There are butterburgers (which Gene enthusiastically carries around in grease-stained paper bags), the Instagramable winged architecture of the Milwaukee Art Museum, and references to the city’s key streets and neighborhoods, all of which excite the Midwesterner in Pera.Ī buddy episode that features some great moments of friendship between Joe and Gene, “Joe Pera Shows You How to Do Good Fashion” finally gives its share of screen time to one of the show’s most overlooked characters. There are plenty of nods to the city that locals (* raises hand*) will appreciate, but the episode also serves as a fitting travelogue to introduce the city to out-of-towners. Gene’s sons ( Ikechukwu Ufomadu and Gary Richardson) are premiering a fashion show, and the two friends take a road trip out to the cream city to soak in the Milwaukee culture. In one of the show’s three double-length episodes, Joe and Gene leave the comfort of Marquette to visit Milwaukee.
In eleven short minutes, Joe Pera and company show us this, never skipping a beat. When people we love pass away, they deserve to be remembered, and no single obituary can encapsulate what they mean to us. But it’s not all grief, death, and pain - there are also plenty of sharp gags, and maybe even a poignant life lesson, too: Life has plenty of these painful moments, and it’s okay to feel them. It’s hard not to hurt for him and grieve alongside him as his typical bright-eyed optimism is whittled down to a deep air of melancholy.
Joe’s struggling with his grief is a plot point that carries through into the excellent next episode (stay tuned), and here is a beautifully vulnerable look into his mourning process. There’s a philosophical tone to Joe’s musings, as he ponders how somebody’s life - their personality, their accomplishments, their very being - can be summed up in a short string of words. After the unexpected passing of somebody close to him, Joe is saddled with the obligation of writing an obituary for the deceased. Peppered throughout Pera’s series are moments of intense, unexpected emotion, and no episode proves this better than Season 2's “Joe Pera Helps You Write an Obituary”.
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