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On Thursday, Joe Pera of the sublime Adult Swim series Joe Pera Talks With You shared that after a three-season run the show would now end. It was, quite simply, a devastating piece of news for the many who have been lucky enough to take in the poetic and humorous musings of Pera. For those unaware, he’s a character with a calming and relaxing delivery who is overflowing with a sharp comedic wit that packs a whole lot of wisdom. In short episodes around eleven minutes, though occasionally going longer, he was able to create a show that was as soothing as it was strange as he spent his days roaming around Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. It was as if Mr. Rogers had a nephew that, at first, began to follow in his footsteps, only to end up stumbling onto something that was oddly profound in his own way. As Pera said in one of the episodes midway through, “I got my home run and I got it on my own terms.” His show was a hidden gem of not just Adult Swim but of television writ large, the type of odd experience that you would discover on a whim or at the recommendation of that one weird friend though you would never forget once you did. While his appearance is aggressively ordinary, Pera made something that was truly and brilliantly one-of-a-kind. To even try to compare it to anything feels impossible as, even when it played around with genre and poked fun at itself, it remains an enigmatic work all its own that felt like it was still evolving.
It wasn’t just Pera either, even as he played a fictionalized version of himself. Sure, the DNA of the show was first experienced in the 2016 specials Joe Pera Talks You to Sleep and Joe Pera Helps You Find the Perfect Christmas Tree. The show did at first glance seem to follow a similar structure by building itself around a theme that it would then expand on in unique ways due to Pera’s presence. However, it also was a product of many other talented performers and writers that were all an irreplaceable part of the experience. It boasted the talents of comedian Jo Firestone as Sarah Conner, the band teacher where Joe teaches who also harbors an intensely felt fear of what the future may hold. The two represented a real place of solace for the other, serving as a lighthouse to guide each in from the storms of an uncertain world. Both delicately brought the silly and sentimental to life in the simplest of scenes, creating moments that feel just so authentic that it was almost like we were just watching two people go about their lives. Then there was the gloriously disheveled comedian Conner O’Malley as his neighbor Mike, the kindly Gene Kelly as his best friend also named Gene, Jo Scott as the caring Sue, and so many more. All of the show’s characters had their quirks though they felt deeply human, full of fears and dreams that they were still figuring out for themselves.
That any praise of their work reads more like a eulogy of sorts is a shame, as the show is one worth admiring not through the lens of tragedy but of triumph. Still, much like when Pera writes an obituary for his beloved grandmother, there is no way to fully capture what made it so great within even the most lengthy of pieces. It is a show that must be seen for yourself to fully grasp what we are missing out on with it now at a potentially permanent endpoint. There is the hope that Pera, and all of us as an audience, are holding onto that it could be reborn in some way. In reading his lovely farewell message, which you can’t help but hear in his sonorous voice, there are clearly so many ideas that he still has for the show. It not only should get more to let Pera and company see it through to its end for the sake of finishing the story, but because of how it was so special in the current streaming-dominated landscape. While it thankfully can now be seen on HBO Max in its entirety, it still feels like a show that represents a bygone era where a spark of genius can emerge from nighttime cable programming and blow us away. As Pera himself said in his farewell to the show, it was a miracle that it even got the three seasons it did. Still, it ought to have had many more.
So many shows only get greenlit because they are based on something with a built-in audience or, perhaps worse, are a conventional story that may seem unique though is still derivative of something else. Joe Pera Talks With You is none of that, a genuine diamond in the rough that is abundantly odd and distinct. When we lose a show like this, we lose out on something vibrant in the increasing uniformity of television. We lose not just the storylines that still had room to grow into intriguing new places, but the sense of sentimentality and silliness that came with its unique approach to storytelling. While we can easily get sucked into watching the same old shows on repeat and become numb to their lack of originality, we still ought to recognize the value of having a show that doesn’t neatly fit into any mold. Joe Pera Talks With You was the type of quietly courageous series we need more of precisely because of how it never was constrained by anything except its own sense of imagination. It would frequently upend its own rules and ideas, taking itself in new directions under a general theme that would become unexpectedly stunning at its end. This is what makes it a show worth carrying on for as long as Pera and company want to still do it. Whether it could find new life on another network or in a feature of some kind, it is a story worth cherishing.
Whatever happens, there are a couple of scenes that will stick with me. The first is when Pera discovers “Baba O’Riley” by The Who on the radio and completely loses his mind. Joe being Joe, he proceeds to call every radio station he can to get them to play it over and over as he runs wild in his home. It is so sweet that it not only keeps you laughing and jamming along with him, it redefines the song itself. That is the power Pera had with this strange show that has now forever ensured the tune will be etched in my memory to the visual of him jumping around. Not many shows can claim to have such a profound legacy, though this will absolutely be one of them. The second is the final scene of the third season, which may now also be its last. In the episode simply entitled “Joe Pera Builds a Chair With You,” he does….well….exactly that. However, he also leaves us with one final moment of tranquility. He takes a drive with Sarah who has become fearful of where she currently lives. He shows her a place where she can be free, out away from the noise of everything else. It is a place where the two wonderful weirdos can start again. As Sarah goes off to wander the property, Joe takes out the chair from the back of his car. He then places it in the snow before silently sitting on it, the first step in his hopes to build a cabin for himself and Sarah. It is an oddly emotional moment that almost brings a tear to the eye just as it seems to with Pera, though that may also just be because he looked directly at the sun. Whatever the case, it is a finale that serves as a testament to how the show carved out its own peaceful place in the chaos of the world.
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