| Genre: | |
| Creator: | Joe Pera |
| Showrunner: | Amalia Levari |
| Director: | Marty Schousboe |
| Composer: | Ryan Dann |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
| Num Seasons: | 3 |
| Num Episodes: | 32 |
| Runtime: | 11 minutes |
| Network: | Adult Swim |
| Editor: | Whit Conway |
Joe Pera Talks with You is an American comedy television series created by Joe Pera for Adult Swim. The show stars Joe Pera as a fictionalized version of himself, a mild mannered choir teacher in Michigan who directly addresses the audience about seemingly mundane, everyday topics such as dance, pancakes, minerals, etc. Diving into these topics, viewers get an introspective glimpse into his slowly changing life in the Upper Peninsula and the interaction with people around him.
The series was produced by Pera’s Chestnut Walnut Unlimited, Cartoon Network Studios’ live-action division (Factual Productions, Inc, and Alive and Kicking, Inc.), and Williams Street. It entered development following the success of the 2016 specials Joe Pera Talks You to Sleep, which was animated, and Joe Pera Helps You Find the Perfect Christmas Tree, airing as part of Infomercials, with the first season premiering on May 20, 2018. The second season premiered on December 6, 2019.[1] [2] A third and final season aired from November to December 2021.[3] [4] In July 2022, Pera announced the show was canceled after three seasons.[5] [6] Reruns aired on Cartoon Network's ACME Night programming block starting from 2023.
Joe Pera Talks with You received critical acclaim, with most praise going to its unique writing, slow-paced and earnest tone, and witty humor; the show's early cancellation similarly drew strong reactions and tributes from critics. Screen Rant compares the show's sincere tone favorably to Mister Rogers' Neighborhood,[7] while Vice hailed the show as "the best thing Adult Swim has ever done".[8]
The series stars comedian Joe Pera as a fictionalized version of himself, living in Marquette, Michigan and teaching choir at a local middle school. He talks directly to the viewer about everyday subject matter such as iron, Sunday breakfast, fall drives, and sleeping. Between these lessons, viewers get a glimpse into Pera's quiet life in the Upper Peninsula.
The show is not heavily plot-driven, with each episode revolving around a single lesson; however, emotional arcs are built up over the season as the show goes on.[9]
In the first season, Joe meets his new neighbors, the Melskys, and his girlfriend and workmate, Sarah, a staunch survivalist. As the two got to know each other better, Joe discovers that she is paranoid about bad things in the future; she prepares for any eventualities with a bunker filled with supplies to last her for years. Joe grapples with the reality that the world can be a scary, hard place. This realization goes against his optimistic view of life.
During the second season, Joe attempts over the course of the season to build a bean arch in his garden. The arch eventually grows to full maturity in the finale. Joe also deals with a loss in the family following his grandma’s death. Joe attempts to cope better with the grief by talking directly to the viewers about the matter.
For the third season, Joe is busy helping people around him handle everyday tasks, while dealing with the fallout of his grandmother's death, including the money he gets from selling her house. In the finale, Joe purchases an empty land lot from his neighbor with the money, takes his girlfriend to the lot for a viewing, and professes his wish of building a cabin there.
The first Pera project to appear on Adult Swim was the animated short, Joe Pera Talks You to Sleep. It was aired as part of the network's Infomercials series on March 21, 2016. The short was animated and directed by Kieran O'Hare, who had previously animated a Joe Pera comedy bit for his YouTube channel. O'Hare applied the same animation style to the Adult Swim special.
On December 9, 2016,[10] a second special, Joe Pera Helps You Find the Perfect Christmas Tree, premiered on Adult Swim. The live-action special was more tonally similar to what would become Joe Pera Talks with You. Like the series, it was directed by Marty Schousboe and written by Pera alongside Dan Licata, and made by the same production team under the name Rent Now Productions. It also takes place in the same location in Michigan where Pera works as a choir teacher. It features characters that would later appear in the series, such as Gene, the Melsky family and Joe's Nana Josephine. Differences include Joe's dog Gus being a black bloodhound (or possibly a black lab mix) instead of a basset hound portrayed by Fitzgerald William, Joe living in a different house, and Joe's co-worker and love interest Sarah, portrayed in the series by Jo Firestone, being absent entirely. These differences imply the special and series are not within the same continuity. Joe's Nana Josephine was also played by his real-life grandmother, Josephine Pera, who died in 2017.[11] The character Gene Gibson is also present in the Christmas special, but not portrayed by real-life camera operator, Gene Kelly (not to be confused with the actor of the same name), as he was in the series. Pera appeared on local talk shows to promote the special.[12]
Joe Pera Talks with You has received critical acclaim, with much of the praise going towards the show's unique tone and writing. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the first season has an approval rating of 100% with an average rating of 8/10 based on 6 reviews.[13] In a 4/5 stars review for Common Sense Media, Martin Brown noted the subversiveness of Pera's character, noting, "the socially awkward comedian/host is a recognizable type at this point. The twist here is that [...] instead of his social awkwardness getting him into trouble or making him the butt of the joke, it's merely the surface of a thoughtful, confident character who knows who he is. [...] The result is a sweet, thoughtful comedy about the small joys of everyday life."[14]
The A.V. Clubs Erik Adams writes that "It’s a particular type of funny, of the soft-spoken, deadpan, and disarming type that Pera practices onstage and on the talk-show circuit. It’s one of his many gifts as a performer, the way his understated wardrobe, deliberate delivery, and nervous body language set an expectation for awkwardness, before Pera pulls the rug out from under the audience with the confidence of his pacing and the precision of his writing."[15] Indiewires Steve Greene gave the second season an A− and wrote "This is nice. There’s no irony, no rug pull, no cynicism in what he says. Just one person grateful for something that hasn’t even arrived yet. That’s the show in a nutshell: a chronicle of a guy so enthusiastic about the tiny pleasures of life that he’s even happy about potential things".[16] Josh Terry of Vice hailed the show as an "essential salve against cynicism: It's relaxing and gentle TV that revels more in its meditative beauty than its eccentric comedy".[8]
The show's early cancellation drew eulogies and tributes from critics. In announcing the cancellation, Polygon's Ethan Warren acclaimed the show as "a deft three-act exploration of joy, terror, grief, and love", and as the "handbook for navigating compounding crises. As long as there are chairs, and the people to sit on them, there must be hope".[17] Writing for Collider, Chase Hutchinson emphasized on the uniqueness of the show up until the last season: "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".[18] And, in a tribute for The Ringer titled ‘Joe Pera Talks With You’: In Praise of Joy, Tyler Parker honored the show as "the anti-cringe" of comedy, adding, "If cringe comedy is the theater of the uncomfortable—crank up tension, break with laughter, repeat—then consider Joe Pera Talks With You the anti-cringe. A warm blanket of a comedy. Mellow, joyful, and good-hearted".[19]