What to Watch

A classic novel gets the darkly funny adaptation it deserves in 'Catch-22'

With a cast led by George Clooney and featuring a sinister turn by Hugh Laurie, Joseph Heller’s classic anti-war novel becomes a can’t-look-away series.

Christopher Abbott as reluctant airman Yossarian. Credit: Philipe Antonello / Hulu

It’s not often that a novel creates a term that becomes a part of our daily lives. But there’s a lot more to Joseph Heller’s Catch-22 than just a handy term to describe a situation designed to be impossible to escape. To become a worldwide sensation, a novel must be the kind of thing you can’t put down, which also makes it the perfect basis for a television series you won’t want to look away from.

It's the height of World War II, which poses a problem for US Air Force bombardier John Yossarian (Christopher Abbott), as he had hoped the whole thing would have blown over by now. Two years ago, he chose bomber crew training because it took the longest, and being constantly yelled at by Major Scheisskopf (George Clooney, who also directs two episodes) seemed better than dying in a fiery plane crash. Now he’s flying missions over Italy, and his odds of surviving the war are getting worse every day.

While his new commander, Colonel Cathcart (Kyle Chandler), keeps on cranking up the number of missions he has to fly before he can go on leave, Yossarian hits up Doc Daneeka (Grant Heslov, who also directs), hoping to get grounded on mental health reasons. It’s here that he runs into catch-22: anyone who requests to quit flying missions is automatically judged sane enough to fly missions, because flying missions is so dangerous that anyone sane would want to get out of it. “That’s some catch, that catch-22,” Yossarian says.

Scheisskopf (George Clooney) with some of the American flyers. Credit: Philippe Antonello / Hulu

This adaptation, written by a pair of Australians (Luke Davies and David Michôd), straightens things out and slims things down compared to the novel. Even six episodes wouldn’t have been enough to capture the entire thing, and Heller’s fondness for storytelling that bounces back and forward in time would have made following events tricky, to say the least.

This series (which follows a 1970 movie adaptation, directed by Mike Nichols) makes the right move by giving us Yossarian’s struggle straight. It’s an approach that dials down the insanity of war a little but focuses more on the growing pressure on him as his efforts to get out of dying become more outrageous and desperate. At first, it all seems like it’s little more than a game, especially with a setting that at times resembles more straightforwardly patriotic takes on war. But as events progress, the tone gets darker, the stakes higher; not everyone comes back from the missions Yossarian is so desperate to avoid, and the pressure on his sanity grows – not that anyone in command cares if he’s sane or not.

Yossarian (Christopher Abbott), centre. Credit: Philippe Antonello / Hulu

Catch-22 is a story of contrasts, which isn’t exactly surprising for a story about how rigid logic leads to the insanity of war. The locations are often stunningly beautiful (especially when the aircrew take time out for a swim off the Italian coast), but as a war story, there are also moments of terror and death. There’s a cast packed with square-jawed stars (and the series is well aware of just how handsome they are), but they’re almost always playing clods or clowns. It’s often very funny, but it’s always clear that this is a war story, and while the missions can be thrilling to watch (the combat scenes are spot-on), the fear of death is constant and real.

That said, just because everyone is facing constant death every day while being trapped inside a massive institution that seems to have gone completely insane doesn’t mean there’s not money to be made. Enter Milo Minderbinder (Daniel David Stewart), one of the great hustlers of our time and a man who, across the series, turns a job running the base mess into a corporation spanning Europe – and soon, the world.

There’s no shortage of foils for Yossarian, including Hugh Laurie as Major de Coverley (a sinister figure whose first name remains a mystery). There’s also Major Major Major (Lewis Pullman), who, of course, is instantly promoted to Major (making him Major Major Major Major) despite lacking much in the way of ability, and fellow aircrew Orr (Graham Patrick Martin), who seems even crazier than Yossarian.

Joseph Heller’s Catch-22 took apart the contradictions of an increasingly mechanised and bureaucratic society and laid bare the many ways the only sane reaction to it all was to laugh. This series keeps the laughs, while making clear that being trapped in a machine designed to create death and destruction is no laughing matter.

Here, the familiar, polished surface of a stirring war story is flipped on its head. The missions are pointless, everyone involved is either crazy or well on the way to it, and the only real bravery lies in acts of cowardice. It seems everything has a catch.

Catch-22 premieres Thursday 1 January on SBS On Demand.