DVD Release Date: November 28, 2006 (CBS DVD, Paramount Home Entertainment)
Color/2004-05
MSRP: $58.99
Number of Discs: 6
Number of Episodes: 22
Running Time: 16 hours and 8 minutes
Total Run Time of Special Features: approx. 61 minutes
(not counting commentaries)
Languages: English
Subtitles: Closed Captioned.
Special Features:
• 5 Audio Commentaries from the Crew
• Featurette: “The Making of Queen of the Zombies”
• Featurette: “Joan of Arcadia A Look at Season Two”
• A Tour of Joan’s High School
• Table Read from “Common Thread”
Introduction:
What if God was one of us? God is one of us in the
critically acclaimed CBS drama, Joan of Arcadia. Joan
of Arcadia, is back on DVD for its last season (sadly)
after over a 18 month wait between releases. Now you
can bring god home to your DVD player in the second
and final season of Joan of Arcadia! Join Joan, her
friends, and the rest of Girardi family for godly
visits. For those of you who don’t know, Joan is a 16
year old high school girl, with some friends, and a
family, but now she gets unexpected visits from god
himself. It might sound cheesy, but the writing of
this show is remarkable. The show stars Joe Mantegna
as Will Girardi - a tough but soft-hearted police
detective of Arcadia, Mary Steenburgen as Helen
Girardi - an art teacher, Amber Tamblyn as Joan
Girardi- a typical teenager who now sees god, Jason
Ritter as Kevin Girardi - a former high-school sports
star who is in a wheelchair as a result of a car
accident, and Michael Welch as Luke Girardi - Kevin &
Joan’s younger high school science-geek brother.
Christopher Marquette, Becky Wahlstrom, Aaron
Himelstein also star as Joan’s friends Adam, Grace and
Friedman…and Mageina Tovah as Glynis.
Memorable Episodes / Notable Guest Stars:
The show is very well written again this season,
despite the ratings going down this season. Some
memorable episodes include the season premiere “Only
Connect” where Joan returns from summer camp and
ignores god; “Back to the Garden” where Joan creates a
garden in a playground; “The Cat” where Joan’s aunt
Olive has a heart attack while visiting; “Friday
Night” in which Joan deals with romance and death;
“The Book of Questions” in which Joan finds out why
Grace is so private; “Queen of the Zombies” in which
the school puts a musical performance; “Trial and
Error” Adam and Joan’s one-year anniversary is
approaching but Adam wants to confess he betrayed her;
“Common Thread” is where Adam goes missing; and
“Something Wicked This Way Comes” is the season finale
(well, series now) where Joan meets with someone who
also can talk to god…who also happened to save Adam.
Is he bad or good, though?
Some guest stars include Sprague Grayden as Judith
Montgomery, a bad girl that turns into one of Joan‘s
friends; Constance Zimmer as Sister Lilly; Elaine
Hendrix as Ms. Lischak; Annie Potts as Lieutenant
Lucy; Mark Totty as Detective Carlisle; Cloris
Leachman as Aunt Olive; Evan Handler in “P.O.V.;”
Haylie Duff as Steveie; Hilary Duff as Dylan; Alexis
Dziena (“Invasion”) as Bonnie; Michael Badalucco as
Father Payne; and Wentworth Miller as Ryan. The many
faces of god includes: Kris Lemche as “Cute Boy God,”
Amber Tamblyn’s dad Russ Tamblyn as “Dog Walker God,”
Juliette Goglia as “Little Girl God,” Kathryn Joosten
(“Desperate Housewives”) as “Old Lady God,” and
Jeffrey Licon as “Goth Kid God.”
Packaging:
The packaging is reddish and has the Girardi family in
the background (Will, Helen, Luke, Kevin and Joan).
The back of the box has information on the series, set
& special features and lots of photos including a big
one of Joan. There are three slim cases inside of the
box which has two discs in each slim case. All the
slim cases have a blue color scheme. Each case has a
different pose of all four members of the Girardi
family. The back of each case lists the episode on
each disc, with episode titles w/original air dates,
synopsis of the episode, and if any special features.
The discs also have a blue color scheme. Disc one
holds episodes 1-4 and has photo of the Girardi family
(same photo as the cover of slim case #1). Disc two
holds episodes 5-8 and has a photo of Joan. Disc three
has episodes 9-12 and has a photo of Will. Disc four
has episodes 13-16 and has a photo of Helen. Disc five
has episodes 17-20 and has a photo of Kevin. Finally,
disc six has episodes 21-22 and the special features
with a photo of Luke.
Menu Design and Navigation:
The menu screen looks so different from season one…and
I don’t think it is a better change. Last set we had
some clips playing in the background with the rarely
heard closing theme playing in the background. This
season it is just a blue background with a light
shining with three photos (each disc has different
photos) and the episodes are listed right on the main
menu. And if available, audio commentary can be turned
on/off by selecting an episode. The special features
option is only on disc 6. Good news is that there are
chapter skips. About six different stops per episode,
so no need to fast forward to find a scene!
Video and Audio Quality:
The video and audio are obviously good. In fact the
set is in widescreen…just like season one! This is
much better than watching it on CBS, unless you have
an HDTV. I really enjoyed the widescreen again. It
made it feel like I was watching a better quality
version of the show. The sound is in Dolby Surround
Stereo. No flaws or low sound--just perfect. Each
episode runs about 42-45 minutes in length, just like
it did on CBS. Something I’ve noticed is that each
episode has the episode title in the beginning. I
know I don’t remember CBS doing that for season two.
Also, the opening credits ("One of Us") is only on the
first episode of EACH disc. The other episodes have
the cast names rolling over the first scene. I guess
that isn't bad. The closing theme song can be heard
again, as on CBS they played promos of the next show
during the credits.
Following are the run times for each episode:
Disc one
1. “Only Connect” 45:11
2. “Out of Sight” 44:16
3. “Back to the Garden” 44:34
4. “The Cat” 44:10
Disc two
5. “The Election” 44:49
6. “Wealth of Nations” 44:00
7. “P.O.V.” 44:14
8. “Friday Night” 45:12
Disc three
9. “No Future” 44:44
10. “Book of Questions” 42:49
11. “Dive” 43:56
12. “Game Theory” 44:50
Disc four
13. “Queen of the Zombies” 41:34
14. “Rise & Fall of Joan Giradi” 41:53
15. “Romancing the Joan” 44:46
16. “Independence Day” 44:37
Disc six
21. “Common Thread” 44:07
22. “Something Wicked This Way Comes” 44:34
Special Features:
The special features are very good despite not being
as much in quantity as last season. I’ll break it
down by disc. There are four audio commentaries. On
disc one, audio commentary is available for the season
premiere “Only Connect” from the creator Barbara Hall
and executive producer James Hayman. They gave us
commentaries with this duo on season one, so if you
liked it with them then, you’ll like it here, too.
They are very informative.
Disc two has audio commentary for the episode “Friday
Night” with Stephen Nathan and James Hayman. This is
a very powerful and pivotal episode for this season,
and they know it and I’m glad they do commentary for
it. You’ll learn a lot. The last two audio
commentaries are both on disc six on the last two
episodes. Nathan and Hayman return to bring us
commentary on “Common Thread.” And Barbara Hall and
James Hayman return to give commentary on the last
episode “Something Wicked This Way Comes.” So James
Hayman was on every commentary! I wish we had actor
commentaries like last time we had the Girardi family
doing commentary together--what fun that was! Also, no
deleted scenes this time, after having a ton on the
last set.
All the other extras are on disc six. The first
featurette is “Joan of Arcadia: A Look at Season Two.”
It runs 15:31 and has interviews with Hall, Hayman and
the Girardi family—Amber, Mary, Joe, Jason, and
Michael, also Christopher Marquette and Becky
Wahlstrom. Various clips and images are also shown on
this one. This is a very interesting feature and very
informative.
The next featurette is “The Making of Queen of the
Zombies.” It runs 11:16 and has interviews with
Christopher Marquette, Barbara Hall, Joy Gregory
(writer/co-executive producer), Graeme Clifford
(Director), Jonathan Grossman (composer), James
Hayman, Joe Malone (choreographer), Stephen Nathan,
Amber Tamblyn, Bill Eigenbrodt (production designer)
and Mary Steenburgen. We take a look at the different
aspects of this episode. The play, the choreography,
singing, and more. This was a special episode and it
came out well. Then we have “A Tour of Joan’s High
School” that runs 9:27. Bill Eigenbrodt gives us a
detailed tour of the high school set at Sony studios.
It is cool to see how it looks and it looks like a
real school! Finally, one of the most interesting
features is a “Table Read for the Episode ‘Common
Thread’.” It runs 24:01 and we see most of the scenes
being read by the cast for the first time. They are
so good! The actors are sitting at a huge table with
the crew there also and nice food on the table. It
looked good, too. Michael Badalucco, who guest
starred on this episode also is at the table read. If
you like how a show is made and about, this is for
you!
Final Comments:
Well, after 18 months of waiting we finally have this
series complete on DVD. It is just too bad that this
show didn’t last longer. The season finale was not
really an ending and it left us hanging. Shame on CBS
for canceling this show. The show aired on Fridays
and did decently, though not as good as it did in
season one. However, this set is well done and
CBS/Paramount should be proud. I loved the widescreen
video and the stereo sound. That just makes the set so
cool. The special features were done very well and I
especially loved the table read. That was so fun and
interesting to see. So after this Thanksgiving, share
some time with Joan and her family & friends, and you
might also see God come down to you and talk to you!
