Joan of Arcadia 10/22/04
 

"The Election"

While it would appear more of the same from season 1: God telling Joan to do something which results in something unexpected but positive, this time Joan is told to get involved with the high school student council presidential election process. The parallel story of Helen's fervent desire to fight those who would censor art in her class's exhibition of student art provides Joan with the price for a "win at all cost" attitude, and the unintended consequence of Joan getting involved (along with her friends) pays off in unexpected ways for Adam. Good story on showing the impact of our actions even when ambition blinds us to the consequences and fallout for such desires.

Will has a hard time getting on board with new boss Preston's way of juggling the numbers to provide a scenario for a rosier effectiveness of the sherrif's department. Preston convinces Will of the payoff for seeing the numbers in a new way to get additional funding to benefit the department's response time and manpower to minimize casualties and cutbacks.

Luke makes a little headway with getting Grace to open up about her alcoholic mother, and its impact on her childhood and teen years. Luke even showed some backbone to some jock who pushed Grace into a wall. They both laughed about living through that episode.

I wonder how many phone calls CBS received tonight after the shot of the 2 guys kissing:lol: I imagine a show like this has a higher than normal percentage of conservative viewers.

Re: Joan of Arcadia 10/22/04
 

Actually, I've found it interesting that so far this season God hasn't really been telling Joan specifically what to do (with the exception of 'adopt a cat'). Instead, God has been saying general things like "get involved" or "be observant" and Joan is making her own choices on how to do it. Of course, with everybody in the school halls talking about the class elections tonight it wasn't too much of a leap for Joan, but she did pick the election, who she supported and how she got involved on her own.

Maybe I'm reading too much into it but I'm thinking it's a subtle change from the specific "learn chess" or "build a boat" assignments from the first season and a sign of growth in Joan.

I enjoyed the episode. I think the relationship between Luke and Grace is quite touching.

Now admittedly, I've been out of high school for a few years, but in my experiece of teaching freshmen in college, I have my doubts that anybody gets THAT involved in student council elections. Beyond that, I liked the episode.

Bah! It's not like they even showed enough anyway. We need in focus guy kissing, people. Otherwise what's the point? It was hot though :drool:

I really liked the rest of the episode ("Vote Beaumont. He's dressing better!" Heh), and especially enjoyed Grace opening up to Luke more. I was worried that after last week she'd be back to before, but then the thing with the bullies, and her telling him that story, it was all good. I'm seriously loving them more every week.

I guess the show is becoming tired to me. I thought that it was not up to par with last year, but after thinking about it, it is pretty much the same as last year - exactly the same.

So was there anything mentioned about the lawsuit last night? Where does it stand?

I'm really glad I got into this show. I just love all the characters and it's so fun to see Joan really just throw herself into whatever "mission" God assigns for her.

"We're having a cabinet meeting!"
"Use the bushes!"

:lol:

I'm glad Judith seems like she's making a turn for the better as well.