A teenage girl is visited by God, disguised as everyday people, and is given assignments and tasks that eventually have a positive outcome on people's lives.
Entertaining, thoughtful and with enough elements to appeal to virtually every member of a family, "Joan of Arcadia" is television that seems, well, heaven-sent.
Joe Mantegna and Mary Steenburgen are fine as Joan's parents, but the series shouldn't go out of its way to play up the dad's role as small-city police chief. Keep the emphasis on God's plan.
An odd and intriguing look at crime scenes, forensic labs and interrogation rooms as a backdrop to the family crises and growing pains of an unhappy teenage girl.
This show brings up the big questions -- who is God? What is our obligation to others? How do we know God's will? And it does all this in a surprisingly unpreachy and non-partisan way.
