Despite the original release date set for January 18, 'Don Jon' star Joseph Gordon-Levitt already released the premier episode of his new TV show, 'HitRECord', online, and MSN News says "it's got a twee, handmade feel, some of which is delightful, some of which is grating. It's like Etsy, only on screen and you can't actually buy anything."
The episode was titled, "Re: The Number One." Gordon-Levitt plays the affable emcee throughout the show that "concerns observations on the number one in peoples' lives." The quality of the actor/ producer's painstaking work shone through, despite some cheesy and sentimental moments.
This project is not the first for Gordon-Levitt. 'HitRECord' is, according to The Wire, "an outgrowth of his HitRecord venture."
Cinema Blend described the show as "fairly simple: a series of shorts, be it films, stories, songs, or some combination thereof, are produced by the community based on a theme chosen by Gordon-Levitt." An example is the first short film that featured Elle Fanning, called "First Stars I See Tonight." It is a tale of a woman's first time to look at the stars after having night blindness, with a Scottish narration to it.
Before the show takes off, Gordon-Levitt will be posting questions or ideas at the beginning of each episode, these will then set the scene for the video.
The concept of the show is both simultaneously daring, at the same time, it's not. What makes the show different from the rest, however, is that the process is democratic, and collaborators didn't even have to live in L.A. or New York to complete each episode.
The Verge notes that Gordon-Levitt's charm "makes the entire episode stand out from the likes of, say, SNL. That JGL is able to wrestle this kind of project together at all is quite the feat."
Get more of Joseph Gordon-Levitt and his Etsy-Like show here: