The Four Seasons TV Review: Tina Fey scripts a modern take on the classic film

Plot: Six old friends head for a relaxing weekend away only to learn that one couple in the group is about to split up. The three couples, Kate and Jack, Nick and Anne, and Danny and Claude, are completely upended by the news. Over the course of a year, we follow the friends on four vacations, and watch how this shake-up affects everyone’s dynamic — sending old issues and new bubbling to the surface.

Review: If Alan Alda’s 1981 feature directorial debut, The Four Seasons, escapes your memory, you are not the only one. Despite positive reviews, a Golden Globe nomination for Best Picture, and ranking as one of the ten highest-grossing films of the year, The Four Seasons is remembered more for using the classic Vivaldi concertos than its unique format. Following a trio of couples across a series of vacations tied to the title, quarterly weather changes, the film co-starred Alan Alda and Carol Burnett. It looked at how marriage can impact different relationships in different ways. Tina Fey’s reimagining of the film, which was previously remade as a mini-series in 1984, updates the dynamic of the various couples for modern sensibilities while still capturing the heart of relationships and how they differ. With a great cast including Steve Carell, Will Forte, and Colman Domingo, The Four Seasons is a delightful update that treats the material respectfully while still being very funny.

Just as in the 1981 film, The Four Seasons follows couples Jack and Kate (Will Forte and Tina Fey), Danny and Claude (Colman Domingo and Marco Calvani), and Nick and Anne (Steve Carell and Kerri Kenney-Silver). While their jobs have changed and Claude replaces the original film’s Claudia to give a modernized shift to the couples, the primary focus of these long-time friends meeting up every few months for a vacation remains the same. Each vacation is set over two half-hour episodes, all occurring in a single calendar year. Starting with Spring, the couples meet at Nick and Anne’s lake house for a much-needed vacation. At first, everything is idyllic until it is revealed that one couple is on the brink of divorce, which forces the rest of the friends to try to reconcile the news within their relationships. If you have seen the original film, you likely already know which couple is ending, and that puts the rest of the story in motion. Each season progresses with the friends heading to an eco-friendly resort, followed by a weekend at their old college, and ending with a ski trip on New Year’s Eve.

While faithful to the overall narrative structure of the film, Tina Fey and her co-creators, Lang Fisher and Tracey Wigfield, can expand the movie’s 107-minute running time by more than double, giving each character more development. While initially the most balanced couple, Tina Fey and Will Forte’s Kate and Jack come to grips with the lull in their romance. Both Fey and Forte have worked together on Saturday Night Live, and this series represents the most mature work either has done in their career so far. Will Forte is perfect in his most restrained performance, while Fey gets to bring her trademark snarkiness, which amplifies the rest of the ensemble. Equally good are Colman Domingo and Marco Calvani as a couple in an open marriage who must contend with boundaries and health issues that threaten their deep love for one another. Both actors are exceptional talents and have a lot of fun with these characters without ever turning them into cliches. Calvani is impressive here and is an excellent counter-balance to Domingo’s strong presence.

The third couple, Nick and Anne, get to do some of the most challenging work in the series. Steve Carell has repeatedly proven his ability to handle subtle drama and broad comedy, but this is a new challenge for Kerri Kenney-Silver. While best known for her work on Reno 911!, Kenney-Silver is good here, taking some heavy material in stride with some genuinely hilarious moments. Erika Henningsen balances the cast as Ginny, the younger girlfriend of a member of the divorced couple, which throws an increasingly more awkward wrench into the dynamic of the three primary couples as one fractures and transforms one pair into two new ones. Each vacation becomes increasingly divisive, with some friendships coming to a head while others are on the brink of irreparable damage. The story builds with each two-episode arc leading into the next, with the eighth and final episode leaving room for another season if Netflix wanted to continue the story.

Vivaldi’s titular orchestral works provide a perfect score to the series, making The Four Seasons Tina Fey’s most mature project yet. Fey’s co-creators include Lang Fisher, who co-created Netflix’s Never Have I Ever and worked with Fey on 30 Rock, as well as Tracey Wigfield, another 30 Rock veteran who served as showrunner on the revival of Saved by the Bell. The three writers lead a great team of scribes and five directors, including American Splendor helmers Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini, and Oz Rodriguez and Lang Fisher, each of whom directs two episodes each. Jeff Richmond helmed one episode, and co-star Colman Domingo directed a chapter. Everyone uses the shooting locations, which offer a nice, shifting backdrop to the main story. But The Four Seasons thrives on the talented ensemble. Every actor feels likeable and relatable despite all being very wealthy and successful in their fields of work. It can sometimes be challenging to relate to hedge fund managers and designers, but the cast makes every effort to bring their characters to a realistic and believable place.

With a well-placed cameo from Alan Alda, The Four Seasons is a respectful update of the original that gives the entire cast great material to dig into that will bring you to tears as much as it makes you laugh. This funny series works as a one-off limited project or could develop into a recurring series playing on the themes of change and growth. Tina Fey has co-created a mature successor to Mean Girls that does for middle age what that classic film did for high school. I appreciate this series more now that I am in my forties than I would when I was younger, and I think the target audience will feel the same way. I never thought I would connect with a Will Forte performance like I did here, but he is one of six solid performances in The Four Seasons. It may not be a game-changer for the genre, but this is a strong series that is a very satisfying watch.

The Four Seasons premieres on May 1st on Netflix.

The Four Seasons

GOOD

7

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