joan of arcadia

The family dynamics playing out here all feel very realistic to me. It’s obvious that they brought in someone to discuss seriously how one lives and recovers from such an accident, and talked a lot with the creators and writers about how disability plays out within a family. The Girardis are not victims of a horrible tragedy, and the focus of the show isn’t on how the able-bodied are recovering from the sudden burden of their eldest child. Instead, it’s a show that includes how families are affected when disability comes into their lives unexpectedly, and the way everyone involved copes, or doesn’t cope. Everyone is an individual, and no one is a prop or a very special message.