Joseph Gordon-Levitt Writes, Directs and Stars in Scattershot Mr. Corman

It is a tough time to be alive in the world. That seems to be the central theme of the new Apple TV+ series Mr. Corman, whose first two episodes premiere this Friday. Even without the global pandemic that's been raging for a year and a half — which this show doesn't address — we live in a time of dire climate change, hopelessly malignant political division, and economic and social conditions that seem forever poised on the precipice of disaster.

Created, written, directed, and starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, the ten-episode series revolves around Josh Corman, known as Mr. Corman to his 5th-grade students. So is this show about the life of a young teacher? Sort of. But It's also about a guy dealing with sometimes-crippling anxiety. And sometimes it's about a guy who's got a difficult relationship with his family, who struggles to meet women, and who used to make music. Of course it's not unusual for a TV show to be about a lot of things at once — complicated and multi-faceted characters have been a hallmark of the great shows of the last twenty years — but Mr. Corman struggles to find its center, and as a result, these facets of Josh's life feel more like episodic vignettes rather than a TV show about a whole person.

The show's first couple of episodes deal with a reluctant Josh going out to meet women (and the contentious experience he ends up having with one) and Josh trying to deal with a pretty significant panic attack. There are moments in these episodes that really work. Anyone who's dealt in any way with trying to obtain health care in our broken system will find the scenes with Josh on the phone begging to be allowed to see a doctor relatable and darkly funny. But then the show meanders along to the next topic, almost as if Gordon-Levitt has a laundry list of troublesome aspects of modern life that he wants to check off. It wasn't long before I got a pit in my stomach at the realization that one of the show's few overarching themes was going to be [deep breath] masculinity. Thankfully, this isn't a lever Gordon-Levitt presses down on too forcefully, but it's there on his bad date, and it's there when he drops hints about an absent bad dad.

More interesting than the story of Josh Corman on the screen, frankly, is the story of Joseph Gordon-Levitt, the creative persona. He is the rare actor who's successfully transitioned from child-star in things like Angels in the Outfield and 3rd Rock from the Sun to teen movies like 10 Things I Hate About You before then pivoting into darker adult dramas like Mysterious Skin and Brick. He found rom-com success with 500 Days of Summer and solid supporting roles in giant Christopher Nolan films like Inception and The Dark Knight Rises.

Like any ambitous actor, he's seemed to take his cues from Mery Streep, doing accent work in stuff like The Walk (zee French! Eeet urts!) and Snowden, where he took the time to develop a pitch-perfect Edward Snowden voice (because otherwise how would audiences have accepted him in the role?).

Then in 2013, he wrote and directed Don Jon, an indie dramedy where he starred as a New Jersey meathead addicted to pornography. It was a peculiar character on paper and an even more peculiar one as performed on screen. He hasn't directed since. He has, however, maintained HitRecord, the online collaborative media platform he founded in 2010 to help expand the creative horizons for … something? The platform hasn't produced anything that's made a larger cultural impact, but it shows that Gordon-Levitt's commitment to creativity and his own autonomy isn't just for show, since no one is really paying attention.

This all probably sounds terribly backhanded, but the truth is that Joseph Gordon-Levitt is a fascinating film and television artist, someone with an enormous drive to write and direct and perform in projects that have something to say, even though said projects — Don Jon and now Mr. Corman specifically — seem to struggle when it comes to having that something to say.

Ironically, Mr. Corman ends up being at its best when it takes an episode-length detour into the life of Josh's roommate, Victor (Arturo Castro), who's a divorced weekend dad trying to parent the swirling vortex nightmare of a tweenage daughter steeped in social media, influence vloggers, and child-of-divorce anger. It's an episode that feels as focused and alive as the rest of Mr. Corman feels ragged and wan.

Occasionally the show tries to battle back against the malaise of its main character with fantasy sequences, including one where Josh and his mom (played by the forever captivating Debra Winger) attempt to bridge their strained relationship through song. That scene's incongruity comes off as wistfully sweet. Less successful is a parking lot fight scene after a night at the club that ought to be dusted for fingerprints after being stolen from Scott Pilgrim vs. the World.

The cast of the show is game and interesting, with standout moments from Castro and Winger, as well as Bobby Hall (a.k.a. Logic) as Josh's social-media-striving friend, Shannon Woodward as his newly religious sister, and eventually an appearance by Ted Lasso's Juno Temple, who feels like a visiting dignitary from across the Apple TV+ universe when she shows up as Josh's ex-girlfriend.

As the series goes on, these performances linger, and the show's scattered attention span feels more familiar. Still, it's a hard show to love. The episodes are roughly a half-hour long, which implies that we're dealing with a comedy, and in some ways we are, except for … may I direct you back to that sentence up top about how it's a tough time to be alive in the world. Because that's what this show seems to be about, if it's about anything. Which it may not be. But then that too might fit the times we live in.

Mr. Corman premieres Friday August 6th on Apple TV+, with new episodes dropping Fridays through October 1st.

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Joe Reid is the senior writer at Primetimer and co-host of the This Had Oscar Buzz podcast. His work has appeared in Decider, NPR, HuffPost, The Atlantic, Slate, Polygon, Vanity Fair, Vulture, The A.V. Club and more.