Joan of Arcadia (Seasons 1–2)

Joan of Arcadia (2003) is a CBS drama series — watch all seasons online on iFILM. Amber Tamblyn plays Joan Girardi, with Joe Mantegna and Mary Steenburgen as her parents. Created by Barbara Hall, it ran two seasons from 2003 to 2005.

Joan's family has just relocated to Arcadia. Her father is the new police chief, her mother teaches, and her older brother Kevin is adjusting to a wheelchair after a car accident. Then strangers start approaching Joan and identifying themselves as God — a janitor, an elderly woman, a teenager outside a store — each with a specific, cryptic task and no reason given.

Tamblyn got a Golden Globe nod for the role. What made Joan of Arcadia stand apart from the inspirational-drama genre was its refusal to explain itself: God hands out directions, not answers, and the show trusts the audience to sit with that uncertainty. Two seasons cut short before the story resolved, which stings in retrospect. Stream Joan of Arcadia online on iFILM.