Catch-22 is a great novel read by many and believed to be an unfilmable thing, yet George Clooney has done the unthinkable and managed to create and film this mini-series based on the classic book. Clooney co-directed and produced whilst also acting in this adaptation of Joseph Heller's 1961 novel, which coined a term that is now used in society. This ambitious 6-part mini-series is currently being shown on Channel 4.
Set during World War II, Clooney stars as a very loud and angry Lieutenant (and later Colonel, and finally General) Scheisskopf. Clooney directed the first and second episode. He is also an executive producer alongside Luke Davies and David Michôd.
There are humorous moments in this first episode of this mini-series however I didn’t find that this episode had much humour. The humour in this show is very light but is needed to make this show and the subject it is based on watchable. Although, at times I found this episode slow to watch. This might be due to the fact that this episode was setting up all the characters but at times this episode was slow, and I lost interest in what was happening.
Yossarian is played by Christopher Abbott, this character just wants to survive the war yet compared to other characters there isn't much excitement to see what he will do next. That is nothing to do with Abbott's performance, his character has great presence when in a scene, but his character development may improve as the series goes on.
We are following Yossarian's story and his attempts to stay alive and not join in the war. Yossarian doesn’t want to fly combat mission anymore, he feels that the bureaucratic military don't value his or his fellow soldiers’ lives. He trained as part of a bomber crew, he chose it because it had the longest training and he hoped the war would be over before he had to fly. Doc Daneeka suggests to Yossarian how best to beat his orders medically. As a result, he tries to claim to be insane so he shouldn’t fly but in doing that he is demonstrating rational thought. Therefore, all his attempts are meaningless. Anyone who has any sense and tries to get out of flying combat missions is sane therefore they must fly. Anyone who wants to do flying combat missions shouldn’t be flying, but they would have to ask for exemption and won't. However, if they did, they would be sane enough to fly. That’s the Cath-22.
A lot of people are asking why this show exists and what it is trying to say/tell us. Catch-22 is visually very appealing and filmed in Italy. Maybe there isn't a reason why this show exists. Maybe there isn't a message it is trying to say apart from trying to tell the story of Catch-22 which has been said to be unfilmable, yet it has been achieved. This first episode set up the Catch-22 and introduced all the characters well. I did find this first episode slow and at points lost interest however this might be due to the fact that this book is difficult to put into a clear story and this episode was just setting everything up for the rest of the series. Hopefully, the next episode will be better and more engaging as everything was set up in this first episode.
Overall, I look forward to the next 5 episodes, but I am unsure what to expect due to the complex nature of the original source, the book itself!
