Catch-22

Making a direct adaptation of any novel is next to impossible, and even more so with Catch-22. That being said, as someone who loves the book and has read it multiple times, I'm incredibly pleased with this series. George Clooneys direction has a very coen brothers feel, and I think goes well with the overall tone of the book, and makes for a great show.

This is my favorite book. I watched the movie ages ago and hated it. This miniseries makes up for it. The casting is amazing. I always envisioned Yossarian as young and attractive and this actor does him justice. The first few episodes had me rolling with laughter. Much like the book, as the story goes on, it gets darker. I didn't like how the ending is completely different than the book. I wish they could have added a little more of the zany humor and I wish it would have been a few episodes longer. Also if I had been writing, I would have added more foreshadowing of Orr and his flying crashes and how he was always trying to coerce Yossarian to fly with him. Yoyo's A-HA moment was very anticlimactic. Other than that. It was pretty good. I binged them all on one day. When I watched I was watching for similarities to the book. I will probably watch again with fresher eyes as a series instead of an adaptation.

The Mike Nichols 1970 adaptation is a masterpiece in virtually every way. Amazing cinematography, innovative de-constructed screenplay, absolutely perfect casting, and most importantly genuinely conveys the dark insanity of the war as Heller's novel portrays, the absurdity of the military, and the banality of evil. Spectacular in every respect.

Despite being 6 hours rather than 2, this really adds nothing, while falling short of the original film's concise storytelling. It's very pedestrian and TV movie in its approach looks more like an Abercrombie & Fitch commercial than a serious film. Interchangeable pretty boys that fail to differentiate themselves as characters.

It's competent and very watchable, but to me it falls well short of the film to an almost embarrassing degree. Not quite as bad a comparison as the TV version of "The Shining" to the Kubrick film, but damn close...

One of the greatest books ever written, certainly as an anti-war film. I had never heard of the guy who played Yossarian, but he was amazing. His face is so emotive and he captured the complexity of his character. Yossarian is not a hero; some call him a bit of a coward, but he represents something in all of us. He doesn't want to die because some bullying general who never flies a mission. He has done his duty but they keep adding more missions every time he approaches his discharge limit. For those of you who totally missed the point and were expecting a regular war movie, did you get what the title means?

The book is above all about the characters so that I was expecting a brilliant script for a whole series dedicating at least a chapter to each of them, just like in the novel. The reading of the Heller's novel was so much fun because if you were not able to grasp what was really going on because the telling wasn't following any linear time (and this is also a clever device to let the reader forming the idea about the chaos of war and combat) at least you were hooked to the story of each of the guys, following them to the next chapter and crossroad when another one was met to keep the story going. The movie wasn't that far from the written pages but had to cut some memorable characters because of the constraint of time: in a series they had so much time they should have profited immensely by just building up on each of them: in our times we have seen some great examples both in movies and TV series with multiple characters' story lines crisscrossing and weavering into a surprising design that we come to realize only at the end, and we enjoy the ride on such marvelous story telling style that leaves us enriched and amazed. Not to speak of the complete lack of the satirical vein: it is not coming through at all. If the production values (cinematography, location, costumes, sets, actors, CGI) are ok if not excellent, the scripting was uninspired, poor and mindless: ultimately this faulty script brings the complete failure to the whole effort.