Despite being created by Tina Fey, whose previous television ventures have adhered to a more satirical, exaggerated mentality (see 30 Rock and The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt), her Netflix offering, The Four Seasons, is considerably more grounded and dramatic. Sure, there’s genuine bouts of humour peppered across the 8 episodes, but audiences expecting raucous laughter best be on guard for more tears than titters.
Devoting two episodes each to a particular season (Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter, respectively), The Four Seasons, which Fey has adapted from Alan Alda’s 1981 dramedy film of the same name, centres around a trio of enviously well-off, 50-something couples, who gather each season for a destination holiday of some sort. There’s Kate (Fey) and Jack (Will Forte), seemingly the most stable of the couple, a long-time married pair who are so often, respectively, the organiser of each getaway and the forever peacemaker; Claude (Marco Calvani) and Danny (Colman Domingo), an excitable Italian and his knowingly chic husband, whose open marriage and, for the latter, health issues bring both enjoyable farce and sobering emotion to proceedings; and Nick (Steve Carrell, reminding us of his beautiful subtlety as a performer) and his wife, Anne (Kerri Kenney-Silver), who disrupt the dynamics of their tight-knit group when, on their 25th wedding anniversary weekend, Nick announces he’s leaving her.
Nick’s bombshell, which takes place in the first two Spring-set episodes, has its repercussions for the remainder of the season when he starts dating energetic 30-something Ginny (Erika Henningsen), a well-meaning, perky type who the wealth of screenwriters (Fey, Lang Fisher, Tracey Wigfield, Josh Siegal, Dylan Morgan, Vali Chandrasekaran, Matt Whitaker, John Riggi and Lisa Muse Bryant) actually treat with far more respect than the other characters do. She does her best to fit in with Nick’s friends, though, as Danny points out that in a May-December romance, the Decembers are supposed to haul Mays up to their living standards. And her decision to take them to a yurt-based eco-resort in the Summer instead of their usual five-star accommodation doesn’t remotely help matters.
Whilst there’s modern, topical conversations to be had here, with the show touching on open relationships and sexual fluidity, Fey and her cohorts very much keep The Four Seasons in a middle-age state of mind. Younger audiences aren’t likely to necessarily gel with the softer, more realistic wit that the show enjoys, and, honestly, good. A program that lives in the space for audiences of a certain age to see their reflection aren’t as common as they should be, and The Four Seasons owning its commentary on marriage and mortality makes it seem more revelatory than it actually is, purely because it’s on a streaming service that so often aims for a younger subsect.
Reflective and more consistently dramatic than its ensemble may suggest, The Four Seasons is proudly adult in its temperament. It delivers on a comedic level throughout, but these seasonal getaways are more likely to make those who view look inwards rather than entirely escape.
THREE AND A HALF STARS (OUT OF FIVE)
All 8 episodes of The Four Seasons are now streaming on Netflix.
