Thoughts on Catastrophe
First impressions are important. The first time my in-laws saw me, I was diving into a bouncy castle screaming “you bastards!”
For them at least, it was love at first sight. It took much longer to convince my fiancée.
Nevertheless I learnt an important lesson – from that initial moment; you need to grab people, quickly and vigorously. Not unlike airport security.
This message was reiterated when I watched the first episode of the new sitcom, Catastrophe, written by the incredibly talented Sharon Horgan and Rob Delaney. It’s fair to say, within 10 minutes, it had me by the meaty cakepops.
It’s not a hard premise to understand – a couple accidentally get pregnant after a week-long fling, then have to deal with the consequences that follow. It’s what would happen if Judd Apatow had hired an editor on Knocked Up.
The show handles everything elegantly and with minimal fuss. And most importantly, it does it in a very funny way.
Sitcom pilots are hard work and it seems as though they’re getting harder. Very few new comedies win grab me these days. That’s not a criticism of the talent out there, more an acknowledgment of just how hard it is to write a funny, concise script that sets up a show and brings in big laughs. Fair play to anyone trying to give it a go, we are the real heroes.
Don’t get me wrong, there have been some truly brilliant pilot episodes over the years – one person who seems able to nail it time and again is Graham Linehan.
From the first episode of Father Ted with Funland and the spider baby, to The IT Crowd’s Yesterday’s Jam, featuring the funniest phone number ever (2nd prize must go to The League of Gentlemen’s 4444244 – “it’s a real feature of the house”), not to mention Black Books’ Little Book of Calm-swallowing debut.
I understand how difficult it is to create a first episode, which is why I have no writing credits to my name. It’s because I understand this that I rarely form an opinion on a show after the first episode.
I have a rule of three – give it three episodes, if one’s naff and two are great; stick with it. If two are shit and one’s just OK – cut and run.
A lot of people use the same method with Mad Men, though they replace ‘episodes’ with ‘seasons’, as if devoting over 30 hours of your life to something you don’t enjoy is ultimately worthwhile.
It didn’t work for religion; it’s not going to work for blatant subtext about objectifying women and the dangers of excessive smoking.
Another classic pilot I returned to recently was Arrested Development. For a show as convoluted and individual as that, the pilot episode really sets up the story, the characters and the tone beautifully.
It’s precision writing, and yet there’s an extended pilot on the DVD which doesn’t make me laugh anywhere near as much as the broadcast version. It just goes to show how tight the line is when getting something like this right.
The thing is, in the best first episodes you can’t see the writer’s hand, just watch. You understand the premise, enjoy the characters and laugh along at the comic moments.
Whereas with an unsuccessful pilot, it’s much easier to see the cogs working to grind disparate elements of the story together, similar to how I create my speciality dish; biscuit and duck roulade.
I do worry that, as I get older, it’s getting harder to find things that really make me laugh. I don’t know if that’s because I spend so much time thinking about and writing comedy, not to mention writing about thinking about comedy, and writing about thinking about writing comedy.
It’s not as if the desire isn’t there; with every show I watch, even ones that aren’t really aimed at me, I hope they will be my next Arrested Development, or Father Ted. Who knows, maybe I’m just dead inside?
Ultimately, while not every show will leave a lasting impression, the ones that do will stay with me. I’ll return to them time after time, and appreciate them more with every viewing. And isn’t that what every writer is trying to achieve?
Well done Sharon and Rob, you nailed it; I’ll definitely be watching more of Catastrophe. Who knows, maybe the next episode will be shit?
