Friday nights in Arcadia

I once went three years without a television. Not without digital, not without basic cable...without the actual idiot box. Didn't really miss it much, either. I listened to my hockey games on the radio and read a lot.
No television show has ever made a lasting impression on me. Comedies? Good for half an hour of escapism. Reality? Puh-leeze. Soaps? See under "reality".
But I keep trying. Every year, I scan the TV previews looking for a show to hitch my wagon to. And every year, they either pull my show off the air to spite me (Stark Raving Mad) or prod it into a screaming left turn into tedium after a few episodes (Boston Public).
My wagon soared into space with Enterprise. For a season, I felt this had the potential to dethrone The Next Generation as the best Star Trek serial yet. And then they decided to take a single story arc in season two and set their phasers on "boring".
Back to the drawing board.
Enter Joan of Arcadia.
For those of you who think you have better things to do on a Friday night, go ahead and do them. Just make sure before you go you set your VCR to tape CBS from 8-9 p.m. Eastern. Watch the show at your leisure on the weekend. I will bet you that when next Friday evening rolls around, you'll find yourself wondering what's happening with Joan. A few Fridays later, you'll be staying home to find out.
Joan is your average teenager, normal in pretty much every way except one: God talks to her. God might be anyone in any given episode: a hot guy at school, a kid on the playground, a garbageman...anyone or all of them. Every week, God asks Joan to do something, learn something, be somewhere...which sets a cause and effect chain into motion that can have astonishing results.
Ho-hum. Touched By An Angel meets Degrassi, right?
Not even close.
First of all, the show is not what you'd expect a 'religious' show to be. It doesn't preach. God isn't jammed down your throat. Although specific religions are occasionally mentioned, no one religion is ever held up as the only way, or even the best way, to God.
But the best thing about Joan of Arcadia is that it's not God of Arcadia. The series centers on Joan, her family and her friends. It may be the most realistic portrayal of family life ever put on screen. None of the characters are simple, and the situations they get themselves into mirror life in all its splendor and banality. The show is occasionally laugh-out-loud funny but it will make you cry almost every episode and you won't be conscious of being manipulated from one emotional state to the next.

This show is profoundly spiritual. And even the bit parts are extremely well acted.It was up for three Emmys, an extreme rarity in a first year series, and I fully believe it will capture its share of statues as it ages.

If I was still without a television, I would buy one to watch Joan of Arcadia. Check it out.