Catastrophe is a British sitcom which premiered in January 2015 for a first series of six episodes. Irishwoman Sharon (Sharon Horgan) meets American Rob (Rob Delaney) in London while he's on a business trip, and the pair enjoy a week of casual, spontaneous sex. When Rob returns to the US, however, Sharon calls to tell him that she's pregnant. Carrie Fisher, Ashley Jensen and Mark Bonnar have supporting roles.
The show ran four series of six episodes apiece, with the finale airing in January 2019 in the UK (and Amazon Prime streaming the final season in the US in March 2019).
This series provides examples of:
- The Alcoholic: Rob is a recovering alcoholic. In season 3 he suffers a relapse.
- Ambiguous Ending: The ending to series 4 shows Sharon swimming out into the ocean, enticing Rob who has been in a Heroic BSoD all episode and Sour Outside, Sad Inside due to the death of his mother to go with her and try to move on. He refuses...then sees the warning sign for dangerous currents and dives right in after her, with it ambiguous if they managed to reach the shore or not.
- But We Used a Condom!: Subverted. According to Sharon, she and Rob had sex twenty-five times while he was in London, only using a condom maybe twice. Sharon chides Rob for thinking this wouldn't happen.
- Deadpan Snarker: Both Rob and Sharon.
- Good Girls Avoid Abortion: Several characters, including Sharon, bring up the option of abortion. Yet she decides not to for no clear reason, despite her being forty-one and only knowing the father briefly (the conception happened during a week of casual sex).
- Ladykiller in Love: Dave, for all his philandering, falls in love and has a baby. It doesn't work out because he goes full Crazy Survivalist in his attempts to be a Papa Wolf.
- Pregnancy Does Not Work That Way: The sex of the baby can already be seen on the ultrasound, even though it's only been just over a month from the likely conception date (Rob is told by Sharon that she's pregnant thirty-two days after, and goes immediately to London). Fetal genitalia don't even develop until around the ninth week, and can't usually be seen until twelve weeks at the earliest. Sharon should only be in the fifth to sixth week at the most.
- Running Gag:
- The first time we see Sharon calling Rob, she is listed on his phone as "Sharon London Sex". Even after having two children and being married for years, it's shown that he has never changed the contact name.
- Every non-Irish character has trouble pronouncing Rob and Sharon's daughter Muireann's name. Including Rob.
- Scatterbrained Senior: Sharon's father starts to show signs of dementia by forgetting names or who he's in the room with. His absent-mindedness contributes to the death of Rob and Sharon's dog. Of course, suffering from a number of strokes that contribute to his eventual death doesn't help in this regard.
