'Catastrophe' Is A Triumph
There were times, watching the new, second season of Catastrophe, when I was laughing while my heart ached at the same time. This sitcom streaming on Amazon Prime starting Friday gets at things that are so true about marriage and parenthood that the jokes enhance the details of a relationship, and vice versa.
If you don’t know the show’s premise, it’s simple: American man (Rob Delaney) met Irish woman (Sharon Horgan). Last season, they had sex, got pregnant, and married. This season, there’s a bit of a time-jump — about two years, to judge from the size of one child, and, yes, there’s another now, an infant.
As the fictional Sharon and Rob, Horgan and Delaney — who write and produce as well as star — pick away at all the little squabbles exhausted parents can have, but they’re heightened, wittier squabbles than any of you or I might have. The dialogue is fast and furious, the moods switch like lightning flashes — one minute, they’re lovey and randy, the next they’re irritated with each other. In one scene they may be yearning for some alone-time; the next, they’re looking into each other’s eyes knowing they’re each other’s soul-mate.
In other hands, Catastrophe could have been a very broad comedy, a slamming-door farce. With these two, it’s very much a tightly structured, intimate affair — with dirty diapers, the demands of work and other family members (Carrie Fisher pops up as Rob’s mom, a wonderfully unhelpful type who infuriates Sharon when she observes that the new baby reminds her of Gene Wilder).
The six-episode season — each less-than-half-hour goes by in a flash — is packed with punch-lines and clever pop references. (I never thought I’d laugh at another joke with a Taylor Swift reference, but I did here.) Sometime during these two years, Rob decided he was an alcoholic and is now sober, but that’s sometimes a mighty struggle, yet Catastrophe never makes a big, melodramatic deal out of it — it takes things one step at a time. Sharon, who still fancies herself a swinging, hip gal, is having a dreadful time adjusting to the life of a stroller-pushing playground-seeking mother, as an episode about her disdain for what she calls the “mombies” prevents her from having a satisfying female friendship.
To write out episode-themes like this makes Catastrophe sound potentially dreary about marriage equality and parental strain. Trust me, it’s the exact opposite: so exhilarating, so gaspingly funny, you’ll burn through the episodes as fast as you can.
Catastrophe Season 2 starts streaming Friday on Amazon Prime. Season 1 is available now.
