Mr. Corman Review: Hope You Feel Better (Season 1 Episode 8)
Mr. Corman Season 1 Episode 8, “Hope You Feel Better,” takes a surprising, yet not surprising, pivot into the pandemic.
It’s possible it’s been leading to this the whole time and the clues were almost too subtle. Or it is simply continuing to follow the life of a middle school teacher with anxiety, just with the timeline having entered the COVID-era.
Either way, the episode has an eerie quality to it and could trigger COVID anxieties. Josh (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is very cautious and takes the virus very seriously, and his nervousness comes across a little too well. It’s difficult to look back at the beginning of the pandemic and relive those intense fears and the tensions between friends and family.
It seems that ominous fireball that Josh had been seeing since Season 1 Episode 2, “Don’t Panic,” was a harbinger of the emergence of the virus. That is something to think about while we watch Josh go through the tedious and dismal motions of isolation, which is rather disturbing in its accuracy.
There is a montage of Josh unpacking the burgers his roommate, Victor (Arturo Castro), brought home with painstaking care and repetitive hand-washing that brings up familiar anxieties, both from the recent past and currently. It’s relatable but we’re not out of the weeds enough for it to be something to be lighthearted about.
It’s sad that Josh has to teach his students over Zoom. It’s upsetting that Victor has no choice but to keep going into work because as a UPS delivery driver he is an essential worker and has a daughter to support.
The only levity is Josh clashing with Larry (Arliss Howard), but even that takes a turn when we see how Larry belittles his mother. It’s depressing that Ruth (Debra Winger) is sheltering in place with him and that Josh has to revisit the bad feelings from his childhood when his dad was not so nice to his mom.
She’s settling, which is what she says to Josh in not so many words. Her advice is to make the best of it and to stop catastrophizing. We know that is easier said than done, of course.
Not only does Josh re-experience stresses from the past, he has a conversation with his younger self. Young Josh is upset that Adult Josh doesn’t remember what he was thinking when he recorded a song.
“Track 12” is another beautiful song to come out of Mr. Corman, written by the show’s composer, Nathan Johnson, and performed by Gordon-Levitt as Josh.
This episode is heavy, melancholy-laden, creating an unease with the viewer. It’s possible that seeing this just days after the 20th anniversary of 9/11 compounds the feeling, too.
I’m unsure of how significant a role the pandemic will have throughout the remainder of the season or what it means for the kind of direction the show might now take. At least we know that whatever lies ahead on Mr. Corman, it is sure to be visually creative and artfully-minded.
Stray Observations:
- I love Mr. Corman’s lesson about commas for his students.
- The last few episodes have started with Josh making new music. Will we be gifted with a finished track at the end?
- “This is where we are.”
What did you think of this episode of Mr. Corman? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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Erin Allen
Erin is a former script supervisor for film and television. She's an avid fan of middle aged actresses, dark dramas, and irreverent comedies. She loves to read actual books and X-Files fan fiction. Her other passions include pointing out feminist issues, shipping Mulder and Scully, and collecting pop culture mugs.