Why Did You Leave Me Hanging So, CBS?

So it looks like the other show I really didn’t want canceled (even though I said I did) was actually canceled. Poor Joan of Arcadia. It had such promise. I have to admit that I dropped off from the viewing couch about halfway through this season (which was really poor – I’m not a pop culture fan, so Hilary and Haylie Duff? No.), but it seemed like it had some promise going into the last episode. Pitting God’s little lackey Joan against the devil would’ve been interesting – and it could’ve semi-filled the good versus evil void that the cancellation of Carnivale has left in my poor little heart (however, Joan’s no Ben Hawkins – love ya, Ben, dirty overalls and all).

What I liked about Joan was that the show’s version of God seemed to fit my own so well. God in this show took on many different forms according Joan’s mood; He/She also was funny, sarcastic, actually likable. No fire and brimstone here – just an entity wanting human beings to realize their full potential. An entity that fully acknowledged free will. An entity that recognized all religions as valid, that recognized all forms of worship as interpretations of Her/Him. The show’s primary religion was Catholicism given that the creator of the show is Catholic, but there wasn’t a staunchly Catholic doctrine going on; Joan herself is decidedly without religion.

There were absolutely beautiful moments in the show, such as when Joan helped Adam realize that he didn’t cause his mom to commit suicide (Adam’s look of half-hope, half-fear as Helen reads his mother’s last letter aloud is heartbreaking); when God decided to stop talking to Joan to see if her faith carried through that time of silence (God going into Joan’s hospital room and caressing her forehead is the exact solace we all wish for sometimes). There were absolutely awful moments, though, in the second season – the aforementioned Duffs and Adam cheating on Joan immediately spring to mind. Overall, though, it presented an image of God that’s probably the most comforting I’ve ever seen – a God who cares, wants us to do our best, but doesn’t interfere and understands how hard it can all be. Whenever Joan would fear aloud that she was going to hell, God would just grin this grin, like He/She knew that we all fear the afterlife too much. Science and art? It all delighted God.

(Reminds me – Luke, Joan’s younger brother. A total science geek – he looked like a blonde Little Brother M.)

In sum, God wasn’t judgmental. It was a nice image in the face of all the radical evangelical sentiment currently in this country. Everywhere I turn, people are judging my choices based on the lack of organized religion on my life. My spiritual beliefs, which are heavily influenced by the arts, sciences and humanities, are being seriously pummeled as the country as a whole tries to make me accept the love and light of Jesus Christ under an oppressive atmosphere of idiocy and extremism.

I have a feeling that Joan’s battle in season three would’ve been to face down the current devil – an entity trying to put forth inequality, fear, ignorance, and hate under the veneer of respectability and morals. Gee, isn’t that what’s happening now? I would’ve wanted to see that. Too bad CBS is completely dominated by Jerry Bruckheimer.

That’s it, then. The only worthwhile thing on TV is Deadwood, and that ends Sunday. Well, unlike a lot of the United States, at least I read for entertainment.