‘The Four Seasons’ Review: Tina Fey Turns Midlife Crises Into Breezy TV With Netflix Remake

Being married is hard. While years of social constructs and reality TV prepare you to seek out love and get ready for “the big day,” there’s very little out there — entertainment-wise or otherwise — to prepare you for the realities of building and sharing a life with someone for the decades to follow. We change and morph with the coming of kids and middle-age, and the very idea of learning to live with yourself — let alone another person — can be a head-scratcher to even the most level-headed individuals.

Maybe that’s what makes Netflix’s new series “The Four Seasons” so compelling. Co-created, written, and executive produced by Tina Fey and her “30 Rock” buddies Lang Fisher and Tracey Wigfield, “The Four Seasons” is an eight-episode adaptation of the 1981 Alan Alda film of the same name. A multi-dimensional musing on the ins-and-outs of what it’s like to be middle-aged and well and truly out of the honeymoon phase, “The Four Seasons” follows a friend group of three couples as they traverse both time and locales. Each season is marked by a new vacation — a spring trip to upstate New York, a summer getaway to a beach, a fall trip to their alma mater and so on — as well as a new turn in their personal lives.

The series kicks off with the revelation that Steve Carell’s Nick is splitting from Anne (Kerri Kenney-Silver), who he’s been married to for 25 years. We won’t spoil how it all goes down, but it’s agonizing and demoralizing and it sets the table for the episodes and trips to come, where Nick takes up with a much younger dental hygienist (Erika Henningsen) while Anne searches for her new self.

While much of the series’ drama comes from what’s gone down between Nick and Anne, the other two couples are dealing with their own tumult. Fey and Will Forte’s Kate and Jack seem simpatico enough until they realize that grousing together doesn’t necessarily leave you all that fulfilled, and Colman Domingo and Marco Calvani’s Danny and Claude struggle with the balance between loving someone and smothering them in the wake of a health concern. As a viewer, you root for everyone to make it, but it’s also clear that to actually do that — to pull through and emerge romantically victorious — will require some real work.

But that’s the whole point of “The Four Seasons,” really: As a keen-eyed examination of love, friendship and the seasons (if you will) of all of our lives, the show seeks to shine a light on the fact that we’re all just people. Nothing is easy, everything takes a toll and even loving someone can feel like back-breaking labor, no matter what messages fairytales and women’s magazines might have peddled up to now. Friendships and romances alike require nurturing and care, and we all choose to be with those we love, one way or another.

With a very bingeable runtime of just about four hours, though, watching “The Four Seasons” is easy. While there are a couple plot twists late in the season that seem a bit rote, there are smaller turns or asides that elicit genuine warmth and even genuine hilarity. (There’s a scene-stealing moment involving guest star Toby Huss that made us chuckle for weeks.)

Everyone in this cast is notoriously funny, and while this show isn’t exactly doing “prestige comedy” at the level of “Hacks” or even “The Righteous Gemstones,” it’s a gentle joy to watch, even during dicey moments that could hit a little too close to home for some couples.

“The Four Seasons” premieres Thursday, May 1, on Netflix.

The post ‘The Four Seasons’ Review: Tina Fey Turns Midlife Crises Into Breezy TV With Netflix Remake appeared first on TheWrap.