'Catch-22' review: A sincere, affecting take on Joseph Heller's WWII comic nightmare

Give the new six-episode Hulu miniseries version of "Catch-22" two episodes of your time, and then make your call. It took me two to get on board with it, after some initial skepticism about the tone and the overall plan of attack.

It pays off. The miniseries adaptation was overseen and directed, two episodes apiece, by ensemble cast members Grant Heslov and a fellow named George Clooney; producer Ellen Kuras handled the other two segments.

Any screen version of Joseph Heller's 1961 novel has a lot working against it. It's an extraordinarily popular but problematic and adaptation-averse novel, with no interest in conventional forward momentum. Heller