Just when you think you’ve seen more than enough World War II movies and TV shows, along comes Catch-22, Hulu’s series adaptation of the classic Joseph Heller novel. Starring the likes of Christopher Abbott, Hugh Laurie, Kyle Chandler, and George Clooney (who also executive produced and directed the series, in case you couldn’t tell), Catch-22 looks like, well, a real catch. With cynical humor and an attractive supporting ensemble, this may very well be the most exciting new Hulu original series since Shrill. (Yeah, it hasn’t been that long.)
Abbott takes the lead as Yossarian, a US Air Force bombardier who’s none too pleased with the increase in bombing assignments—relayed by Kyle Chandler’s Colonel Cathcart, who’s basically the complete opposite of Coach Taylor (he even delivers a speech that’s the total antithesis of a Coach Taylor pep talk). The supporting players include Grant Heslov, Giancarlo Giannini, and Bad Times At The El Royale breakout Lewis Pullman. All six episodes of Catch-22 will hit Hulu on May 17. Here’s the official synopsis:
Based on Joseph Heller’s seminal novel of the same name, Catch-22 is the story of the incomparable, artful dodger, Yossarian (Christopher Abbott), a US Air Force bombardier in World War II who is furious because thousands of people he has never met are trying to kill him. But his real problem is not the enemy, but rather his own army which keeps increasing the number of missions the men must fly to complete their service. Yet if Yossarian makes any attempt to avoid his military assignments, he’ll be in violation of Catch-22, a hilariously sinister bureaucratic rule which specifies that a concern for one’s own safety in the face of dangers which are real and immediate is the process of a rational mind; a man is considered insane if he willingly continues to fly dangerous combat missions, but a request to be removed from duty is evidence of sanity and therefore makes him ineligible to be relieved from duty.