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Good things sometimes come in pairs. In the couple of years following 9/11, not one but two television shows appeared based loosely on the idea of a modern day "Joan of Arc". Most of the posts talking about these two shows on the net are about which show was better, which is fairly useless as both were quite good.
Wonderfalls was actually supposed to debut the same fall (2003) as Joan of Arcadia, but was postponed for a year.
Joan is spoken to by God appearing as regular people. Jaye on Wonderfalls is spoken to by inanimate objects in the form of animals.
Joan is in high school, Jaye graduated recently from college. Both Joan's and Jaye's families are involved in the series and both women become romantically involved (with Adam and Eric, respectively).
Both Joan and Jaye think they are going crazy at the beginning and each end up seeing therapists. Wonderfalls was canceled part way through its first season (4 episodes aired, another 9 are on dvd), though future plans were to have Jaye institutionalized -- which is reminiscent of Joan's Crazy Camp (which unfortunately, we never were shown).
Both Joan and Jaye are given suggestions of things to do, which are open to interpretation. When followed, these suggestions usually end up helping people in some way.
Although Wonderfalls only had 13 episodes, it finished its story arc (at least for that season). Joan of Arcadia ended both seasons 1 & 2 on a cliffhanger note.
Steve
Well, I had to send CBS-Paramount a list of the specific episodes and I sent:
Pilot
Death Be Not Whatever
Jump
The Book of Questions
Pick one and start discussing!
I don't feel anyone who has spoken here is berating Joan for not having sex. I can't say we were certain her character was consciously choosing chastity. Like most of us at that age, there is confusion about what to do and when.
There were multiple betrayals that were out of character, all of which ultimately originate with the writers/producers. Neither of the two writers had ever written for this (or any other) series before -- a strange choice for such a pivotal episode. There is an echo in the character of Adam (in Trial and Error) and Kevin (in Double Dutch). They both sleep with someone, which then ends a relationship, and both justify it by saying "It didn't mean anything".
Adam betrayed his own self, his own true nature -- to use an expression frequently heard in the show. In betraying himself, he betrayed Joan and he betrayed Bonnie, whom first he befriended, helped get into Helen's art class and then treated like an object. In the story they chalked it up to hormones, which we've all experienced, but this was more like demonic possession. And by the next episode he was already kind of exorcised, except for his choice of new friends...
No, we can't know what Barabara Hall had in mind. But if I have to choose someplace the series would have headed, I would further Deb's vision. That Adam would come into the gravitational pull of Ryan Hunter, which we already see happening by the end of Season Two. While Will's battle against Ryan involves Arcadia's houses of worship going to hell, Joan's battle against Ryan, at its core, is for Adam's true nature. She is fighting for his heart.
They've granted permission before, as long as there is no admission charge, for a one-evening Twilight Zone screening and another time for a five-evening Star Trek series. Got lucky and at one screening I was able to do a live-before-the=audience interview with ST actor and producer Jonathan Frakes (Will Riker in Star Trek: The Next Generation), who has a house near here.
North and about as east as you can get -- midcoast Maine, near Camden, half-way between Portland and Bar Harbor.
Assuming CBS-Paramount sends me one of their legal contracts giving permission, the series will take place over four Thursday eves in June, beginning June 9. Each episode will have its own evening and its own discussion. This may seem like a ways off, but it isn't really. CBS-Paramount can easily take 4-5 weeks to give me a decision. By mid-May I need to have press releases with photos sent to a dozen media outlets and newspapers. I never know if we will get 10 or 50 people showing up on any given evening. I just put out the information to as many people/places as possible and then let the universe do what it does.
I just emailed TeeJay, while she is sleeping, the images I got off the site.
Don't know if I can audio-record it. Need to see if I can find someone local with a recorder I can use -- I'll let you know. I wouldn't try to video it myself, cause it would keep me from participating fully. I initiate/coordinate the series, though I have a couple lead the discussions. They've literally lead over a thousand discussions, plus they loved the series. I introduce the evenings and participate in the discussions.
Steve
Hey Deb, you must have been tuning into my thoughts!
I literally just finished watching all of The Cat, parts of POV, and all of No Future and Book of Questions. The Cat and No Future were my second choices, yet Book of Questions got first place. The Bat Mitzvah is touching, funny and beautiful...and the episode has the most Grace, using both meanings of the term, in all of Season Two.
So the four episodes to be screened and discussed are:
Pilot
Death Be Not Whatever
Jump
The Book of Questions
Now I can send the list off to CBS-Paramount's legal department, who want very specific information before they will consider granting rights for the screenings. Thanks to all for your thoughts and input. Now all I need is some high-resolution images from the series...
Steve
Thanks! At this point I'm going with:
Pilot
Death Be Not Whatever
Jump
and an episode from the second season, which -- God knows -- is getting more difficult to choose as I review plot summaries. Right now I'm looking at either:
The Cat
POV
No Future
The Book of Questions
The Rise and Fall of Joan Giardi
There are issues to discuss in any episode, for example:
The Rise and Fall of Joan Giardi -- What does it mean to be worshiped as a hero or despised as a villain?
Romancing the Joan - What is the nature of love?
Figuring that some of the people haven't seen the series, I am not including episodes like Friday Night or Trial and Error, as well as some others - in order not to give away huge pieces of the plot.
Oops, your right. I called Julie on Friday Night Lights "Amy" cause she's played by Aimee Teegarden. And Julie and Matt do remind me of Joan and Adam. I like your vision of Joan and Adam in season three -- definitely a season I would want to watch. I realized a few minutes after I posted this topic that teen sex did appear in the series -- particularly in Trial and Error, but in the worst possible light (or did I mean to say dark?).
What do you feel was going on with the series that Adam and Joan couldn't go to bed at some point? Teen sex has been handled respectfully and skillfully in other series. One example is Friday Night Lights, with the characters of Matt and Amy. What made it a no-no in Joan of Arcadia?
Was it the writers or producers being afraid of backlash by viewers? Series creator Barabara Hall didn't seem to be afraid to take heat from viewers, she talks about getting hate mail for having God appear as a gay guy. Were they afraid that after going to bed, they would never be able to break up Adam and Joan? Was it a moral, Catholic issue? If that's the case, how come it didn't also apply to Adam in Trial and Error? Why was it ok to depict Adam's character as someone who just used Bonnie for sex, when everything else we've been shown about Adam said just the opposite? What happened to what we saw between Adam and Joan in The Gift? Did God not want Joan and Adam to have sex because Joan needed to be a virgin, more like Saint Joan, for her upcoming battle with Ryan Hunter? Did the writers or producers feel it was ok to have God appear in the series, but not teen sex?
Actually, I'm surprised how much the writers of Something Wicked This Way Comes copied elements of the Ray Bradbury book and movie:
First, the title. Then Ryan Hunter (Mister Dark), the battle over Adam's (Jim Nightshade"s) soul, even the wind that accompanies Ryan Hunter (when Mister Dark first appears in the movie version of SWTWC). Then to copy differently, they borrowed from Smallville/Lois % Clark and threw in a bit of Lex Luthor by making Ryan Hunter independently wealthy and owning the newspaper that Adam will intern at.
Now that I hear you say that Deb, you're right about the battle for Adam's soul, his relationship with Joan, his art, his relationship with Helen, with Grace -- all of those things could have come into play. My disappointment in this good vs. evil plot is simply that it has been done before, in Buffy, Harry Potter and a host of other stories. In that sense, it takes away some of what was different about the show for me. Before that good vs. evil plot, there wasn't a show like Joan of Arcadia. Being inspired by Joan of Arc had so many more possibilities than making it so literal. For me it then would explore issues mostly in black & white. I loved it when it included all the shades of gray.
Yes, I just recently found Barbara Hall's talk and listened to all seven parts. You should interview her at some point! I know she has a blog.
Thanks TeeJay & Deb! There's still time for others to chime in on this, as I have a bunch of re-watching to do!
Steve
"If only it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?" - Alexander Solzhenitsyn
I've been mulling over Joan of Arcadia since I finished watching it this past weekend. Here are my musings about the show's beginnings, where it began to take a turn, and where it looked like it was heading when it ended.
Joan of Arcadia always had elements of light and darkness. Will's police work was mostly where the darkness would be. Joan's work was in the light. Joan's "assignments" and Will's police work would rarely intersect, mostly in the pilot and around Judith's death, though there would often be parallel themes or resonances in Will's cases and and Joan's assignments. This gave the series a vibrant balance. And I liked that I didn't always know what effect Joan's work was going to have -- both out in the world and inside of her.
For me a shift began strongly in episode 19 of season two - Trial and Error - with Adam's uncharacteristic betrayal of himself. The writers had him cheat on Joan and treat Bonnie like garbage. Then at the end of episode 21, Common Thread, we glimpse Ryan Hunter and then get much more of a feel for him in the 22nd and final episode, Something Wicked This Way Comes (SWTWC). Hunter has an evil energy, one that has only been hinted at before -- primarily through the character of Lucy Preston. No, Preston didn't trash churches and burn down synagogues, but her energy was similar. She did have Judith's killer murdered, while trying to put personal moves on Will. There was even a scene in SWTWC where Ryan is talking to Helen in the high school and he touches her a couple of times, which echoed how Lucy Preston would touch Will sometimes while talking with him.
By the middle of SWTWC, its clear that Joan's work and Will's work are now converging -- they will both fight darkness. We are told that this is what Joan has been training for all along. At this point the show is transforming much more into a battle between a group of teens, led by Joan, and an evil being - a Voldemort or a Mister Dark (referring to the Ray Bradbury novel that the last episode is named after). Joan Giardi is truly becoming Joan of Arc. Whether this was because the writers/producers thought that this Harry Potter-esque plot might attract a younger audience or because this is where it was heading all along, we don't know (don't get me wrong, I like Harry Potter -- but the battle in the Harry Potter story was present from the beginning). Joan of Arcadia has now shifted focus from from spiritual life lessons to a war between good and evil -- and, in my opinion, has added more drama while losing some of its depth in doing so. Would I have continued watching if season three had gone ahead -- yes, though I more appreciate the flavor and light-dark balance of the first season and much of the second.
Steve
Thanks Deb & Samsy,
I just finished watching the series today. The episodes I've initially marked to watch again for possible inclusion -- and I'm open to other suggestions -- are:
SEASON ONE
Pilot
Just Say No
Death Be Not Whatever
St. Joan
Jump
Double Dutch
SEASON TWO
Back to the Garden
The Cat
POV
No Future
Book of Questions
Dive
Romancing the Joan
Secret Service
Trying to stay away from shows that would spoil much of the series for people, though that's difficult given the connecting plots.
Thanks for any thoughts or suggestions!
Steve
Every now and then I present a film and discussion program in the town where I live in Maine and the next one I'm planning is a Joan of Arcadia series. Assuming I get permission from CBS-Paramount (I've had luck with them previously), I will show four episodes (the pilot + 3) over four weeks, with a discussion after each one. I kind of have to assume that some people attending are unfamiliar with the series.
I'd love to hear suggestions of what episodes would you show and why?
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