I caught the first two episodes of this show (miniseries?) last night, and it was really good. One of my favorite books, and this show seems to hit that same mix of serious and funny without being cartoonish or sappy. I like the acting (George Clooney does a great Lt. Sheisskopf), the bombing missions are (I’m assuming accurately) intense, and the characters seem to be the right age.
The 1970s movie was full of old guys playing kids. And it had its good parts, but overall didn’t strike the right tone, in my opinion. So far I like this show better. A novel like that needs a miniseries format to really spread its wings anyway. A feature length movie is a stage too small for the drama.
I’ve seen the first three episodes and I agree 100%. The show captures the feel of the novel so much better than the original movie. The novel had a lot of mood whiplash and black comedy, which is translated well on the show. The movie tried to be a broad comedy in many scenes, which just made the last third that much more jarring. And the casting is spot on. I was particularly impressed with Kyle Chandler as Col. Cathcart, who was a rather flat character in the movie but really comes to life on the show.
A lot better than the movie. They’re doing a good job on what has to be hard material to adapt. Mixing the surrealism and black comedy with the actual drama can’t be easy.
We’re watching it too. Somehow I never read the book, so it will be interesting to see what happens to Yo-Yo. I understand not wanting to risk your life with bombing missions (Ivylad says there’s no way a commander can arbitrarily raise the mission count, that’s decision is made way far up) but his actions are leading to deaths that may not have happened otherwise.
I finished it last night. It was really good. I missed a few things from the book: “Where are the Snowdens of yesteryear?”, “two to the fighting eighth power”, Ex-PFC Wintergreen, The Great Loyalty Oath Crusade, Doc Daneeka declared dead against his own claims to the contrary. Oh, and Milo as the leader of various tribes in the jungles of Africa.
Overall it was one of the best screen adaptations of a novel I’ve seen. They even managed to capture the flashback/flashforward, out of chronological order aspect of the book without being too confusing. I’ll definitely be watching it again in the near future to see what I missed the first time around.
One thing about the book is that the first three quarters or so was fairly lighthearted and funny, despite the subject matter, but the last quarter of the book took a really dark turn. This series seemed to have the dark parts fairly evenly spread about, though the last two episodes did have Aarfy and Snowden and a generally darker tone overall.
Thanks for this thread. I’ve seen that the show is out on Hulu and wanted outside opinions on it before having a look. Yes, I’m lazy. I read the book (Joseph Heller even visited my college in my senior year and we had a reception complete with chocolate-covered cotton balls), and I saw the movie the year it came out. Since the Dope says the series is okay, that’s good enough for me!
the guy casually drives into enemy territory, rips down a Nazi banner, and strolls into a meeting like he owns the place [/spoiler]
was one of the funniest things I’ve seen in a long time.
Never got around to reading the novel or watching the movie–does this cover to the end of the novel, or is there room for a second season?
Well, I mentioned some stuff upthread from the books that didn’t make it into the show, but I think it’s mostly complete. If they make a second season, they’ll have to come up with new material. There was a sequel to the books written 30-40 years later. But it’s set thirty or forty years later too, when Yossarian is an old man. And it didn’t get the rave reviews Catch 22 did. So I doubt they’ll go that route.
I finished episode six and was deeply surprised that there weren’t more. It didn’t occur to me that the series might be considered complete at that point.
There are still major storylines missing, including the revenge of Nately’s Whore’s Sister, and Yossarian’s great rafting adventure. The Egyptian cotton incident could be left out – the series cuts a lot of the absurdism – but it is one of the book’s iconic scenes.
There are lots of elements missing in action:
A tight bombing pattern to look good in Life magazine. “I see everything twice!” “What kind of name is Yossarian?”. Yossarian’s deep love for the chaplain. The colonel’s contempt for the chaplain, and the chaplain’s spiritual resurrection.
The series is a lot better than the movie, but the book is one of the 20th century’s great novels.
The book had a fine surprise ending complete with hope for the future. The mini-series has spoilered it a little, but possibly not fatally (I won’t add details).
The series has some auxiliary features along with the six episodes. One of the features implies that having Yossarian naked in the bomber was the finale – the image being somewhat literal and somewhat metaphoric.
I think if the ratings skyrocket the producers will add a few more episodes. That’s a guess, but it could be easily done, plot-wise.
I liked it, but I was a bit underwhelmed by the ending and the general gutting of Orr’s storyline.
I mean: I read the book 25+ years ago and I can still recall the ending pretty vividly, but if you ask me 2 years from now how the miniseries ended, I probably won’t remember.
Cut and pasted from a thread I mistakenly started on this:
I watched this 6-part series over the past week and was impressed with the acting and production. But there was at least one glaring costume problem. Near the end, and this isn’t a spoiler, a young officer arrives and introduces himself as Lt. somebody. But he’s got sergeant’s stripes on his uniform sleeve. I can’t find any mention of this on the intertoobs, but it sure jumped out at me.
Overall, I’d recommend the series though. It does capture the absurdity that Heller was going for in his novel.
Surely it wasn’t a mistake on such a painstaking production - I assumed that meant he was a recent battlefield promotion, needed to fill an open (officer’s rank) slot since mortality was so high for bomber crews.
I think any filmed version will necessarily pale in comparison to the experience of reading the novel, but I thoroughly enjoyed the series, and think it was well worth watching.
I doubt there will be a second season (what more is there to say?), however I’m reminded that Heller did write a sequel (“Closing Time”) in the 1990’s - anyone ever read it? Thoughts?
I enjoyed the series very much. Wasn’t quite sure about it after the first episode but it definitely paid off. Read the book 30 years ago so forgot plenty, but it seems to me they got many of the key scenes right.
I loved the novel although I do forget some details. This was so good compared to the movie. I got way more emotionally invested in this. I think it was the cinematography, casting and where they chose to focus the storyline. I’ll watch it again.
Remember the guy who dropped his bag and went to the wrong tent and consequently got killed? There was a spot in the book where a new person moved into the tent (like the lutenenant at the end) but wasn’t allowed to moved the 1st guys bags (because only you can move your own bags). Does anyone else remember this?
Sort of unrelated, I read ‘Something Happened’ by Joseph Heller right after I read Catch-22 and thought it was pretty impressive as well. It had all the same dark themes.