I’ll add my voice to the chorus of those who loved the book, found the film a bit meh, and find this a great improvement. Of course there is stuff missing - to include everything from the 400-page novel would drastically increase the length - and I too wondered why they didn’t include Doc Daneeka being ‘in’ McWatt’s fatal crash, or more of the dialogue in Yossarian’s court martial with Scheisskopf (paraphrased and cut down: “What the hell kind of name is that?” “It’s Yossarian’s name, sir.” “And what’s your name?” “Popinjay” “You’re next, Popinjay - as soon as this court martial is finished, yours begins. Are your parents, rich, Popinjay?” “No sir” “That’s good. Who are your parents?” “They’re dead, sir.” “That’s very good”).
Also, I’d missed that there are 6 episodes, I assumed episode 5 was the end, since it finished on what seemed like a note similar to the novel (albeit much less satisfactory). So thanks for the nudge to find and watch the finale!
Being that I’ve long since gotten over the illogical nature of the catch (if the US Air Force wants to determine if a bomber is psychologically fit to fly, they will have periodic examinations to determine this that do not require said bomber to request one), I was able to enjoy this series quite a bit. While different in tone than the movie, each had reasons to like them. And, it looked fucking fantastic, the bombing runs especially. Since movies are inherently different than books they may be based on, I don’t think it’s all that fair to compare them, so I won’t.