'Joan' is intriguing

HOLLYWOOD — If you're surprised that CBS has a new show about a teenage girl who talks to God and God talks back, so is the woman who created it.

"It raised a lot of eyebrows," said executive producer Barbara Hall, who left "Judging Amy" for "Joan of Arcadia," which premieres tonight at 7 on Ch. 2. "And I just thought — you know what? I'm never getting anywhere with this."

And while in the midst of writing the pilot, "I thought, 'What am I doing? Nobody is ever going to make this pilot.' Then I just decided it wasn't any of my business what happened to it after I finished it, so I just kept writing. . . . But I'm really surprised."

The end result is certainly one of the more intriguing new shows of the year. "Joan of Arcadia" stars Amber Tamblyn ("General Hospital") as a relatively normal teenage girl to whom God appears in various guises — a somewhat suspicious-looking middle-age man; a cute teenage boy; a cafeteria worker. And he's got a plan for her, although he doesn't exactly spell it all out.

"I think it's pretty clear that God simply will not explain to us exactly what is going on," Hall said. "And part of God is that he is, or she is, a mystery. It's part of my 'Joan of Arcadia' rules that the mystery can never be solved.

"Part of the reason is that we have tiny, little, pea brains and God is enormous. So the show is really a lot about posing theological and philosophical questions and not about answering them. And it's really important that we don't try to cut the idea of God down to size because it can't be done."

Which sort of makes "Joan" seem less accessible than it is. Basically, it's a show about a normal girl who — if people knew she was talking to God — would doubtless be thought to be crazy.

It's a show about God, but it isn't a show about religion. As a matter of fact, Joan and her family are pretty religion-less (although, officially, they're sort of lapsed Catholics).

And it's more a family drama than something akin to "Touched by an Angel." Joan's family is somewhat in turmoil. Her father (Joe Mantegna), is the local police chief. He and her mother (Mary Steenburgen) are still dealing with the accident that left her older brother, Kevin (Jason Ritter), in a wheelchair. And Kevin himself isn't dealing with his situation particularly well. And younger brother Luke (Michael Welch) sort of just keeps to himself.

"Joan of Arcadia" is sort of an eclectic mix. The family drama aspect works, as, oddly enough, does the Joan-talks-to-God segment. The police investigation component doesn't work nearly as well.