Goodbye to ‘Joe Pera Talks With You,’ the Sweetest Show on TV

Adult Swim has officially canceled its gentlest, most thoughtful, and arguably best show. Joe Pera Talks With You has ended after three seasons on the network, star and co-creator Joe Pera announced Thursday.

“I am writing to share the unfortunate news that Joe Pera Talks With You is over for now,” Pera wrote in a blog post on his website.

In a typically gracious follow-up tweet to the news, Pera gave thanks to the cast, crew, and viewers, “for watching and supporting and helping the show go as far as it did.”

And how far it went! As fans know well, Talks With You brought constant joy over its short lifespan. Premiering in May 2018, the comedy quickly established itself as a uniquely wholesome presence in the Adult Swim line-up. Starring Pera as a folksy, Midwestern version of himself, he brought a slowed-down pace to a late-night TV scene that is notoriously chaotic.

Every episode featured Joe narrating an experience directly to camera, always in a measured cadence. He took viewers on car rides and to bachelor parties. He offered piano lessons to his best friend Gene’s wife, so that she could play the couple’s favorite song for their 40th wedding anniversary. (Yes, Joe’s best friend was more than twice his age.)

Perhaps most memorable was Joe discovering the song “Baba O’Reily” for the first time, then immediately listening to it ad nauseum; he was so in love with the Who’s famous song that he even gave a sermon on its virtues.

“I'm sorry,” he says during church, where he’s at the pew reading the “announcements.” “Have you guys heard of The Who? They rock! They're unbelievable! I heard them for the first time on Thursday and I haven't slept since!”

That represented what the show did best: incredible sweetness balanced with dry, even surreal humor. When he went to the hair salon with his beloved grandmother, Joe imagined himself getting a wild Dragon Ball Z-inspired haircut. And when he lost his grandma toward the end of Season 2, Joe found out the news while sending his friends on a deeply involved treasure hunt inspired by Rat Race. This redirected the episode from a comic romp referencing a mediocre film toward a moving exploration of grief.

The mix of absurd and good-natured humor was what made Talks With You as special as it was to critics like me. Only a comedian as disarmingly calm as Joe Pera could get away with a 30-minute special showcasing “relaxing footage”—literally a montage of mundane things like a fish in a fish tank and a pot of coffee brewing—while his pleasant voice narrates stream-of-consciousness, hilarious musings on top of it. This was after another special and at least one episode about how to fall and stay asleep, mind you. (These and all 32 episodes of the show are streaming on HBO Max.)

Even though this news is surprising and, frankly, upsetting to those of us who relied upon the consistent charms of Talks With You, Season 3 ended in a satisfyingly kind way. Joe uses the money from finally, begrudgingly selling his Nana’s home to buy a 30-acre plot of land miles outside of his Michigan town. It’s a treat for his girlfriend, Sarah (Jo Firestone), who is both a Doomsday prepper and in love with the great outdoors.

Together, Joe tells Sarah, they can start to build a home here. He’s already built the pair their first piece of furniture: a beautiful wooden chair. He places it on the plot and sits down—both a moving gesture of love and a great gag featuring a man sitting in an ornate chair in the middle of a dirt mound. Such was the duality of this wonderful little show.

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