JOAN REVISITED

My friend and Act One alum, Dr. Pat Phalen, took me up on my request for a more complete episode analysis of the recent Joan of Arcadia “hate-crime” episode. (I hate the phrase ‘hate-crime’. Is there really any other kind? Crime is always about hating the good/God….) I was going to have Pat print her message in the comments for the original post, but that has been so clogged by the seems to me futile argument going on down there that I am going to print her assessment here.

I watched Joan this week…with a group of friends who had

never seen it before. Of course, I built up the show to them to the

point where everyone was looking forward to it. Then, in the first few

scenes, I became very uncomfortable about telling them the show was

“smart.” The storyline about the minister, the redneck and the

detective was the same old same old. I immediately started to apologize

to everyone…but we saw it through. The twist was very obvious — but

it was interesting that the boy had received God’s message of love from

the minister. It wasn’t the minister who told him that “being” gay was

a sin. Unfortunately, the difference between “being” gay and sodomy was

never introduced — at least it was left vague rather than denied.

Anyway, my own reading of the redneck was that he himself was not

particularly devout. I had the impression from the show that he didn’t

even go to church — this church was the boy’s place of worship…not

the family’s. This may be me trying to find the smartness in the

script, or it may have been intended — I’d have to watch the show again

to know. In any case, I found the storyline development unworthy of the

show overall. I was also disappointed to see the obvious attempt to

start dealing with teen sexuality like every other program deals with it

(teens don’t think, they just have sex. All of them. It’s fun…Let’s

watch.). I was really hoping that the stars of the show would be deeper

than that — maybe to the point of thinking — and choosing the smart

alternative. Is diversity too much to ask for from prime time

television? We would not do a program where the stars just do drugs.

All of them. It’s fun…Let’s watch. Would we?

All this said, I don’t think the show was a total disappointment. Joan

had some terrific lines, funny and deep. The people with whom I watched

the show actually liked it and said they would watch it again. But they

were willing to overlook several deficiencies in the quality of this

episode and concentrate just on Joan’s lines!

Is it just me, or were there too many versions of God in this episode?

And weren’t some of the discussions between God and Joan kind of, as I

guess you Hollywood writers say, on the nose?