It was roughly a year ago that Hulu scooped up George Clooney’s ambitious adaptation of Joseph Heller’s Catch-22, a book many feel is too sprawling and layered to translate onscreen. Mike Nichols’ 1970 adaptation, for example, is a mixed bag, and subsequent efforts to capture Heller’s wry, paranoid vision of World War II have all bit the dust. Along with Clooney, writers David Michod and Luke Davies are responsible for this latest stab, which, per the above trailer, at least feels tonally on point.


Girls’ Christopher Abbott, whose raw performances in James White and Piercing mark him as a talent to watch, stars as Yossarian, an unraveling WWII bombardier stationed in Italy . Kyle Chandler co-stars as the red-faced Colonel Cathcart, while Kevin J. O’Connor, Hugh Laurie, Giancarlo Giannini, and Clooney himself—returning to TV for the first time since ER— round out the cast. Clooney directs the first two episodes, with Ellen Kuras and Grant Heslov manning the final four.



Prepare to fly more missions when the six-part series lands on May 17.