Catastrophe
Storyline
The whole story, ending included.
A week-long fling, a pregnancy, and a marriage built entirely on saying the rude thing out loud.
Sharon Morris, an Irish primary school teacher of forty-one living in London, meets Rob Norris, an American advertising executive in town on business, in a bar. They spend six days having sex, and he flies home to Boston. Thirty-two days later she phones to tell him she is pregnant. He comes back, proposes, and stays. The first series takes them through anxious scans, Rob's mother, Mia, telling him from America to come home and forget the whole thing, Sharon's family and a brief plan of Rob's to retrain as a vet, to a register-office wedding. They are arguing in their honeymoon hotel when her waters break.
In the second series they have a small son, Frankie, and a new daughter, Muireann, and are short of sleep and sex. Rob, bored at work, is drawn to a French colleague, Olivia, who later accuses him of sexual harassment; he denies it. Their friends Fran and Chris separate. Rob moves out and, after years of sobriety, starts drinking again, while Sharon gets drunk with a friend and cannot remember what happened with a young student she left the bar with.
In the third series they struggle back together through money worries and childcare. Sharon's father, Des, has a stroke and dies. After the funeral, with Mia staying in their house, Rob collects Sharon drunk from a bar; while he is parking, another car hits his, and he confesses that he has been drinking again and will fail the breath test. It was Carrie Fisher's last series, and its final episode is dedicated to her.
In the fourth, Rob is convicted of drink-driving and sentenced to community service and Alcoholics Anonymous, and Sharon is caught switching price tags in shops. They take the children to Boston, and on arrival learn that Mia has died. Walking back from a memorial by the sea, they have the worst argument of their marriage; Rob tells her he does not like her and that he wants to take a job in Boston. Sharon agrees to move with him. On a beach, with the children asleep in the car, she tells him she is pregnant again, strips to her underwear and walks into the sea. Rob sees a sign warning of riptides and swims out after her. They kiss, and the camera pulls away until they are small and far from the shore.
Starring
Sharon Horganas Sharon Morris
An Irish primary school teacher in London who finds herself pregnant at forty-one after a six-day fling with an American.
Sharon Morris’s story
Sharon phones Rob thirty-two days after their week together to say she is pregnant, and accepts his proposal when he comes back. She talks him out of retraining as a vet, learns from his mother of a lost pregnancy he never mentioned, and marries him at a register office; her waters break in their honeymoon hotel. With two small children, she is furious to learn that Rob hid a harassment complaint from her. After a drunken night she cannot remember what happened with a young student, and later learns they did not sleep together. She loses her father, is caught switching price tags in shops, and hears Rob say that he does not like her. She agrees to move to Boston with him, tells him on a beach that she is pregnant again, and goes swimming in the sea.
Rob Delaneyas Rob Norris
An American advertising executive and recovering alcoholic who moves to London to raise the child and marries Sharon.
Rob Norris’s story
Rob flies back to London when Sharon phones with the news, proposes before he has a ring, and tells his mother he will raise his son. Married with two children and bored at work, he is drawn to a French colleague, Olivia, who then accuses him of harassment, which he denies. He moves out, and in a hotel room breaks years of sobriety. He goes on drinking in secret until the night another car hits his, and he confesses it before the breath test. Convicted, he does community service and goes to Alcoholics Anonymous. In Boston, after his mother's death, he tells Sharon he does not like her and wants to take a job there. When she goes swimming, he sees a riptide warning and swims out after her, and they kiss far from shore.
Ashley Jensenas Fran
Sharon's friend and sometime rival, whose marriage to Chris falls apart alongside the couple's own troubles.
Carrie Fisheras Mia Norris
Rob's blunt American mother, who first tells him to forget the pregnancy and later moves in with the couple, to their dismay.
Why it matters
Catastrophe takes its title from Zorba the Greek: wife, children, house, everything, the full catastrophe. Sharon Horgan and Rob Delaney, who wrote it and play the couple, built a love story on the least romantic premise available, an accidental pregnancy at forty-one, and then kept going past the wedding into the parts romantic comedies leave out: no sleep, sex that has to be planned, a father's confusion and death, a relapse into drinking, a mother lost without warning. The series is frank about Rob's alcoholism and does not tidy his relapse away; he is convicted, and the marriage has to absorb it. It was also Carrie Fisher's last television role. The final image, two people swimming out past a riptide warning while their children sleep, was built, Delaney said, as a buffet of feelings, and whether marriage is a rescue or a dare is left open.