This Hilarious 4-Part Sitcom on Prime Video Has No Bad Episodes

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Sharon (Sharon Horgan) and Rob (Rob Delaney) sitting on a couch, looking to the right, in Catastrophe.

Published May 3, 2026, 11:54 AM EDT

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There are few things more elusive in the television world than a sitcom that is both consistently funny and consistently excellent. Even beloved sitcoms like Seinfeld or Friends have their share of misses on both fronts. But such unicorns do exist, perfect sitcoms that do what they do best, time after time. Among those is a British series that aired on Channel 4 in the UK and on Prime Video in 2015: Catastrophe. It's a sitcom that doesn't let up, in the best of ways, defying conventions by finding humor in every situation, even those that others can't... or won't.

A Fling Turns Into a 4-Season 'Catastrophe'

Catastrophe begins in a London bar, where American advertising executive Rob (Rob Delaney), in town on a business trip, strikes up a conversation with Sharon (Sharon Horgan), an Irish school teacher. He doesn't drink, but offers to buy Sharon one. Next thing you know, the two are hot and heavy back at his place, dancing the horizontal tango. In the morning, Sharon tries to sneak away, but Rob talks her into meeting him for dinner that night, after which they resume "relations." And over the course of the week, they have a lot of "relations."

But it's time for Rob to leave, so they say their goodbyes, with Rob vowing to remember her as an "extraordinarily good-smelling woman with a magical ass," and Sharon remembering him as a "sturdy love-maker with a massive chin, who was... really kind to waiters and taxi drivers." After one final shag before his flight leaves, they part ways, never to see each other again. Mmm, not so fast. Back in Boston, Rob is out on a date with a young temp when his phone rings. It's Sharon, and she has news: they're having a baby.

He's shocked, but he really shouldn't be. As Sharon points out, "We had sex about 25 times in a week, and you wore a condom maybe twice." Rob might be a player, but he is, which Sharon noted before he left, a good person. So he picks up his life and moves to London, determined to be by her side through the whole pregnancy. They know nothing about one another, not even their last names (Morris and Norris, by the way), but he proposes (with a urine-covered engagement ring), and she accepts. And they build their lives and a family together, one catastrophe after another.

'Catastrophe' Executes the Darkest of Trials Hilariously

An amusing setup, and sitcoms have certainly been built on worse. But the catastrophes they weather aren't your typical sitcom tropes, no leaning on the "fish out of water" angle where Rob hilariously, say, can't get used to driving on the other side of the road. These are real catastrophes: in the first few episodes alone, they learn that Sharon has cervical dysplasia (pre-cancer, right next door to cancer, but not cancer), a botched proposal (the aforementioned pee-pee covered ring), and the decision to test their unborn child for Down syndrome or not, weighing the high possibility of a miscarriage by doing the test even with the 25% probability that, at 41, Sharon's baby might have it. As the series progresses, there's infidelity, alcoholism, financial stress, and so on. You know, hysterical stuff.

But that's the beauty of Catastrophe. It finds the humor in all of it. It's a brilliantly executed balancing act between the dark, crass, dry wit and cynicism of verbose British comedy and the direct, slapstick elements of situational American comedy. You see that balance in situations like when the reveal of the cancer/not-cancer prompts Sharon to ask Rob if her vagina felt "cancer-y", or when Rob frantically runs away from Sharon's frenemy, Fran (Ashley Jensen), after falling clumsily when she kisses him.

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In fact, the latter points to just how different Catastrophe is from the conventional sitcom. Rob keeps the kiss quiet from Sharon, not wanting to make things awkward between them, but Sharon finds out. As viewers, we're conditioned to believe this as a detour on the will-they-won't-they roller-coaster. Hell, Friends milked that very situation for years between Ross and Rachel. Instead, Sharon allows Rob to bumble his version of the story before cracking up, telling him she completely believes his version of events, and it's dropped.

That moments like this, and countless others like it, work at all are a direct result of the outstanding chemistry between Horgan and Delaney. They are two peas in a pod, sharing a penchant for vulgarities, biting sarcasm, and laughs over the most inappropriate of things. And we buy it because of their easy rapport, allowing us to believe in their reactions to their trials and tribulations, ones that aren't blown to extremes to heighten the comedic impact, but mirror the messy realities of life and relationships, finding the humor within them. Complemented by award-winning writing and a great cast of supporting characters, including the legendary Carrie Fisher in her final role, Horgan and Delaney elevate Catastrophe to a level of perfection that's already rare in the genre, and refuse to take the easy way to do it.