Based on a 1981 Alan Alda comedy, "The Four Seasons" is about three married couples who make up a longstanding friend group. They're all well-to-do Gen Xers who take turns planning trips together. We see the four times that they all meet up during one eventful year, when one of the couples hits the skids. Spoilers for the first two episodes ahead, as It's hard to talk about some of the best parts of the show without getting into how some of the relationships progress.
The main couples are Jack (Will Forte) and Kate (Tina Fey), Anne (Kerri Kenney-Silver) and Nick (Steve Carrell), and Danny (Colman Domingo) and Claude (Marco Calvani). We find out that Anne and Nick are the ones with the marriage in trouble during the spring trip to their lake house, which results in new partners and much awkwardness on subsequent trips as their friends try to navigate the new dynamics. A key player is Ginny (Erika Henningsen), who becomes a regular in the group when she starts dating Nick. The series is eight episodes long, with two episodes spent on each trip. Each episode runs roughly 30 minutes, so it's a quick and easy watch.
Co-created by Tina Fey, this is a very character and performance-driven show. So, whether you like it or not will come down to how much you like hanging around a bunch of fifty-somethings and listening in on their middle-aged problems. Nick and Anne aren't the only ones who find themselves at odds. Danny is navigating a health scare, and doesn't appreciate Claude's smotherly level of concern. Friction also develops between Jack and Kate as they try to be supportive of Nick and Anne, which makes them more aware of their own issues. All of the characters, including Ginny, are pleasant, generous, and very open with each other. And even when they're being terrible they're still entertaining. This isn't a "White Lotus" style dissection of the rich and privileged, but there is acknowledgement of privilege, and it does color some of the interactions.
I watched the original 1981 film for background, which stars Alda, Carol Burnett, Rita Moreno, and Len Cariou among others. The new series features totally new characters, but the structure and the sequence of events is almost the same. The biggest change, which I appreciate, is that we get to spend much more time with each of the characters and get to know them more intimately. We learn that Danny and Claude have an open marriage, but their hangups have nothing to do with their sex lives. Jack and Kate are the most boring and basic of their friends, but also seem the best equipped to weather their own ups and downs. There are also a couple of changes to the character dynamics because this version of the story adds more characters than it subtracts.
Domingo and Calvani have the showiest and most fun performances, and Fey and Forte are as solid as always, and I love them all dearly, but I think Steve Carrell is far and away the MVP this time. Carrell is playing the guy who is the most often in the wrong, while still being sympathetic and worth rooting for. Runner up would be Kerri Kenney-Silver, who plays a different kind of oddball here than she did on "Reno 911." I also appreciate how Ginny is treated, coming in as the outsider but eventually the show flips the dynamic and shows us the situation from her POV. The last few episodes involve some big emotions and Erika Henningsen is fantastic at getting us to care.
"The Four Seasons" will be best enjoyed by people of a certain age, as as I'm getting older I'm not turning my nose up at any media aimed at this demographic. This isn't great television, but it earns its laughs and its poignant moments. It gently addresses relationships, getting old, and how to handle what life throws at you. I'm very curious what a second season would look like, as the ending of "The Four Seasons" definitely leaves open the possibility for one. However, I also won't be too disappointed if this is where Fey and her collaborators decide to leave these characters.
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