Amazon’s ‘Catastrophe’ Is A Very Good Television Show

Sam Wilkinson

According to a faithful reader, I'm Ordinary Times's "least thoughtful writer." So I've got that going for me, which is nice.

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35 Responses

  1. LeeEsq says:

    Is a television show a television show if you don’t watch it on a television set?Report

  2. Chris says:

    I will watch this show, but since it sounds like it’s basically my life at 21…Report

  3. aaron david says:

    My best friend from college had a horrendously bad divorce about 4 years ago and stayed away from women afterwords. Until about around December that is, when a friend decided that he needed a girlfriend and blind dated him. Cut to now, with a baby due in October. He is 45 and she is 44. Much hilarity.Report

    • Richard Hershberger in reply to aaron david says:

      I was roughly that age when I had my two kids, though my wife was younger. I had the good sense to rob a cradle, so she was still in her thirties. In any case, while there are any number of reasons why I would have been completely unprepared to have kids when I was younger, it would have been a heck of a lot easier chasing toddlers around.Report

    • Chris in reply to aaron david says:

      Oh man.Report

      • aaron david in reply to Chris says:

        Well, they both seem happy which is nice. My son was born when I was 24 and 20 years later is doing quite well in college. With the plus that I get another 20 years to pack it in for my retirement without worrying about tuition and such. So I got that going for me, which is nice…Report

        • Chris in reply to aaron david says:

          My son’s mom and I had a brief fling when I was 21 and she was 20. She got pregnant, we tried to make it work, failed miserably after a couple years, and now I can’t stand to be in the same room with her. My son is wonderful, and sitting next to me as always, but man that was rough for a while, trying to make it work between two people who had no business trying to be a couple.Report

  4. Mike HR Rice says:

    Britain, which is a country in England

    I don’t know if this is an inside joke of some sort, but this is reversed.Report

  5. Saul Degraw says:

    There are way too many streaming services to subscribe to.

    That is all.Report

    • Sam Wilkinson in reply to Saul Degraw says:

      Amazon’s deserves special attention, what with it being so much more than a simple streaming service. $100 annually for the media/shipping/books/music? It’s unbeatable.Report

      • Glyph in reply to Sam Wilkinson says:

        I tell everyone this, but if you are in no rush for whatever physical item you are ordering via Prime to arrive, choose “no-rush” shipping at checkout. Shipping’ll take an extra couple days, but you get a buck or two credit you can use towards paid digital downloads. If you order as frequently as I do, that’s a free album every couple weeks.

        Suck it, Columbia House!Report

        • Kazzy in reply to Glyph says:

          Al…bum…?Report

          • Glyph in reply to Kazzy says:

            You know – a collection; a compilation; a compendium; an anthology. A group of related musical works, which are gathered together in an intentionally-ordered series. A CD, an LP, a cassette, or a downloaded electronic file folder containing such items – even if virtual – may be thought of as an “album”.

            Speaking of, I need to rename my P.I.L. MP3’s as “Digital File”.Report

        • Will Truman in reply to Glyph says:

          What you’re saying is true, and yet… I want my two day delivery whether I need it or not and I got Prime for the two day delivery and I can’t be rational about this because two day delivery.Report

  6. LeeEsq says:

    A simple yes or no would suffice but does Catastrophe give a good reason why Sharon doesn’t get an abortion or does it fall into the long list of entertainment where an abortion inexplicably doesn’t happen.Report

    • Richard Hershberger in reply to LeeEsq says:

      Based on the first two episodes, which I watched last evening upon this recommendation, she considers and discusses it, and decides against it. The reasoning is not perfectly clear, but that seems realistic enough. She seems to realize she wants to have a baby, and is at an age where this can be problematic, so decides to keep this one even if the surrounding circumstances are not ideal.Report

    • Sam Wilkinson in reply to LeeEsq says:

      1. I think we’ve fought about this before, haven’t we?

      2. The first answer is practical – because the show revolves around a pregnancy. If there’s no pregnancy, there’s no show, or at least, there’s a different one that isn’t called Catastrophe. And the show’s scenes featuring the agonizing reality of pregnancy – like the precancer, like the fear of Down Syndrome, etc – also don’t happen. There is, in fact, no reason for Rob to come back to Britain/England. He and Sharon agreed their time together was great and that they’ll always have fond memories for one another…before the pregnancy.

      3. The second answer might be a broader discussion of how our media encourages us to believe that we always must be shown an explanation for everything. I suppose we could assume that, for Sharon’s character, abortion wasn’t an option, but heaven forbid we do that without it being explicitly told to us (although it was obviously explicitly shown to us)?

      4. If I’m correct in remembering that you and I have fought about this before, the real answer here is a deeper and uglier assumption that choosing abortion is some sort of mathematical equation and not something far more complicated. We don’t have to do this again of course, but if the facts on display aren’t enough for you – Sharon chooses not to have an abortion, despite considering it on two separate occasions – then the issue is you, not her.Report

    • Kazzy in reply to LeeEsq says:

      @leeesq

      Are you similarly curious about how good a reason Sharon (or Rob) have for choosing to engage in extramarital sex? Or do you accept THAT as something that doesn’t need justifying but cannot accept the character not having an abortion without a “good” reason offered?Report