Joseph Heller’s seminal novel “Catch-22” is not only responsible for the introducing the titular paradoxical term into the English lexicon, but also as a blistering anti-war text, one that laid bare the inherent absurdity of war. As such, the novel has been rightly canonized. Adaptations of the text, such as Mike Nichols’ 1970 film of the same name, have struggled to capture Heller’s dark humor and complex structuring. Hulu’s new miniseries adaptation, shepherded by George Clooney and Grant Heslov (both also taking supporting acting roles), is more successful than Nichols’ film but falls short of synthesizing the brutality and satire that Heller’s novel so effortlessly tightrope walked
The series follows Yossarian (Christopher Abbott, making a case for more leading roles), a B-25 bombardier stationed in Pianosa, Italy during World War II. All Yossarian wants is to complete his missions and go home. But as his commander, Col. Cathcart (Kyle Chandler, the MVP of the show with his overly enthusiastic demeanor) keeps raising the mission count, forcing Yossarian to try every which way to get out of more bombing runs, including pleading insanity to Doc Daneeka (Heslov).
In adapting such an expansive novel, there are numerous subplots. And “Catch-22” offers up plenty, including Yossarian’s friend Major Major (Lewis Pullman), who is subsequently promoted from Sergeant to Major just because of his confusing name, and Milo Minderbinder (David Daniel Stewart), who works his way up from mess officer to operator of the “syndicate,” a complex black market that works with both the Americans and the Germans. Clooney, as well, shows up as Scheisskopf, Cathcart’s commanding officer, giving a loopy performance that recalls his comedic work with the Coen brothers (“Burn After Reading” particularly).
While writers David Michôd (“Animal Kingdom”) and Luke Davies (“Lion”) adapt the satirical elements of Heller’s iconic novel with finesse, they mainly reorder the narrative events, ditching Heller’s non-linear structuring and use of multiple points of view for a more chronological retelling, strictly following Yossarian for all six episodes. This approach both streamlines the story but, also, sacrifices the schizophrenic approach built into Heller’s narrative. For Heller, Yossarian is just one of many struggling to navigate the illogical bureaucracy of the war, but the Michôd and Davis scripts make him an audience proxy, the lone sane mind surrounded by lunatics.
Clooney, Heslov, and Ellen Kuras switch off directing duties, with each taking on two episodes apiece. After a string of underperforming films, including 2017’s “Suburbicon,” consider this a return to form for Clooney, the director. In fact, “Catch-22” combines the comedic elements of his lesser directorial efforts (“Leatherheads” and “Monuments Men”) with the darker material of his most successful films (“Good Night and Good Luck” and “The Ides of March”) Heslov, who is mainly known as Clooney’s producing partner, and Kuras, a noted cinematographer for her work with Michel Gondry and Martin Scorsese’s documentaries, also do well behind the camera, creating a unified visual aesthetic over the series’s episodes. These six episodes are never showy but favor a light sun-drenched look, juxtaposing the relentless sunshine against the frantic bombardment and death that comes with each mission.
The cast is uniformly great, with Abbott stepping into his role as Yossarian and emphasizing his everyman qualities. Yossarian may be the only rational person on the base, but as his humanity is slowly taken from him with each successive mission, and with his friends dying one by one, Abbott slowly builds to the character’s breaking point. Besides Abbott, Chandler is given the showiest role, subverting his ‘Coach Taylor’ image with Cathcart’s comically hopeful monologues, showing himself to be an idiot, but a dangerous one, as he keeps upping the mission quotas for his men. The female characters, as is true in the novel, are painfully underdeveloped. While Michôd and Davies take pains to give Nurse Duckett (Tessa Ferrer), who helps out Yossarian, a true arc, her development is cut short, as the show leaves her for episodes at a time.
In all, “Catch-22” is a successful mini-series, albeit one that fails to leave an aftertaste. Handsomely mounted and impressively acted, the overall show is somewhat too breezy, failing to dig into the darkness of Heller’s original work. Yet, the show marks a return for Clooney as a storyteller, playing into both sides of his directorial oeuvre and makes a strong case for Christopher Abbott as a new leading man. [B]
