Catastrophe is a classic boy-meets-girl story, minus the classic part. It's about a boy who meets a girl, yes, but in this version they meet, have a weeklong fling, and end up with a child. Also, they're in their 40s.
Rob is a well-meaning, American ad man and recovering alcoholic who gave up booze after crapping his pants at his sister’s wedding. Sharon is an often funny, sometimes cruel, Irish schoolteacher. They’re both awful humans, but they’re awful together. And, despite—or, perhaps, because of—all their drama and horrible behavior, they’re perfect for each other. Catastrophe is about falling in love with a stranger under even stranger circumstances, and the challenge of staying in love as life throws fastballs your way.
The show stars Rob Delaney, of Twitter fame, as Rob Norris and prolific UK comedian Sharon Horgan as Sharon Morris. ("Morris and Norris," Sharon says when she finds out Rob’s last name, long after she’s already conceived. "Well, at least that’s fucking ridiculous.") There’s a stellar supporting cast, too, including Carrie Fisher as Mia, Rob’s toxic mother, and Tobias Menzies (Game of Thrones' Edmure Tully) as Sharon’s doctor. While it's a critical darling, Catastrophe has still managed to fly under the radar, so it's likely you haven't gotten obsessed with it yet. But if you like dark humor, dirty jokes, British television, or rom-coms, this is the show for you. Here's how to get caught up.
Number of Seasons: 2 (12 episodes)
Time Requirements: With each episode clocking in just around 25 minutes, bingeing is a breeze. It's about a five-hour time requirement. Buckle down for a whole day of the show or spend a week working through it two episodes at a time.
Where to Get Your Fix: Amazon Prime
Best Character to Follow: Rob and Sharon are consistently the funniest characters, and Sharon’s emotional storyline is one of the most compelling parts of the show’s excellent second season. But Chris (Mark Bonnar), the chain-vaping, beer-chugging, Adam-Sandler-loving, quietly menacing (but secretly totally huggable) foil to Rob is hilarious. And his marriage to Fran (Ashley Jensen), which starts out as a predictable subplot about a marriage gone cold, ends up becoming delightfully twisted. It's awkward to watch, but also quite funny.
Seasons/Episodes You Can Skip:
There are so few episodes here, it's smart just to go ahead and watch them all. But if you truly want to race through and only watch the highlights, here are the episodes that fall short.
Season 1: Episode 2 This episode is important for meeting some characters, such as Rob’s mom and his drug-addled friend Dave (Daniel Lapaine), plus Sharon’s empty-eyed, manic brother Fergal (Jonathan Forbes). ("I’ve already invested in them, they have braces and stuff now," he says when Sharon asks if he’s getting rid of his kids after he questions if she’ll get an abortion. "They're worth money.") But parts of the episode feel more exhausting than charming, particularly when Rob struggles to re-propose to Sharon. Feel free to jump ahead.
Season 1: Episode 3 Sharon has an awkward encounter and, later, dinner with an ex, who happens to be in a relationship with a woman who writes a famous Game of Thrones-like series of books. Sharon reveals that she has aspirations to write and has a very short-lived flirtation with taking the plunge into a creative life. While there’s some foreshadowing here about Sharon’s expectations for herself and how deception is a factor in her relationships, it all feels a little random this early in the series.
Seasons/Episodes You Can’t Skip:
Season 1: Episode 1 Rob picks Sharon up at a bar, and they have sex. The morning after, Sharon rips up Rob’s work visa to write down her number, he calls her out for stealing the tiny products from his hotel bathroom, and she tells him to open up a window because the room stinks. It’s love! "I want you to know that I’m gonna look back on my time with you and remember you as an extraordinarily good-smelling woman with a magical ass," Rob tells her. "And you’re smart, so you could even get away with being less attractive and you’d still be fairly attractive." Good thing he’s smitten with her, because it’s not long after Rob returns to the States that Sharon finds out she’s pregnant, a revelation that leads to this gem of a line: "I want to build a time machine out of your carcass and make it unhappen."
Season 1: Episode 4 Catastrophe deals with serious parts of being an adult—addiction, aging parents, and, in this episode, pregnancy complications. After finding out about their high risk for having a child with Down syndrome, Rob and Sharon navigate what that would mean for them. "Sorry I sent you out of the room," Sharon says of the amnio. "I would’ve let you stay if you weren’t audibly crying—you know, if there hadn't been a noise complaint."
Season 1: Episode 5 Thanks to Rob's mother Mia’s expert emotional sabotage, Sharon finds out about Betsy, Rob’s ex who miscarried. Naturally, she becomes obsessed, looking Betsy up on Facebook and twisting her hair around to create faux-bangs to see what she’d look like with Betsy’s ’do. (We’ve all been there, Sharon.) Meanwhile, Rob gets a new job with the mega-evil Braebrand pharmaceutical company. Oh, and Breabrand is trying to do some, er, PR cleanup after their last drug killed off a bunch of older dudes. "Well, that's... wow," Rob says. "I mean, I guess if you’re gonna be allegedly responsible for some people not being alive anymore, then old men are the best ones."
Season 1: Episode 6 Rob and Sharon’s bachelor(ette) parties go totally off the rails. The men head to a strip club, where Fergal is too depressed to wear anything but a bathrobe and Chris runs into an old flame. At Sharon’s party, we meet Kate, who is the ACTUAL WORST. Naturally, Kate takes E, bashes her head open, and then runs off with a man who owns a houseboat. Rob and Sharon’s wedding is a disaster, too—albeit an awkward, totally sweet one—until their wedding night, which starts with a fight and ends with Sharon's water breaking.
Season 2: Episode 1 In a moment that feels like déjà vu from Season 1, this episode starts with Rob and a pregnant Sharon in bed. Per usual, they have a big fight ("If you come anywhere near me, I’m gonna scream," Rob grumbles.), which leads to sex. And then, surprise! Their toddler, Frankie, and dog burst into the room mid-coitus. Turns out we’ve jumped forward in time. Baby Number One arrived long ago and Baby Two (with the nearly unpronounceable name Muireann) is on the way. Nearly three years after meeting, Rob and Sharon still fight and freak out, but they’re working as a team to make this thing work—particularly when their family and friends show up for a party to celebrate Muireann’s birth.
Season 2: Episode 2 Sharon deals with Paloma Faith-loving "mombies" as she struggles with feeling stuck in motherhood. “All we do is get me pregnant," she laments. "What are we, farmers?" Meanwhile, Rob is dealing with a load of sexual frustration—just as Olivia (Emmanuelle Bouaziz), a new French co-worker, enters the scene. She looks like bad news. And, oh boy, is she ever.
Season 2: Episode 3 The supporting cast shines in this episode. Chris, now separated from Fran, decides to start having sex with trans women. Keep an eye out for a cameo from Sharon’s ob-gyn from Season 1 at the gay club. The language he uses to discuss it isn’t totally savory, but, as far as exploring sexual attraction goes, you do you, Chris! After one too many "sexual rain checks," Rob and Sharon take a weekend trip to Paris—and realize they’ve left the breast pump at home.
Season 2: Episode 4 As funny as it is, maybe it’s not a great sign that Sharon keeps asking Rob about cheating. Things get dark at their anniversary dinner and we learn the truth about the trauma of Frankie’s premature birth.
Season 2: Episode 5 Oh, do things take a turn. Rob thinks he’s hashed things out with Olivia but he, really, really hasn’t. Sharon finds out about the money Rob lent her brother behind her back and realizes she’s not ready to go back to work.
Season 2: Episode 6 Aaaaand just when you thought things couldn’t get worse, everything implodes in a big way. We find out Sharon kicked Rob out after finding out about Olivia’s sexual harassment claims. He's staying at Dave’s horrifying, krokodil-coated home. When he Googles "Is alcoholism a myth?" you know it’s not going to end well. Kate shows up for another disastrous night with Sharon—one with serious consequences. Rob and Sharon reconcile, but a lot of ugliness has been pulled out of the box, maybe more than they can shove back in.
Why You Should Binge:
The show is funny—very, very funny, like, laugh-out-loud-every-episode funny. A lot of it’s brilliance comes in the incredibly timed punch lines (always when you least expect it) and, of course, in Sharon and Rob’s delight in each other’s bad behavior and dirty jokes. If you watch this with a longtime romantic partner, you’ll probably find yourself glancing over at them because you’ve had a moment just like Sharon and Rob—and then you’ll be horrified because, oh my god, you’ve had a moment just like Sharon and Rob.
Best Scene—"Gollum":
Just. This.
The Takeaway:
To quote Sharon, "It’s like if a normal courtship is a dance, then ours is like a heart attack or a seizure or something."
If You Liked Catastrophe You’ll Love: Divorce, created by Sharon Horgan and starring Sarah Jessica Parker, premieres on HBO this fall. In the meantime, check out (or re-watch) Rob Delaney Live at the Bowery Ballroom on Netflix, Sharon Horgan’s Pulling, Louie, Transparent, Togetherness, and You’re the Worst.
