Catastrophe, wittily, depicts the whole gamut of love and sex

Since I resubscribed to Netflix I have discovered, after the rest of the world, binge TV watching. But the question I have is – how could people sit through these TV series week after week, year after year, when now you can just sit down and watch them continually? Such is the case with the hit series, Catastrophe, which originally ran on Britain's Channel 4, a network that tends to broadcast edgier content. As is my rule of thumb with Netflix, I pick a show that looks interesting, watch it for one or two episodes, and if it doesn’t grab me, put it aside. But Catastrophe grabbed me straight away and turned into an almost weeklong delight of 24 episodes over four seasons, keeping me awake late at night. The series ran from 2015 – 2019 and has a pre-Covid feel about it. It stars Sharon Horgan, an Irish comedian, and Rob Delaney, an American actor, who both co-wrote every episode. Delaney as Rob is a Yank businessman in London who meets Sharon, a schoolteacher. They have a torrid fling without hardly getting to know one another. Sound familiar? That’s the likability of this absorbing story – the sort of honesty between two people, manifested in emotions that range from “love” to confusion, disorientation and sometime flat out stupidity as the characters try to understand one another, or don't. They are both alike and unalike. Sharon has more a bohemian streak while Rob is a stiff white-collar business type. But both are opinionated, witty and determined to put their own stamps on a relationship which generally meanders well but has its declining loops as they confront their own sometimes impossible personalities and forces around them - work, family, friends, the world. Sometimes they’re their own best friends, sometimes their own worst enemies. The dialogue is superb. So is the acting. And I wonder if in part it’s because the pair co-wrote it. Horgan and Delaney's characters are so in sync, regardless of their differences. It’s like they really are brother and sister or intimate partners. You can also tell the series was filmed in the pre-Covid era because it has guest appearances by Carrie Fisher (who died in 2016) and Chris Noth (Mr. Big of S&TC who got cancelled in 2021 due to sexual harassment allegations). Catastrophe screened on Netflix in Britain, where I watched it, and Amazon Prime bought the rights. Catastrophe - spare the gritty talk and references to bodily functions - just might be the  most searing, honest and funny television you’ll watch in awhile.