Joan of Arcadia 3/12/04
03-13-04, 08:43 AM
#1
DVD Talk Hero
Thread Starter
Joan of Arcadia 3/12/04
"Requiem for a Third Grade Ashtray"
This was an exhausting episode because God had Joan pick up the slack for her mom, and Joan is pulled in so many different directions that she has a hard time getting anything done.
At the beginning of the episode when the gang is at the convenience store and Grace gets all upset at being reminded of something by the caller and she throws her cell phone in the store's refrigerated area in her agitated state. The clerk/God suggessts that Joan buy a gallon of milk because her home needed it. Joan buys the milk reluctantly.
At the start of the day, Helen's running late, and is very frazzled. Will offered to make some French toast, but Helen didn't think there was any milk in the fridge, but Joan says that she picked up some milk last night, to which Helen responds that was a minor miracle.
Will and Toni go arrest a suspected embezzler who's the IT dude at an office, and on the way down on the elevator, it gets stuck, and a pregnant lady is also on the elevator at the time, and eventually her water breaks and the IT dude (a father of 3 himself, who did home deliveries for each of their children) helps in directing Toni and Will to deliver the lady's child. Will was never with Helen when she delivered their 3 children, he was squeamish about the whole delivery process. The woman gave the child away, she didn't want the child, which was heartbreaking to Will.
Joan does her best to handle some mom duties when Luke is sick at home with a high temperature, and Joan has to pick up his school assignment. God shows up as a goth student and tells Joan that she needs to help share her parent's burden. Joan calls God "Passive-Aggressive". Funny.
Joan offers to go check on Luke since Helen is stuck at school, and Helen convinces Joan to also make the meatloaf for dinner since Helen has a faculty meeting late it the day. Helen's art class project was using old pieces of childhood to create new artwork from it. Helen wanted to use Joan's turtle ashtray from her 3rd grade days. Joan was not ready to give up her turtle ashtray.
This is also the day that Luke needs to send his scholarship application for Space Camp, but his scholarship essay is in notebook that Grace stole from Luke. Joan and Grace were supposed to study for a chem test, but Joan has so much on her plate that she flakes on Grace for a study meeting at the library. Joan tries calling, but Grace's cell phone was left at the convenience store.
Adam asks Joan to be a roadie for a showing of his art at a neighborhood cafe. Later, Joan was trying to do some cooking, and finds that Kevin can't make dinner, neither can Will and it's only Luke that she's making dinner for, but she finds this out after she's made the meal. Then Joan starts the dishwasher and the fuse goes boom in the house, so no electricity for the house, and Joan heads for the hardware store for fuses, where she runs into Adam. Joan had forgotten about being a roadie for his art show, but as it happens the cafe is right near the hardware store, so she winds up helping Adam and putting off another task she needed to do.
At the cafe, Joan mistakes a girl behind the counter as God and she starts spilling her guts to her embarrassment. Then a poet starts to talk about helping out people and Joan starts yammering at the poet, also to her embarrassment, and then she ditches Adam over that situation.
So Joan goes looking for Grace, who is finally going to classes to study for her bat mitzvah after putting it off for 3 years, which Joan learns by going to Grace's house and her rabbi father answers the door. They talk about what the ceremony means to the Jews. Helen calls Joan to get her butt home right away. Then God calls her (the cell phone actually showed it was "God" calling) and Joan goes off on why is it that it's always the women having to do all the chores, and God sets the record straight and has Joan decide if going home should be her main priority. Then God pretends the cell phone reception was breaking up. That was funny.
Grace is fighting her bat mitzvah every step of the way, making her very cranky and aggressive . Joan decides to just wait at Grace's house and not going home. Grace finally comes home. They do a little sharing, girl-bonding over Grace's upcoming bat mitzvah. Joan finally gets the notebook back, and brings it home.
At home, Helen and Will catch up. Will tells about his day and how impressed about Helen going through the deliveries for their children, and he felt bad for making her feel so alone during the deliveries because he wasn't there for her. Helen goes on about not being able to be a mom and a teacher given what all went on today. Joan didn't quite get dinner cleaned up, and when she gets home, she overhears Helen talking about her concerns. Helen lambasts Joan about not quite getting dinner done and leaving Luke alone with a fever, and how Helen thinks she can't do both and be good mother. Joan goes off on her long day, and she leaves to post Lucas's application at the post office.
Kevin spent the day finding out if the feelings in his stomach, i.e. gas, mean nerve regeneration. He get a EMG (electro-myography) test done and it's not nerve regeneration. Kevin still holds out a little hope, even if Luke can't make a nerf basket (and Kevin's chances are as good as Luke making it to the NBA).
The next day at school, Joan tells Luke's girlfriend that he'll be okay, but the girlfriend is still a little frazzled by it all. Then Joan lets Grace's bat mitzvah out of the bag, and Cohen gives Grace some grief over it. Adam needed to find out what it was, so Cohen starts in telling him about Moses...
The goth student shows up again, and tells her to bring home a box of cream of wheat and Joan goes off on God, that she can't take all of these tasks thrown at her. The ashtray is taken out of Joan's bag and God tells Joan that's she's not alone (the point being that it's okay to ask for help and share in other people's burdens). Joan finds Helen in her class and they get back on track, and Helen won't be quitting her art teacher job. Helen has Joan smash up her turtle ashtray, used as a metaphor of picking up the pieces of her past to forge something new. Helen confesses to having anxiety of being able to be a mother and be an art teacher at the same time. She's losing sleep from the anxiety, which resulted in her snaping at Joan the previous night. Helen compliments Joan on the meatloaf, where Joan used a tip for broasting garlic from Iron Chef to make it better than her recipe.
At dinner, the meatloaf is finally served to the rest of the family, except for Luke, who gets the cream of wheat. Kevin has Luke pulls his finger and lets it rip. Laughter ensues. A second pulling results in more. Both Luke and Kevin hope for the best. Helen comes home and Kevin has her pull his finger. *pppbbbbhhhttttt* *Laughter*
Credits roll.
This was an exhausting episode because God had Joan pick up the slack for her mom, and Joan is pulled in so many different directions that she has a hard time getting anything done.
At the beginning of the episode when the gang is at the convenience store and Grace gets all upset at being reminded of something by the caller and she throws her cell phone in the store's refrigerated area in her agitated state. The clerk/God suggessts that Joan buy a gallon of milk because her home needed it. Joan buys the milk reluctantly.
At the start of the day, Helen's running late, and is very frazzled. Will offered to make some French toast, but Helen didn't think there was any milk in the fridge, but Joan says that she picked up some milk last night, to which Helen responds that was a minor miracle.
Will and Toni go arrest a suspected embezzler who's the IT dude at an office, and on the way down on the elevator, it gets stuck, and a pregnant lady is also on the elevator at the time, and eventually her water breaks and the IT dude (a father of 3 himself, who did home deliveries for each of their children) helps in directing Toni and Will to deliver the lady's child. Will was never with Helen when she delivered their 3 children, he was squeamish about the whole delivery process. The woman gave the child away, she didn't want the child, which was heartbreaking to Will.
Joan does her best to handle some mom duties when Luke is sick at home with a high temperature, and Joan has to pick up his school assignment. God shows up as a goth student and tells Joan that she needs to help share her parent's burden. Joan calls God "Passive-Aggressive". Funny.
Joan offers to go check on Luke since Helen is stuck at school, and Helen convinces Joan to also make the meatloaf for dinner since Helen has a faculty meeting late it the day. Helen's art class project was using old pieces of childhood to create new artwork from it. Helen wanted to use Joan's turtle ashtray from her 3rd grade days. Joan was not ready to give up her turtle ashtray.
This is also the day that Luke needs to send his scholarship application for Space Camp, but his scholarship essay is in notebook that Grace stole from Luke. Joan and Grace were supposed to study for a chem test, but Joan has so much on her plate that she flakes on Grace for a study meeting at the library. Joan tries calling, but Grace's cell phone was left at the convenience store.
Adam asks Joan to be a roadie for a showing of his art at a neighborhood cafe. Later, Joan was trying to do some cooking, and finds that Kevin can't make dinner, neither can Will and it's only Luke that she's making dinner for, but she finds this out after she's made the meal. Then Joan starts the dishwasher and the fuse goes boom in the house, so no electricity for the house, and Joan heads for the hardware store for fuses, where she runs into Adam. Joan had forgotten about being a roadie for his art show, but as it happens the cafe is right near the hardware store, so she winds up helping Adam and putting off another task she needed to do.
At the cafe, Joan mistakes a girl behind the counter as God and she starts spilling her guts to her embarrassment. Then a poet starts to talk about helping out people and Joan starts yammering at the poet, also to her embarrassment, and then she ditches Adam over that situation.
So Joan goes looking for Grace, who is finally going to classes to study for her bat mitzvah after putting it off for 3 years, which Joan learns by going to Grace's house and her rabbi father answers the door. They talk about what the ceremony means to the Jews. Helen calls Joan to get her butt home right away. Then God calls her (the cell phone actually showed it was "God" calling) and Joan goes off on why is it that it's always the women having to do all the chores, and God sets the record straight and has Joan decide if going home should be her main priority. Then God pretends the cell phone reception was breaking up. That was funny.
Grace is fighting her bat mitzvah every step of the way, making her very cranky and aggressive . Joan decides to just wait at Grace's house and not going home. Grace finally comes home. They do a little sharing, girl-bonding over Grace's upcoming bat mitzvah. Joan finally gets the notebook back, and brings it home.
At home, Helen and Will catch up. Will tells about his day and how impressed about Helen going through the deliveries for their children, and he felt bad for making her feel so alone during the deliveries because he wasn't there for her. Helen goes on about not being able to be a mom and a teacher given what all went on today. Joan didn't quite get dinner cleaned up, and when she gets home, she overhears Helen talking about her concerns. Helen lambasts Joan about not quite getting dinner done and leaving Luke alone with a fever, and how Helen thinks she can't do both and be good mother. Joan goes off on her long day, and she leaves to post Lucas's application at the post office.
Kevin spent the day finding out if the feelings in his stomach, i.e. gas, mean nerve regeneration. He get a EMG (electro-myography) test done and it's not nerve regeneration. Kevin still holds out a little hope, even if Luke can't make a nerf basket (and Kevin's chances are as good as Luke making it to the NBA).
The next day at school, Joan tells Luke's girlfriend that he'll be okay, but the girlfriend is still a little frazzled by it all. Then Joan lets Grace's bat mitzvah out of the bag, and Cohen gives Grace some grief over it. Adam needed to find out what it was, so Cohen starts in telling him about Moses...
The goth student shows up again, and tells her to bring home a box of cream of wheat and Joan goes off on God, that she can't take all of these tasks thrown at her. The ashtray is taken out of Joan's bag and God tells Joan that's she's not alone (the point being that it's okay to ask for help and share in other people's burdens). Joan finds Helen in her class and they get back on track, and Helen won't be quitting her art teacher job. Helen has Joan smash up her turtle ashtray, used as a metaphor of picking up the pieces of her past to forge something new. Helen confesses to having anxiety of being able to be a mother and be an art teacher at the same time. She's losing sleep from the anxiety, which resulted in her snaping at Joan the previous night. Helen compliments Joan on the meatloaf, where Joan used a tip for broasting garlic from Iron Chef to make it better than her recipe.
At dinner, the meatloaf is finally served to the rest of the family, except for Luke, who gets the cream of wheat. Kevin has Luke pulls his finger and lets it rip. Laughter ensues. A second pulling results in more. Both Luke and Kevin hope for the best. Helen comes home and Kevin has her pull his finger. *pppbbbbhhhttttt* *Laughter*
Credits roll.
03-13-04, 10:55 AM
#3
DVD Talk Hall of Fame
Overall this was a pretty good episode. I enjoyed that God was working in the record store and was, I believe not for the first time, a goth. The scenes in the elevator with the guy under arrest were great. He was given some really good lines.
03-13-04, 08:08 PM
#5
DVD Talk Legend
Good to see Todd Louiso again. Haven't seen him around much since High Fidelity.
Is anyone suprised that Kevin is starting to get some feeling back? And why didn't anyone but Luke realize this because of the pull my finger stunt? Wake up people!
An OK episode.
Is anyone suprised that Kevin is starting to get some feeling back? And why didn't anyone but Luke realize this because of the pull my finger stunt? Wake up people!
An OK episode.
03-13-04, 11:02 PM
#7
DVD Talk Hero
Originally posted by movieking
...
Is anyone suprised that Kevin is starting to get some feeling back? And why didn't anyone but Luke realize this because of the pull my finger stunt? Wake up people!
...
...
Is anyone suprised that Kevin is starting to get some feeling back? And why didn't anyone but Luke realize this because of the pull my finger stunt? Wake up people!
...
03-14-04, 10:55 AM
#9
DVD Talk Hero
Originally posted by movieking
His family should know the limitations of his injuries, and what the pull my finger stunt signifies. At the very least, his parents should.
His family should know the limitations of his injuries, and what the pull my finger stunt signifies. At the very least, his parents should.
