JoA Recaps for Season 1

domesticelefant · 27 Oct 06 :: 17:12

shrams wrote:

I just scanned the last scene (4 pages) from Recreation, in PDF.

Cool! I wanna read it, I wanna read it! The end of Recreation is my alltime favorite scene!

TeeJay · 27 Oct 06 :: 17:55

Shrams, I just sent you an e-mail. Yeah, I will get those scenes posted here, no biggie. Just e-mail them to me: teejay@chris-marquette.com

Thanks!! We'll be eternally grateful!!!! (Is there a boot-licking smiley anywhere?)

-TeeJay

shrams · 27 Oct 06 :: 18:09

Deb, I've never used a fax on these all-in-one machines, and I don't have a separate line for it, so I'm not sure how it will work. I love technology when it's user-friendly and works exactly as it's supposed to. Otherwise, I hate it. So I'll wait to see if TeeJay has any suggestions.

TeeJay · 27 Oct 06 :: 18:23

Check your e-mail, shrams. I just sent you something.

-TeeJay

shrams · 27 Oct 06 :: 19:00

Thanks! You guys are too quick for me! The posts above my last response came in while I was writing it, so I didn't see them. Duh!

I sent what I've got, and hopefully it will work. I need to get dressed & ready for work, but I'll check back when I get home and see if it worked.

TeeJay · 27 Oct 06 :: 19:18

Here we go (thank you so much, Shrams!). The scene is beautiful, but it's almost the exact same on screen as it is on the page. But I just love that there's so little scripted about the non-dialogue and how Chris and Amber put those few lines of description into motion so wonderfully. Chris, my admiration goes out to you once more. Great work!

Hope it's not too small to read. Notice how they picked a different song than they later used in the ep?

-TeeJay

domesticelefant · 27 Oct 06 :: 19:34

Aaaawwww, THANKS, shrams and TeeJay! My alltime favorite scene!!! :):)
Yeah, I noticed the different song, but you know I love the song they picked very much.

TheCentralScrutinizer · 27 Oct 06 :: 20:37

Thanks for posting that! It'd be cool if you could adjust it to the left a tiny bit so that the words aren't cut off.

Not much of what Chris and Amber actually did with that scene is on the page. It's just a sketch. Most of what we love about the scene came out of them. Maybe the director had a little to do with it too.

Deb

TeeJay · 27 Oct 06 :: 20:41

Sisterdebmac wrote:

Thanks for posting that! It'd be cool if you could adjust it to the left a tiny bit so that the words aren't cut off.

Huh? There's nothing cut off. Must be your huge screen resolution. Don't you have a horizontal scroll bar? Or save the images to your computer and open them in another program. All the text is there. Try it again at home.

-TeeJay

TheCentralScrutinizer · 27 Oct 06 :: 20:45

No horizontal scroll bar, nope. I wouldn't have said anything if there was. If it's OK for everyone else, never mind.

Deb

TeeJay · 27 Oct 06 :: 20:47

Try this Deb:

http://www.chris-marquette.com/graphics … pt_p52.jpg

http://www.chris-marquette.com/graphics … pt_p53.jpg

http://www.chris-marquette.com/graphics … pt_p54.jpg

http://www.chris-marquette.com/graphics … pt_p55.jpg

-TeeJay

TheCentralScrutinizer · 27 Oct 06 :: 20:51

OK, got 'em. Thanks!

Deb

TeeJay · 27 Oct 06 :: 22:25

Here's my recap for episode 1x17 No Bad Guy:

1x17 No Bad Guy
by TeeJay

Cute. In the girls' locker room, after PE, Joan's wearing a dark pink pair of panties and a kinda old-fashioned looking undershirt. When she gets in a verbal battle with a couple of snooty girls, one of them snaps a cell phone picture of her in her undies. Uh oh! Of course the next day it's all over school. Major embarrassing moment.

In the school hallway, Grace quips, "Can I just say, I sort of pictured you the matching bra-and-panties type." (Uhm, Grace, what are you doing picturing Joan in her underwear?) Can I just say, I hate how they have Adam walking through the shot with his arm slung around Baby-Voice's shoulders? Of course Adam got the panty shot by e-mail too, just like every other student at Arcadia High. "I deleted it, like, immediately," he assures Joan. Yep, this is a nightmare, all right.

Baby-Voice dares open her mouth and utter words in this scene. Everyone except maybe Adam wishes she didn't. Or maybe even Adam. We'll get to know why in the very last scene of this episode. What's interesting is Adam's take on Ghandi: "He went around naked, and he's, like, an icon." Uhmm....?? Oh kay.

What I forgot to mention... the pic they snapped of Joan happened when she was trying to defend a Quaker girl and her hat. And Joan meets Quaker girl again when God tells her to join the school orchestra. Joan at percussion? Uhm... that's a no-go.

Ah, okay, this is the episode where Helen exhibits some of her paintings. It looks like a fairly popular opening, and Helen's a little tipsy. Apparently, she drinks when she's nervous. Some of the Arcadia High students are also milling about, including the Girardi kids and Adam and Iris. There's one funny moment here that I love. Joan is looking a kind of twisted, abstract picture that reminds me of a mixture between Picasso's Guernica and Magritte's Les Jours gigantesques. And she goes to Luke, "Do you think that's me?" Luke tells her, "Hey, guess what? Copernicus called, said the world doesn't revolve around you." Sarcastically, Joan answers, "Oh! What a coincidence, because the dork police called, and they said they want their leader back." Kevin, who joined them a second ago, touches Joan's back and goes, "It's official, I don't miss high school anymore."

Next morning, Helen has to read in the paper that some the pompous jerk style editor, Andy Reese, from Kevin's paper trashed her exhibition to bits in his review. And Helen is devastated. The family tries to reassure her, but they're not having much success.

AP Chemistry. I can see—oh, let me look—at least ten glass flasks with liquid chemicals in them. They're all red, blue, green or yellow. Aaaaaank!! Do your research, people. I mentioned this before, but I just can't help the nitpick here. Liquid chemicals are rarely colored. Okay, sorry, back to the story.

In the hallway, Adam, Grace and Joan are discussing ways of getting back at the two chicks who took the Joan-in-her-undies pic viral. Adam has a really cool idea. "I could whip up a cartoon. Kind of be like a social satire." Joan asks, "You'd do that for me?" Adam looks at her, serious now. "I'd even sign it." Aw, that's sweet. They decide to meet that night to concoct something humiliating in return for the photo girls.

Back at the house, Joan finally does as God suggests and goes home to help out. And, oh, here we go! If I had to name one really really really stupid thing, like the stupidest thing that Joan ever did, it would have to be this one. Because you just don't stick your foot in the washing machine. Ever. No big surprise that she ends up with a sprained ankle when the machine starts up with her foot still in it. There's only so much empathy Joan gets from me on this one.

Fifth period art, Helen has to face the crowd, meaning her class. And she's terrified because of that critic's article. However, she's in for a big surprise because all her students tell her that the critic "is a wipe, yo", as Adam puts it. He tells her the guy's a total poser and that Helen shouldn't listen to anything he says because he knows nothing about art. Helen is flattered and tells everyone that you need to press on, even if other people say what you're doing is crap. Yeah, that's life for you sometimes. Can't always please everyone... Haven't we all learned that lesson at one time or another?

During a break, the subdefectives (plus now omnipresent Baby-Voice) meet on the stairs. Joan is having the hardest time using her crutches and almost pokes Adam's eye out with one as she's trying to sit down. They're still working on coming up with a scheme to get back at the photo girls. And it's cute how Joan puts her injured ankle on Adam's drawn up knee, and he doesn't tell her not to, or to remove it, or anything. Just sits there with her foot on his leg like it's the most normal thing in the world. I love that.

When they talk about retribution, Iris tells Joan, "The beauty is that your friends do it for you." Joan looks at her. "I'm your friend?" That's news to her. "You're A's friend. I'm about A." Joan thinks out loud, meaning Baby-Voice, of course, "Do you have to talk? Is there, like, an off-switch?" Both Iris and Adam stare at her. Not a nice thing to say. Adam tries to salvage the situation. To Iris he says, "She's joking." Iris gets that she's not. "Yeah. Ring-ring. That's my life calling." She leaves. Adam's gaze on Joan is not a happy one. "It's just... her voice," Joan tries to defend herself. She removes her ankle from Adam's knee. He gets up and goes after Iris. Adam, you may not have a great taste in women (at least this one in particular), but at least you're loyal.

Next day in school, Adam chases Joan down, tells her the "good news". Friedman apparently hacked into Angela's diary (one of the photo girls). And apparently, Friedman did the same thing they did, he e-mailed it around the school. Of course Angela is furious. Well, missy, an eye for an eye. The subdefectives look on in glee as Angela and Friedman get in a mini-row in the cafeteria about what Friedman did.

And the humiliation doesn't end there. Iris gets up and starts to read out loud to everyone around from Angela's diary. It ends in disaster because Angela happened to share her innermost fears about her mother suffering from breast cancer. And no one realizes just how personal these thoughts are until they're read out loud for everyone to hear. Angela leaves in tears. Everyone else is just shocked. They didn't mean for this to happen.

What follows now is one of the most tender and beautiful Adam/Joan moments of season one. It's definitely up there along with scenes from Jump and the dance scene from Recreation. It's evening and Joan, in her cute pink checkered flannel pajamas, is making herself a huge sandwich in the kitchen. There's a knock at the door and she tries to hobble over on her crutches. She gives up halfway, drops them and just hops to the door on her good leg. Standing there, in the rain, is Adam. "Adam? It's late." Adam doesn't seem to own a watch, or have any sense of time, because he asks, "It is?"

He follows her into the kitchen where Joan plops in one of the chairs, putting her injured leg up onto the kitchen table. Adam wants to talk. But first and foremost, he's worried about Joan, because he asks her if her ankle hurts. She tells him that it's not so bad anymore, that you get used to it. Yeah, I can confirm that from experience, although I only ever had a really bad sprained ankle once. Knock on wood.

They talk about Angela and her mother. Neither of them knew about it, and Adam feels bad and guilty. Joan tries to deflect the guilt and blames it on Friedman, saying he was behind the whole thing. But Adam sets her straight. "Jane, we were." Joan says they'll apologize, that should be enough. Adam's not sure.

He wanders around the kitchen and sees Joan's humongous sandwich. He points at it. "Wow, this is the most awesome sandwich I've ever seen." Joan tells him to have it. "Bored with it already. It's too much chewing." He sits down at the table across from Joan with the sandwich, not touching it. With the cutest apologetic smile, he says, "I'm not hungry."

They both chuckle, there's an awkward, silent moment before Joan asks him why he's here. He just shrugs, breathing out a long breath. "Iris is a good person," he finally volunteers. Joan tells him she knows that. "It's just that her voice... It drives me crazy." Adam says it's her real voice, but then admits with a small laugh, "It drives me crazy too."

They both smile at each other, somehow at ease but at the same time a little uneasy. Adam—gently, carefully—lifts the slipper off of Joan's bandaged foot and starts fumbling with her bandage. It's such an incredibly intimate gesture that says more than words. Joan watches him wordlessly for a moment before she asks, "But you love her?"

He looks her straight in the eyes for a few seconds, then frowns in confusion, never stopping with the fumbling. Does he? "I like her a lot," he admits. "And you want me to like her too?" Joan asks him. She searches out his eyes, afraid he's gonna say yes. But he doesn't. "No," his voice is just above a whisper, almost shaky, "But I want you to like me." They both look like they might be about to cry. Joan recovers and swallows. "Adam, I don't just like you." He, too, swallows the huge lump in his throat and they both end up smiling at each other. In a gentle voice, he says, "Yeah. Yeah, me too."

Lovingly, he puts the slipper back over Joan foot. They said everything they needed to say. He leaves with the sweetest, "Goodnight, Jane." Joan watches him go, a tear rolling down her cheek when he's gone. Adam walks out into the rain. What a beautiful, magical way to end this episode. This is one of those times where I'm reminded why I love this show so much.

Trivia (by TeeJay):
There's something memorable that I remember from a PopGurls interview that Chris gave in 2004 that was about exactly that last scene of the episode. Here's what Chris had to say about it:

PopGurls:
People gushed over the final scene between Joan and Adam in "No Bad Guy." What did you think of the scene?

Chris:
I thought it came off extremely well. Jim Hayman directed that episode and he did such a great job at taking the necessary beats in that scene and holding them - there's a lot of silence between the lines that played a really strong subtext to everything Adam and Joan were feeling, and I feel like that's what really pulled on everybody's heart strings. Adam and Joan looking at each other - seeing it in their eyes even though they're not saying it all completely.

It was a really emotional scene, and out of all the ones that we filmed, it's probably the most emotional because it carries the weight that will end up affecting these two characters for as long as the show goes.

Deb, thanks for the edit!

-TeeJay

domesticelefant · 27 Oct 06 :: 22:49

Lots of translation work. I love that.

TheCentralScrutinizer · 28 Oct 06 :: 01:42

It's a really good one.

Deb

shrams · 28 Oct 06 :: 05:34

Great job, TeeJay! I loved that last scene as well. It was so beautifully shot, and acted. It was one of the few times I really liked Joan. It seems that this is yet another example of Adam being a bit more mature, more aware of other people and their feelings, than Joan is. In a way it's surprising, because Adam spent a few years really cut off from other people, focusing on his own pain, but now he's able to look at other people and pick up on what's going on.

I also really liked the "Joan rests her foot on Adam's knee" scene. So very comfortable and casual; of course she's going to use him as a footrest, and of course he's going to allow it.

I was bothered by the whole "we have to get back at them" concept. It seems like an automatic response, but really, it just puts Joan and her friends on the same level. They didn't start it, they didn't choose someone to make fun of, but there should have been another way to let Angela know what she did was more hurtful than she realized. And even Friedman should have realized that part of Angela's diary would be sensitive, and not at all the type of thing they're looking for.

Joan + washing machine = disaster? Yeahhhhh. Like I've said before, I have little sympathy for people who do stupid things and then are surprised when they get hurt. Good episode. For the record, add me to the billions who hated Iris. I honestly wanted to like her, when I first read the sides when she was introduced. I was hoping I could like her. I'm not sure if it was the actress, though the voice definitely didn't help, but she just didn't turn out to be the person she had the potential to be. If that makes sense to anybody else. On the page, Iris seemed like she might be pretty cool, possibly even good for Adam, in the short term. On screen...it just didn't translate well.

TheCentralScrutinizer · 28 Oct 06 :: 06:08

You have this script, right, Shrams?

I also really liked the "Joan rests her foot on Adam's knee" scene. So very comfortable and casual; of course she's going to use him as a footrest, and of course he's going to allow it.

Is that scripted? I just love little moments like that. And I always wonder how much of it was on the page. Can we get the important Adam scenes from this one scanned and posted next?

Can I just say thank you for all you are adding to these boards right now? You write beautifully, I really enjoy reading your insights.

Deb

shrams · 28 Oct 06 :: 06:26

It looks like I have the first draft of the script, Deb. In this version, they're not even on the stairs. They're in the cafeteria. So there's no foot-resting. However, there's this:

Joan, on crutches, sports a baseball cap. Adam carries her tray to a table where Grace is eating. Iris is with him.
Grace: Are you incognito?
Joan: No, I'm in pain.
Adam sets her tray down on the table.
Adam: How'd you do that?
Joan: It was a laundry injury.

There's almost no direction in this scene, but it's the same dialogue they had on the stairs, including Joan insulting Iris.

About the scripts: I'll be able to send them to TeeJay in PDF format, then she can post them here. Thing is, I'm having a lot of pain in my arm right now, from an old injury. I really shouldn't be on the computer as much as I am, so I'm gonna try to cut back. I'll still post some things, but it may take a while before I can scan a script, since I have to do it a page at a time. So please be patient, but I will try to get them posted eventually.

Thanks for the compliment, Deb! It's nice to be able to discuss them with people who care.

TheCentralScrutinizer · 28 Oct 06 :: 07:00

Hey, no hurry on the scripts. Just got excited there for a bit. Heehee. Know what you man about pain. My back often acts up when I'm on the computer too long.

Deb

domesticelefant · 28 Oct 06 :: 12:55

I should watch this episode soon again.

shrams · 29 Oct 06 :: 07:21

I finally figured out the mystery of Script City's JoA scripts. If you just go to the TV Scripts - J category and look up the show alphabetically, it only shows nine or so episodes. If you type "Joan of Arcadia" into the search area, then you get several more. They also have "State of Grace" and "The Uncertainty Principle." I don't know why there aren't any Season 2 scripts, but one of these days I'll try to get the other two scripts. They have scripts from other shows I want, too, but I'll have to wait a while for those. At least till I've paid off my computer!

I won't be posting much for a while. Not only are my arms hurting, but when I woke up my neck was killing me. It's been hurting all day. Not sure what I did to it, but I'm mainly going to watch TV and read this weekend; I think it will be easier than sitting at the computer.

Last edited by shrams (29 Oct 06 :: 07:23)

TheCentralScrutinizer · 29 Oct 06 :: 20:38

Good to know. That gives me a lot to look forward to for the day when I have some money. You know when hell freezes over and pigs fly.

Deb

shrams · 29 Oct 06 :: 23:53

Yeah, they have all the Shadow Chasers scripts, including the four eps that weren't aired in the U.S. I've seen all the episodes, but I just really have this thing for scripts. Like the rest of you, I want to figure out the difference between what's on the page, what's left out, and what the actors actually bring to the scene that isn't spelled out. I think there were approximately 12 of us who were really fans of Shadow Chasers; in its 10 weeks on the air it managed to rank 75th that year, in a season of 75 shows. But it was one of my favorite shows of all time!

TheCentralScrutinizer · 30 Oct 06 :: 01:40

I looked Shadow Chasers up on IMDb and I don't remember that show at all. Seems like something I would've liked too. Weird.

Deb

shrams · 30 Oct 06 :: 03:43

Shadow Chasers was on very briefly in 1985, I believe, from Fall to Winter. It was a very quirky drama/comedy with paranormal elements, and aired on Thursday nights, opposite The Cosby Show and Family Ties. Hence its dismal ratings and quick demise. That's the other way to guarantee a show will tank, set it opposite the highest-rated shows of the season. Idiots. It was a bit like the X-Files, but well ahead of XF.

Last edited by shrams (30 Oct 06 :: 03:44)

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Re: JoA Recaps for Season 1

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