- Condition: New
- Format: DVD
- Box set; Color; DVD; Widescreen; NTSC
In a world bookended by extreme drama and comic insanity, NYPD Detective Casey Shraeger (Amber Tamblyn) moves from Vice to Homicide to investigate the murder of a fellow cop. Considered by her new boss, Sergeant Harvey Brown (Terry Kinney), to be unimpeachable because of her family’s wealth â€" a fact she carefully keeps hidden â€" Casey quickly learns that she isn’t the only cop with a secret. Thrust into a world that’s already rife with eccentrics and tainted by corruption, Casey cautiously navigates Homicide’s treacherous waters as she joins the victim’s partner, Detective Jason Walsh (Jeremy Renner), in unraveling the knot of conflicting clues that they hope will lead them to the killer and ultimately reveal the truth behind the dead cop’s past.
Stills from ! The Unusuals (Click for larger image) After patriarch Will gets a job as the chief of police, the Girardi family moves to the small town of Arcadia from the big city. Middle child Joan isn't happy, and her family, consisting of science nerd Luke, paralyzed former jock Kevin, and their perpetually flustered mother Helen, isn't helping. Joan finds herself talking to God, in the form of random people who give her assignments to help the people around her. Joan keeps following God's assignments, never sure if she's really speaking to him, or just going crazy!Once in awhile a show comes along that breaks the mold. Most such programs fail, but
Joan of Arcadia set out to do something new, beat the odds, and found an audience. Created by Barbara Hall (
Judging Amy), it’s a unique hybrid of
My So-Called Life,
The Commish, and--well, something different. Unlike CBS predecessor
Touched by an Angel, faith creates more questions than answers (an! d God even has a sense of humor).
Joan (Amber Tamblyn) is an ordinary 16-year-old. Father Will (Joe Mantegna) is the local Arcadia police chief, mother Helen (Mary Steenburgen) is a teacher/administrator, younger brother Luke (Michael Welch) is a fellow student, and older brother Kevin (Jason Ritter, son of John Ritter) is a high school graduate who was paralyzed the year before. He used to be popular and athletic. Now he watches TV and builds models. In the pilot, God speaks to Joan for the first time, as a cute boy, and asks her to get a job. Once she's convinced He's really God, she does. Her action inspires Kevin to get one, too, and his process of rejoining the world begins.
As in Joan Osborne’s theme song, "One of Us" (featured on two episodes), God will continue to appear to Joan in a variety of guises--even as a dog walker who looks like Russ Tamblyn (Amber's father). He’ll often ask her to do things that make her uncomfortable, but she'll alwa! ys learn from the experience and some good will always come fr! om it. U nfortunately, she isn't able to talk to anyone about this or they'd think she was crazy, not even friends Grace (Becky Hahlstrom) or Adam (Christopher Marquette). By the season finale, faith will be replaced by doubt, setting the scene for the second season, in which Joan’s faith will be restored. --Kathleen C. Fennessy
