The Second Season

CBS's Joan of Arcadia is a television drama that aired from 2003 to 2005. The series was very popular in its first season, but lost significant points in ratings during its second season. In response, CBS cancelled the series. The series is about a girl named Joan who interacts with God in a variety of different forms. Joan is compelled by God's avatars to perform certain acts and accomplish this or that. Sometimes they are small and other times they are big. The series, while incorporating the concept of God, Christianity, and religion, is not a feel-good drama like CBS's holy drama Touched By An Angel. Instead, Joan of Arcadia is much more like a soapy drama that incorporates this special girl and everyone around her. For more information about the series, please refer to DVD Talk's review of season one.

Prior to this review, I had no experience watching the series. When I first started with season two, I was not quite sure what to expect. Based upon the show's description, I was expecting an over-the-top feel-good drama that resembled dramas like Touched By An Angel with a younger cast. I was greatly surprised to find Joan of Arcadia was much more. It turned out to be a very melodramatic show that felt more like a show about teenage angst than religion. Having both Joan speaking to God concept, along with the melodrama, left the show feeling very intelligent with rich dialogue and characters. In the end, I was happily surprised by the show and very sad to find out this is the final season.

The second season (from what I gather) begins where season one left off. Joan was previously sent to "crazy camp" where she learned to deal with her apparent craziness. Joan's claiming to regularly speak with God left everyone around her believing that she had a slight mental problem. Upon returning from summer camp, Joan learned how to deal with her misguided conversations, by ignoring it. But as Joan tries to return to a normal life, she quickly finds that God has more in store for her. Joan slowly begins to follow God's word again and begins to realize how important it is. The general tempo of the series returns with Joan doing one thing or another, sometimes to learn a lesson or to help her fellows.

While Joan was at camp, she met a new friend named Judith. Judith is a girl unlike Joan. She is wild and likes to live dangerously. She brings a lot of drama into Joan's life. The storyline involving the Joan-Judith relationship provides a very traumatic event for the entire cast to deal with. I thought this character had merit in some of the stories, but at the same time her role was bit over-the-top as the wild child. And when all of the melodrama came crashing down with her final storyline, it seemed like the writers were pushing it. But the fact of the matter is the aftermath did have some fairly strong, emotional developments for the main cast.

The Girardi family faces major drama dealing with Kevin's accident. While it has been several years since Kevin was paralyzed from the waist down, Kevin's former best friend Andy Baker (the drunk driver that crippled Kevin) comes back into his life. Andy's parents are claiming emotional damage and suing the Girardis. It is a big story throughout the season, something that brings back painful memories and puts the Girardi family in a horrible predicament. The emotional impact it had on the entire family made this a strong aspect of the season.

Another fun part of the show dealt with Will's work. I enjoyed this aspect of the show. Since I love crime dramas, having storylines that tied into Will's work at the police department was a nice addition. In this season, Will runs into a problem with dirty cops. The result is a new character, Lieutenant Lucy, taking over as Will's boss. Lucy provides a strong character with a good chemistry with Will.

Other major changes that occurred this season included Adam and Joan's relationship continuing to develop, Luke and Grace starting a relationship, Helen trying to get confirmed in the Catholic church, and a few others. In addition, there were plenty of episodic storylines with Joan learning the true value of money, friendship, hardship, and other such things.

Overall, what I liked best about this series was how entertaining the storylines were. The show's tone was very melodramatic with engaging and intelligent dialogue. The characters were generally strong (albeit a couple weak supporting roles) and supported the show's solid mood. In the end, I think Joan of Arcadia is a good production that was unduly cancelled. After seeing season two, I am sorry there is not more. Part of why the cancellation is so awful is that the show got really enticing with the season two finale. The notion of an opposing force to Joan's work was introduced. A similar concept to other holy-esque shows like The Ghost Whisperer, Touched By An Angel, and Quantum Leap, which works.

Episode Guide

1. Only Connect: As summer ends and school is about to begin, Joan tries to establish a "normal" life, going so far as to ignore God, who keeps popping up wherever she goes. Meanwhile, will is sued for emotional distress by the boy whose drunk-driving accident caused Kevin's paralysis.
2. Out Of Sight: Joan has a new classmate at Arcadia High: Judith, a wild girl she met at "camp crazy" during the summer. A drive-by shooting is investigated by Will, and Kevin faces-off with Andy about the lawsuit against his family.
3. Back To The Garden: Seeds of growth are planted when Joan is instructed by God to start a community garden. Will and Carlisle are assigned to find corrupt cops after a former police informant is killed.
4. The Cat: A wild cat finds a home with Joan after God tells her to adopt the feral feline. Helen's Aunt Olive has a stroke of bad luck, and Will continues investigating corrupt cops.
5. The Election: Joan plays politics when God tells her to support a candidate in a student council election that's gotten dirty. After one student protests a fellow student's art, Helen must get involved.
6. Wealth Of Nations: A clothing collection for the homeless gets an extra boost when God instructs Joan to help her mother in the effort. Not wanting to sit still, Kevin hopes to impress Beth when he tries his hand at stand-up comedy.
7. P.O.V.: As Joan struggles with the pressures of high school, God gives her a videography project to work on. A counter-lawsuit against Andy is debated by Will, Helen, Kevin and their lawyer.
8. Friday Night: Adam and Joan are all nerves as they get ready for a rare romantic evening out. Unbeknownst to them, Judith has made some plans of her owns which later wracks Joan with guilt as she wonders if she could have prevented her friend's tragedy. Joan with guilt as she wonders if she could have prevented her friend's tragedy.
9. No Future: Mourning the devastating loss of a friend, Joan now has to deal with the pain of reliving Kevin's accident during her deposition. In the hours preceding Kevin's accident, Will recalls how poorly he treated his son and now he feels the full force of his guilt.
10. Book Of Questions: Joan is delighted to finally meet Grace's seemingly impeccable mother, Sarah. But when it becomes evident that Sarah has a drinking problem, Joan finally sees why Grace is so private.
11. Dive: To overcome her fear of heights, Joan works her way up to the high dive. While reflecting on Judith's death and Kevin's accident, Helen becomes obsessed with worry about her family's safety.

12. Game Theory: Against everyone's wishes, Joan decides against applying for college. Later, she meets an appealing college student who convinces her to hire him as her tutor. Kevin sees that Beth may have second thoughts about dating a wheelchair-bound man.
13. Queen Of The Zombies: The play's the thing when God convinces Joan to try out for a school play. The plot thickens when Adam takes part in building the sets for the play.
14. The Rise & Fall Of Joan Girardi: Joan learns that fame can be fleeting and fickle after she saves a girl's life. A Job interview doesn't go quite the way Adam would have liked, and Luke prepares to get his driver's license.
15. Romancing The Joan: With seemingly no rhyme or reason, God asks Joan to do an extra-credit assignment on Romantic poetry. Meanwhile, a sweet and sassy assistant (special guest star Haylie Duff) begins working for Adam.
16. Independence Day: Furious with her parents for preventing her from going to a concert with Adam and then camping out with him that night, Joan decides to go anyway, certain that her mother simply wants her to remain a dependent child.
17. Shadows And Light: Joan is convinced that she's supposed to help Stevie keep her job working with Adam. She enlists Kevin to use his journalistic skills, but their efforts reveal a secret that shocks Stevie. Helen learns from Joan that Adam tried to have sex with her.
18. Secret Service: Wrongly accused of egging a car, Joan is punished with a weekend of community service. Trying to rise above the injustice, Joan tires to figure if she should help a bitter former nun or a social outcast.
19. Trial And Error: Showing a love of the law, Joan throws herself into a mock case against a determined defense attorney--Grace. Meanwhile, Adam tries to conceal his guilt from Joan as she prepares for an extra-special anniversary celebration with him.
20. Spring Cleaning: Trying to make a clean break from Adam, Joan returns everything he ever gave her. But when Joan also returns some loaned items to Mr. Tuchman, a student with a crush on the guidance counselor turns spiteful and erports that Tuchman tried to get intimate with both her and Joan.
21. Common Thread: Intent on hurting Adam, Joan rebuffs his every attempt to reconnect with her. She late regrets her insensitivity after Adam goes missing. Helen learns that the man who raped her 25 years ago wants her to visit him on his deathbed so he can apologize.
22. Something Wicked This Way Comes: Joan becomes more than a little curious about Ryan Hunter, the charismatic and enigmatic man who confessed to Joan that he, too, talks to God. She quickly sees that this mysterious man has a dark side and a sinister agenda.

The DVD

Video:
The video in this release is given in an enhanced anamorphic 1.78:1 ratio widescreen color format. The picture quality is quite good. It suffers from a slight grain, but detail remains to be sharp and clear. However, there are some occasional moments when the picture suffers compression artifacts. This is a rare occurrence, but it does happen.

Audio:
The audio track in this release is in English 2.0 Dolby digital stereo sound. Overall, the sound quality is very good, providing an audible and clean audio track. Like most TV on DVD releases the majority of the audio track is spoken dialogue and sounds rather flat. However, music does sound rich and vibrant.

The release supports closed captioning.

Extras:

• Audio Commentaries: There are four commentaries provided. They include the episodes "Only Connect" with Barbara Hall and James Hayman, "Friday Night" with Stephan Nathan and James Hayman, "Common Thread" with Stephan Nathan and James Hayman, and "Something Wicked This Way Comes" with Barbara Hall and James Hayman.
  
  
• A Look at Season 2 (15:30) star Barbara Hall, Amber Tamblyn, Jim Hayman, Jason Ritter, Joe Montegna, Mary Steenburgen, Christopher Marquette, Becky Wahlstrom, and Michael Welch. They talk about how the show is different from season one: new storylines, new aspects, new characters, etc.
  
  
• The Making of "Queen of the Zombies" (11:13) is a featurette about the episode with the school musical. It begins with Christopher Marquette who talks about how crazy it was and Barbara Hall who talks about how they wanted to do the musical. Other cast and crew offer commentary about doing the episode focused on the musical. They talk about writing, production, dancing, etc.
  
  
• A Tour of Joan's High School (9:27) is a journey with Bill Eigenbrodt, production designer. He provides a tour of the set for Joan's school. As different portions are shown, he provides informative facts and relevant clips from the episodes are provided.
  
  
• "Common Thread": A Table Read (24:00) is behind the scenes featurette that will be interesting if you were ever curious to see what it was like for performers to practice their scenes without acting. Basically, the cast (and some of the crew) sits at a table and reads line. This was filmed four week prior to airdate.

Final Thoughts:
Season two of Joan of Arcadia was my first experience with the series. I was happy to find how much I enjoyed the series. I liked the storylines and the melodramatic tone that came with very intelligent and witty dialogue. The second season featured several gripping stories and any fan of melodramatic productions should enjoy getting to know Joan and the rest of family. It is a real shame this show was cancelled. The second season was a solid production and it ended with a great cliffhanger, introducing an opposing player to Joan and hinting further at God's intentions for Joan. Since the show was cancelled, there is no third season to continue the storyline. It is a real shame. Regardless, I think the second season of Joan of Arcadia is a fun drama that is easy to get into.