25 of TV’s messiest meltdowns
By Sundi Rose
Rob’s Slow Descent — Catastrophe
Amazon’s wry and honest series, Catastrophe, is about Rob, who is married to this one-week stand partner, Sharon. From the very first episode of the show, Rob has been happily sober, but when he loses his job in season 3, he slowly and (almost) imperceptibly slides back into alcoholism.
The most insidious thing about Rob Norris’ meltdown is that you never really know it’s happening until it’s too late. Sure, you see him have a drink here and there at lunch, or knock one back with little consequence during the season, but you never really calculate the gravity of it until the shocking season finale. Even though he admits to his mother (played by the wonderful Carrie Fisher) that he’s back to his old ways, he continues to hide it from his wife, until he can’t hide it anymore.
He’s been secretly drinking for months, so when Sharon calls him to come get late in the evening, it’s gets even more dangerous when he’s T-boned by on oncoming truck. Bleeding from a head wound, he tells Sharon he won’t pass a breathalyzer. The totality of his breakdown becomes clear with this cliffhanger, and we start to realize how bad things have really gotten for Rob and Sharon.
Although Rob doesn’t fit inside the usual television trope of either raging alcoholic (think Frank Gallagher) or sexy functioning alcoholic (like Don Draper) his meltdown might be the scariest because it’s the most likely to actually happen in real life.