Acerbic rom-com probes life’s slog in its final season
When “Catastrophe” began in 2015, its title seemed to refer to a discrete event. Rob (Rob Delaney), an American businessman visiting London, had a whirlwind fling of marathon sex with Sharon (Sharon Horgan), who got pregnant. He stayed, they married, they bumpily transitioned from unplanned pregnancy to an unplanned life.
By the raunchy, glorious end of its fourth and final season — which arrived last week on Amazon — Rob and Sharon have been through health scares, family losses, infidelity, alcoholism and the sundry exhaustions of life with two small children.
“Catastrophe,” it is clear, refers not to a single occurrence but to a state of being — the chaos of life, which this comedy depicts with deadly honest charm.
Sharp-witted and outspoken, Sharon is the more cynical of the two but, therefore, often the more perceptive of the two. Rob is more laid-back, but his swallowed-down stress can turn into passive-aggression. It’s also expressed itself in a drinking problem that he had under control until the end of Season 3.
The final season picks up after Rob’s car crash under the influence has cost him his driver’s license, put him in a neck brace and left Sharon wary of trusting him.
It’s not a spoiler to say that they get through this; getting through is, in a way, the subject of “Catastrophe.” Rob and Sharon’s relationship is a love story, a war story and an alliance.
It’s a grown-up romance, and the final season leans into the themes of middle age and maturity (or lack thereof). Rob and Sharon’s friends are dealing with midlife variously, be it splitting up their marriages or getting really into disaster prep.
The season also introduces Rob’s sister, Sydney (Michaela Watkins), who’s become a Quaker, a peaceable practice that baffles her brother and sister-in-law, who can’t believe you can just train yourself never to be angry. (Spoiler alert: You can’t.)
The idea that falling in love and having kids isn’t the start of a limitless adventure but a narrowing of life paths isn’t a typical rom-com conclusion. But where is the lie? “Catastrophe” is smart and aware about the costs of commitment, especially for women. It’s also the rare feminist TV comedy whose perspective is split evenly between male and female protagonists.
Like the previous seasons, the final installment of “Catastrophe” is six short, neatly contained episodes. It’s the rare series in this era of streaming binge marathons whose seasons actually feel too short. With less than three hours to play out, the emotional turns can feel abrupt and the resolutions sudden.
But it also finds the greatest emotional depths of the series in a story line that acknowledges the real-life death of Carrie Fisher, who played Rob’s mother, Mia, and co-writers Delaney and Horgan maintain a tone of mordant optimism.
“When is it all going to stop being such a slog?” Sharon asks Rob at one point. There’s no answer, except the one that this show has acerbically given for four seasons. It doesn’t stop until everything does. The slog, the catastrophe, is life.