Sharon Horgan co-wrote, and starred in, 'Pulling', one of my favourite comedies, a story of three women about thirty years of age but still with little in the way of grown up ideas about how to live their lives. 'Pulling' combined wild comedy with a quieter whiff of desperation and failure. Horgan's new series, 'Catastrophe', features a similar character to the one she played before but ten years down the line, unexpectedly getting pregnant and finding a husband in the process. A lot of the comedy is similar, sharp, bleak and silly at the same time, but the series isn't quite as good as its predecessor: it's a bit too fast-paced, a string of gags which may be funny in themselves but the basic characterisation is thinner, and Horgan's character is transparently annoying (whereas her previous persona was superficially the every-woman surrounded by crazies, whose issues were real but more subtly handled). It's far from awful, but it lacks the chilling ring of truth that oddly, made 'Pulling' so hilarious.
Review of Catastrophe
