New to TVNZ OnDemand in May

TVNZ OnDemand will premiere the latest attempt to adapt Joseph Heller’s Catch-22 to the screen on May 18.

Mike Nichols’ 1970 movie was a flop and Richard Dreyfus failed to spawn a series from a 1973 pilot commissioned off the back of M*A*S*H’s success.

The six-hour series, which George Clooney produced, directed and stars in, will stream here within hours of its launch on Hulu in the US.

It stars Christopher Abbott as Yossarian, a US Air Force bombardier in World War II who is furious because the army keeps increasing the number of missions he must fly to complete his service.

If Yossarian tries to avoid his military assignments, he’ll violate Catch-22, a hilariously sinister bureaucratic rule which specifies that concern for one’s own safety in the face of dangers which are real and immediate is the process of a rational mind; a man is considered insane if he willingly continues to fly dangerous combat missions, but a request to be removed from duty is evidence of sanity and therefore makes him ineligible to be relieved from duty.

Clooney and co-producer Grant Heslov initially disliked the idea of taking a swing at yet another Catch-22 adaptation, Variety reports.

“You don’t want to take on famous novels because you can just get slaughtered for it,” Clooney says. But they fell in love with the script by Luke Davies and David Michôd, particularly the way it ironed out the book’s notorious nonlinear narrative. Equally important was how it reengineered the abhorrent portrayal of women.

Also new as a complete season from May 1 will be Russian drama An Ordinary Woman, about a married mother of two who’s a florist by day and a brothel madam by night. The balance between her day-to-day and darker activities become blurred when one employee is murdered by a client.

Drama Quarterly describes the series as “leading the rise in female-led dramas” in Russia.

The story carries a great deal of irony and deep thought, depicting a strong woman in a world of weaker men.

Another newcomer will be the Serial podcast spin-off The Case Against Adnan Syed, which will be available as a full season from May 1.

Other debuts will include seasons five of iZombie, six of The 100 and 14 of ER (from May 1), two episodes weekly of Kiwi comedy Educators (from May 7), S15 of The Bachelorette (from May 15), plus new OUTtv content (from May 15).