This Fall Joan of Arcadia has taken TV ratings and critics by storm.

Barbara Hall is the creator and co-executive producer of this new CBS drama. She has a long list of producing and writing credits for shows such as Judging Amy, Chicago Hope and Northern Exposure.

Though raised a strict Methodist, Hall went through a long period when she rejected religion, though she remained a voracious reader with a penchant for metaphysics and physics. In an article for only connect, she describes her decision to become a Catholic: “Then came the events of September 11th. Until then, I had been someone who could not choose God until I understood every aspect of Him and what He was up to. In that moment, I decided to go ahead and choose God and worry about the details later. I was relying on a philosophy that a devout Catholic had offered an agnostic friend of mine: 'Maybe what God is doing is none of your business.'”

Such frank anti-subjectivism, a refreshing change from the deeply held narcissism that grips our culture, is just one reason Joan of Arcadia is enjoying success. The point of each show is not about Joan (played by Amber Tamblyn). Instead, it is about the people Joan can help if she listens to God and to others around her. In every episode Joan must care about someone other than herself for something good to take place.

Another theme of the series is that Hall, the primary writer for the series, emphasizes reality based story lines. Joan’s father is the Chief of Police for Arcadia, California. Her mother works in the administrative office of Joan’s High School. The plot lines involve both characters, not only as Joan’s parents, but in their professional lives as well.

Did I mention that Joan’s older brother (played by Jason Ritter, the real life son of the recently deceased John Ritter) has just been paralyzed in an automobile accident? The audience soon gets the message that there are no easy answers to life’s problems.

Joan receives visits from God in the guise of various people. A sanitation worker in one scene. A small child on the swing-set in another. It is reminiscent of Joan Osborne’s 1995 hit, What If God Was One Of Us? The song works so well with the show’s premise that Hall asked Osborne to re-record it for the series’ theme song.

If you have decried the lack of TV programming reflecting positive values—well here it is! tothesource recommends that you fight the urge to criticize the series because it doesn’t explicitly articulate the exact tenets of your religious beliefs. This seems to be an impossible standard for television to meet.

Instead, be thankful writers and producers like Barbara Hall have a gift for posing good questions about matters of faith in an entertaining way.

And tune in, Fridays at 8 p.m. on CBS.