincter gopher running away.
I am seriously wanting Joan to dish out to that butt knuckle a nice fat slice of crow.
As an aside, is anyone getting sick of the older brother’s whiney bitch “I’m stuck in a wheelchair so that justifies me being an asshole” attitude? Just goes to show the kid is a great actor, he’s a chip off the old Ritter block.
Next on Joan of Arcadia…
God: I want you to have my child.
Feeling strange,
Sanscour
**
[/QUOTE]
i]Originally posted by Sanscour *
**I watched JoA, it was an interesting episode. It was ok, but I’m more interested in next week’s episode where Joan … takes on that massive, swollen unclean prick of a principle.
**
[/QUOTE]
Did anyone else have to re-read that part? L
**
[/QUOTE]
**
Next on Joan of Arcadia…
God: I want you to have my child.
**
[/QUOTE]
“Jesus wants a Baby Sister.”
I thought the episode was leading to a “God doesn’t want blind, unquestioning obedience” lesson. I expected Joan to refuse to do what God asked, and for God to be okay with that, and to find another way to do his will. But evidently the God in this series does expect blind obedience, because he works in mysterious ways and always knows best.
I think the episode would have been more interesting (and led to a longer story arc) if Adam had dropped out of school at least temporarily, and had to deal with the consequences of that. Joan should also have more seriously considered the possibility that the entity she’s been conversing with is the Devil.
I liked the Rabbi - “I was enjoying my dessert” and “For future reference, questions of evil are long ones”. I wonder if the series will make anything out of the fact that Grace is Jewish, and that she therefore doesn’t believe in Jesus as the son of God.
:smack:
Crap. Sorry about that.
It’s nice to see Grace has a “normal” home life. I’m very interested to see why she is the way she is. From where comes all this anger, m’dear?
I know each show tends to be its own entitity, but I really think they need to wrap up Adam and Joan’s fight, one way or the other.
Now, I thought Arcadia was a small town, but then they showed a scene of downtown and it looked pretty big. Any guess on the population of Arcadia?
Only saw about the last half of the episode, but I personally really liked what I saw.
I think that the brother’s angst/bitterness/etc is justifiable. No personal experience with it, but I think an injury like that probably takes longer than a year (or however long they said it had been) to fully get over the anger, depression, etc.
Re: Grace’s anger. Doesn’t take an upset home life to make bitter, angry people. Plus, I’m guessing that something’s going to be explored in which Grace doesn’t consider herself Jewish, or at least isn’t actively religious, or something of that sort. Could very possibly lead to some of that anger. Grace is also my hero.
Aaaand…kudos to the actress (name escapes me) who plays Joan. That last scene on the coach was (in my 17-year-old opinion) very well-acted.
Amber Tamelyn (not sure of the spelling of the last name.) I also read on TWoP that she’s twenty.
I don’t know…while I liked this show, I was kind of upset that they never address the anger and sadness that she had towards God from last weeks episode. While I understand each week should be able to semi-stand alone, I still think they should have address that issue. I mean, she was all upset, and pretty ticked off with him last week about the little boy, and Adam’s mom, and then this week, God asks her to do something really traumatic. There’s no way I buy her doing that after the way she felt last week. I expected her to tell him to fuck off, or give her a good reason. Especially since she almost always finds out the reason anyway. A little explination would have been a good idea…I don’t mind the idea of a God that wants us to figure stuff out on our own, but a God that’s a prick just because doesn’t sit well with me…still like the show though.
I feel like people are missing the point. God didn’t ask Joan to destroy Adam’s sculpture, God asked Joan to keep it out of the art show. We don’t even know if keeping Adam in school was the point (maybe the old lady couldn’t afford the $500). Joan didn’t believe God, and then when she thought she knew the reason why, she was too worked up to think through all of the options. It was her decision to destroy the statue. When she was going through some of the options with a God avatar and mentioned smashing it, God said something about her failure of imagination.