He’s got a lot to say, and he’ll talk with you if you’ll listen.Īdam Grinwald is a Feature Writer at Collider with a lifelong passion for cinema, literature, music, and culture. It might take a while, but once you get him to open up, you’ll be glad you did. Joe’s the type of person you’d invite to a barbeque because, even if he doesn’t say much at first, he’s good company. Somebody who’s excited to tell you about something you might not initially care about, somebody who falls far from the margins of typical coolness. At about 12 short minutes an episode, it’s a brief beautiful moment of quiet solace in tumultuous times. But it’s also the type of show that you can use as an escape. Joe Pera Talks With You is the type of show you can put on to fall asleep to. Its easy-going sense of humor holds up to repeat viewings. Because of its wide-eyed view of the world and its accepting view of its characters’ eccentricities, it’s something worth turning on after a long day. Like its characters, it’s unapologetically unusual and is so much more charming for it. Beyond its unassuming persona, there’s something beautiful and deep. As a sort of antithesis to toxic masculinity, Joe is a patient and understanding male figure to learn a thing or two from.Īs far as off-beat comedies go, this is one of the best. He’s too damn friendly-too considerate-for us to think anything but highly of him. There’s no shame in his awkwardness, and the fact that he’s different from the people around him is largely celebrated by the show. When he attends his neighbor’s brother's bachelor party, he leaves to go hiking in search of snakes. His reaction to hearing a decades-old song is the most delightful shade of wholesome. In another, Pera gets sidetracked from reading his weekly church announcements by his enthusiastic account of hearing The Who’s “Baba O’Reilly” for the first time. In one episode, he goes to a local diner to talk about breakfast. The show’s small-town scope is cozy and inviting. A complete lack of cynicism makes each watch an uplifting experience, and even its darker themes and plot points are looked at serenely. Even if the show wasn’t funny (it is), it would seriously be worth viewing. It takes joys in the little things-building an arch to grow string beans, a barbeque with the neighborhood, watching internet videos in bed-and basks in them. There really isn’t a mean bone in its lean body, and just like Pera himself, it’s patient and understanding. That’s one of the keys to the show’s greatness. An endearing type of weird, he is soft-spoken, timid, and square in a way that’s impossible to hate. He offers quips as he philosophizes the profound and the menial (“DVDs…will they even exist in two years?”). He prefers “not to watch movies with violence”, and he rarely if ever swears. He is fascinated by wholesome activities, esoteric facts, and his job as an elementary school choir teacher. It’s like he’s a pleasant old man trapped in a young man’s body. Joe is a soft-spoken man of great manners who wears his Midwestern quirks and lack of hipness on his sleeve. Sure, he’s funny, strange, but he’s also lovable. Miraculously, the show never quite places him-or any of the characters, really-as the butt of the joke. Though many Adult Swim series are no strangers to misfits and oddballs (the anti-comedy of Tim and Eric Awesome Show Great Job! features a number of amateur actors and “alternative performers” that are set loose at their peak weirdness for the sake of the show’s trademark anti-humor), Joe Pera Talks With You is the first time the quirky are portrayed so intimately.
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