What’s it rated? TV-MA
When? 2019
Where’s it showing? Hulu
Joseph Heller’s classic 1961 dark comedy novel is given the small-screen miniseries treatment, finally allowing for more reverent adherence to its source material. As good as director Mike Nichols’ and screenwriter Buck Henry’s 1970 film was, at just more than two hours it couldn’t explore Heller’s novel with the same level of detail as this 3.5-hour six-part miniseries.
If you don’t know the story, it’s set in World War II, where bombardier John Yossarian (Christopher Abbott) is desperately trying to get out of the dangerous duty of dropping bombs on fascist Italy as forces below try to shoot his plane out of the sky. The famous title refers to the bureaucratic rule catch-22, which says a willingness to fly dangerous missions is insane, but anyone trying to get out of the mission by feigning insanity must be sane, and hence forced to continue.
George Clooney is involved as executive producer and directs two of the six episodes as well as co-stars as Maj. Scheisskopf. War is hell, and in this story it’s also funny as hell. (Six 45-min. episodes) Δ
This article appears in Jul 30 – Aug 9, 2020.