Catch-22, the beloved American classic hits the small screen once again in the new Hulu miniseries. The classic tale takes on a satirical and unconventional view of the reality of war. The series revolves around the misadventures of Captain John “Yoyo” Yossarian (Christopher Abbott) a bombardier during World War II. Stationed in the beautiful Mediterranean island of Pianosa, Italy, Yossarian is just trying to make it out of the war alive—a fleet that seems impossible with every day. Obsessed with making back down alive from every mission, Yossarian does everything and anything possible to ensure his survival. The only true enemy for Yossarian missions to live doesn’t seem to be the hostile troops but rather Uncle Sam himself. The bureaucracy of the military is messy, complicated, and illogical compared to the battlefields during the war. As he navigates the labyrinth that is the military bureaucracy Yossarian loses friends, himself, and his sanity. Yossarian is a man who loves his country and wants to do his part in the war but dying isn’t one of them. Feeling like the whole world is out to kill him, Yossarian uses any means open to him regardless of the consequences.
As the mandatory mission count continues to rise, Yoyo pleads insanity to the unit doctor (Grant Heslov) to make it home, but there’s a catch. The catch—military law Catch 22, which states that any man who flies the mission is insane and doesn’t have to fly them, but the minute he asks not fly them he’s deemed sane of mind and must fly them. Therefore, Yoyo is a sane man who regardless of how he feels, has to keep flying until he meets mission quota or dies.
The miniseries, executively produced by Geroge Clooney, adapts Joseph Heller’s satirical military novel into a dramatic story of the truth of war and surviving it. The all-star cast features a mixture of new and old faces such as George Clooney, Grant Heslov, Christopher Abbott, Kyle Chandler, Hugh Laurie, and Giancarlo Giannini. The acting in this series is top-notch starting with Abbott’s portrayal of Yossarian at
] the forefront as the best character. Abbott portrays Yossarian perfectly as a flawed but realistic and relatable character. As you follow Abbott, you’ll both love and hate him as he gives such a good performance of all the misadventures of a man trying to escape death. As you go through Yossarian’s journey, you’ll see the constant conflict of light and dark in war. As the series progresses the mindset of Yossarain regarding duty and death change which causes him to slowly lose his mind.
The whole backdrop of the movie was done beautifully well. Instantly you transported back in time to the war and it’s like your right in the middle of it. The all the props from the cars to the planes and even the costumes are quite accurate for a timepiece. The overall feel of the visual aspect falls under a sepia tone with yellow undertones that gives off the feeling of heat in Italy while showing the dirt and grime of war-torn countries. The emotional journey throughout the whole series is conveyed throughout the beauty and horror seen in the background and its color palette.
The only real issue with series is that there are a few moments like at the beginning where you get lost in between all the conversions and instant action. I often found moments to wander off and veer off from the screen because the scene wasn’t interesting at all. Another factor with getting lost is as the series progresses, other characters start to go flat and are almost ignored by the show. Characters like Major Major or Milo Mindbinder who pulled you in with their character development suddenly don’t get mentioned for long periods of time. While characters like Yossarain at one point for an episode or two stops developing along with the story. Eventually, Yossarain’s character does start to develop and complete his arc towards the end which makes up for a lot of last time.
Special Features include around 60 minutes of bonus content including deleted scenes and outtakes from every episode and “Cogs of Wars”, a three-part behind-the-scenes featurettes.
Released on November 19th.
