Catastrophe - General Discussion

[Duke2801]

I love this show so damn much, and I’m so glad it’s back. I’ve already watched the first two episodes of season 4, and I’m sure I’ll have it completed by the end of the weekend. I love these characters—funny, messy, real. 

On a superficial level, does Sharon ever age?? She’s just as youthful looking and beautiful now as she was in the first season! 

[QQQQ]

Spoiler

Finished all episodes and, while I still appreciated the show's smart dialogue and the actors' comedic timing, I grew tired of how they went from 0 to 60 in terms of love-hate. It got to be too hard to stay invested in the drama bc I knew fights would be forgotten and peace would never last. As an onlooker,  I shouldn't be asked to care more than the two main characters. I wanted to borrow Rob's neck brace for my emotional whiplash. I thought some of the best moments happened when they supported one another despite their differences. This just turned into the Bickersons with fewer and fewer sweet moments. 

I would have been fine with them being swept out to sea; I choose to fanwank the kids were fine and ended up with a more stable family - I don't think that would have been too difficult. 

For the record, I love dark comedy, dislike traditional happy family sitcoms, and am surprised at my reaction to what had been one of favorite shows. The critics are raving, so maybe I need to give it some distance and rewatch next year. I'd so been looking forward to season 4, rewatched 1-3 last weekend... I don't know.

Edited March 16, 2019 by QQQQ

[yourmomiseasy]

Every time I saw them pushing around the empty stroller I was pre-occupied with where the baby was.  The empty seat was clearly for an older child like Frankie.  Was it some weird double decker stroller where the baby is down by the ground under the older child seat?  Because that seems like a stupid design.

[scrb]

I liked Sharon blaming her son for switching the price tags.

then the son dropped a dime on her and then she blamed alcoholic husband.

[cailinoBAC]

Ha, the buggy thing really annoyed me too! All the time I was like, 'where's Muireann? '

[Maire]

I love this show but agree about the whiplash. I don’t see how they keep coming back from the cutting, cruel things they (especially Rob) say. Brutal.

This season I really appreciated the rest of the cast. Chris and her Fergil were hilarious.

[scrb]

It's as if two insult comics decided to get married.  There's wit in some of the putdowns.  So many great lines that it's impossible to remember them all.

Series is relatively short, like 24 episodes over 4-5 years now?  It could be savored like Fawlty Towers, which also left you wanting more because of its sheer brilliance.

I look at the last scene as them taking a plunge, re-committing after all that they've been through -- and all that they will continue to endure.

Tonally, it's more than the Bickersons, each trying to outdo each other with verbal cruelty and honing their talons.  I started rewatching and Rob is trying to do the right thing from the beginning, because he never had a father.  His friends and even his mother -- I didn't even remember that Carrie Fisher has been around since the first season -- told them to shirk his responsibility.

That would be the only explanation for why they've stuck it out through all the recriminations and fights.  He always had the option to bail but he didn't and pursued her when Sharon at first was reluctant.

If they could overcome the absurdity of Norris and Morris, they can overcome anything?

[Duke2801]

I enjoyed this season as much as past ones, but I’m not sure how I feel about the finale.

**spoilers**

I guess it means that if she dies, he’s going down with her... which I suppose to can be construed as a romantic gesture in this dark-comedy-I love you-I hate you world.  Of course, at the same time, it’s also unspeakably selfish because it would leave 2 small kids as orphans. 

Well despite the ambiguity, I’ve enjoyed the ride these 2 took us on the past 5 years. Cheers!

[scrb]

I don't think they're willingly committing suicide.  They're not teens thinking that life is cruel or whatever.

Maybe they swim out too far than they should and get pulled under.

But they have every intention of swimming back to their children.

The question is, do they make it?  I guess they wanted to end it ambiguously like The Sopranos.

Who knows, the fans may goad them into doing a follow up movie in a few years and they may comply if their other projects don't get bigger traction.  But this show doesn't have the following that The Sopranos did, which is doing a prequel, or Breaking Bad, which is doing a sequel, in addition to Better Call Saul which can be seen as a prequel.

[Duke2801]

Well maybe not suicide perse. But they weren’t heading back to shore at the end, so idk.

And their comments - Sharon’s and Rob’s - about the finale were that it was meant to be surprising/shocking. 

I think they purposely left it ambiguous. 

Edited March 17, 2019 by Duke2801

[Irlandesa]

1 hour ago, Duke2801 said:

But they weren’t heading back to shore at the end, so idk.

I thought they were heading back.  It's ambiguous if they actually made it back but I think they were slowly heading that way.

I took the end as a metaphor.  More metaphorical than they usually get but a metaphor.  I was looking up rip tides/rip currents (which I think the warning was about) last year because I was going to be in an area where they were potentially an issue on some beaches.  They are survivable if you don't panic and don't try and fight the current.  Float or tread water until you're able to swim outside of the current and then move back towards shore.  So I guess it can kind of be like difficulties in marriage that overtake you.  Remain calm and methodically work your way back to shore.

I enjoyed the final season even though it was hard to remember some of the secondary characters since it has been so long since I watched the third season.  Even though they could be brutally snippy towards one another, I liked feeling they were on each other's side.

[Garden Wafers]

15 hours ago, scrb said:

I don't think they're willingly committing suicide.  They're not teens thinking that life is cruel or whatever.

Maybe they swim out too far than they should and get pulled under.

But they have every intention of swimming back to their children.

The question is, do they make it?  I guess they wanted to end it ambiguously like The Sopranos.

Who knows, the fans may goad them into doing a follow up movie in a few years and they may comply if their other projects don't get bigger traction.  But this show doesn't have the following that The Sopranos did, which is doing a prequel, or Breaking Bad, which is doing a sequel, in addition to Better Call Saul which can be seen as a prequel.

I didn't get a suicidal vibe either. I just thought it referenced a story beat that has been ever present throughout the show's run: two 40-year-old adults engage in risky behavior when they really should know better. Sure, they'd probably be scared witless if they realized how far away from shore they were after they went into the water; but they'd also be terrified if they could have somehow foreseen their lives after they had unprotected sex multiple times in a week. So I'm not particularly worried about the two of them making it back to land; the past four seasons have done a pretty good job showing how this particular couple reach safety after a disaster of their own making. 

[ruby24]

On 3/16/2019 at 11:10 PM, Maire said:

I love this show but agree about the whiplash. I don’t see how they keep coming back from the cutting, cruel things they (especially Rob) say. Brutal.

This is what I love most about the show. I LOVE how mean they are. I don't know what that says about me, lol. But I love how they can say the cruelest things and then be making each other laugh in the next scene again. I don't know, it feels real to me. Although I guess a lot of people definitely couldn't take those kinds of exchanges and just get over them, but I like that Rob and Sharon are so non-romantic and yet clearly do love each other. It's unique to their relationship, it's how they work. They know that there's really nothing they can say that would mean so much that they couldn't get over it.

I'm surprised people are confused about the ending. I guess it is interpretive. I totally took it as a metaphor, that swimming against the tide, or drifting out to sea represents the unpredictability and constant waviness of all relationships, and people just have to keep treading water to stay above it. I loved it.

[QQQQ]

59 minutes ago, ruby24 said:

But I love how they can say the cruelest things and then be making each other laugh in the next scene again. I don't know, it feels real to me. Although I guess a lot of people definitely couldn't take those kinds of exchanges and just get over them, but I like that Rob and Sharon are so non-romantic and yet clearly do love each other. It's unique to their relationship, it's how they work. They know that there's really nothing they can say that would mean so much that they couldn't get over it.

This would all be well and good except that there are two - soon to be three - children also absorbing these cruel exchanges. How many times did the camera pan to the Frankie watching Sharon and Rob argue, before they would notice and take their fighting to a different room (as if voices don't carry)? Even (the mostly invisible in her pram) Muireann was within earshot of a lot of anger. The baggage the children could end up carrying into their own adult relationships - where they might not find mates so willing to serve as verbal sparring partners - is scary. If we had been shown flashbacks to either Sharon or Rob's parents fighting like that, most would have felt sympathy, not been amused by the behavior. 

[asc85]

I guess I'm in the minority here on this show.  I was disappointed in Season 4.  I thought it was much too mean-spirited towards each other.  It's been two years since Season 3, and I can't believe my tastes would have changed so much, that what they said to each other in Seasons 1-3 were the same as what they said this year, but now I don't like it.  Both characters seemed very unhappy this year, so they just lashed out at each other and others.  There were still funny moments, and I thought that Episode 5 was probably the best of the six.  But the tone of this season was not something I appreciated.  

[gesundheit]

I'm so sad it's over. I wouldn't say I loved this season as much as the others, but it was still really good. And boy do those two weirdos like having babies.

The recurring commentary on Rob's dad being yellow was so funny and disturbing and gross. Good makeup job!

Frankly I surprised myself by how delighted I was by Chris and Fran's reunion.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Rob Delaney & Sharon Horgan discuss S4 of Catastrophe

[abc123]

… Just finished the series. I will miss the banjo and yodeling music. I will miss Sharon’s good hair and stifled “are you fucking kidding me?“ sort of laugh. I like how they were The Bickersons, and I do think it is realistic to have someone in the relationship taking the other one for granted etc. I will also miss Chris’ witty barbs (those that I could catch).

 However, I  _hate_ ambiguous endings. Were they supposed to die? The ultimate catastrophe? Or land on their feet like they have done to date? Ack! Also, I agree with those who feel that their insults did cut too deep. They took it about five levels higher than just a bickering type of relationship. 

 I will still miss the show even though it wasn’t perfect. 

[chocolatine]

I thought it was a great final season! Some of the insults (especially Rob's) did make me uncomfortable, but we all know that one couple in real life who fight really dirty but somehow still love each other and make it work. I hope neither of them died in the end - that would be too dark.

"Sharon London Sex" popping up on Rob's caller ID is one of my favorite sight gags of all time.

[Pj3422]

I love how after all this time & two kids, she’s still in his phone as “Sharon London Sex.”

[Irritable]

I didn’t realize when I binged all 4 seasons that the finale was the last episode ever. I would have tried to savor season 4 more had I realized that.  
 

I choose to believe they had a hard time getting back to shore, but they made it because they were together. It’s too dark for me to think of them drowning with the two kids trapped in the car. It would be a ridiculous ending for this family, so I rebuke the idea.