The Four Seasons: S1 - Review

Rating: 4 out of 5

COMEDY-drama series The Four Seasons may well be Tina Fey’s best work since 30 Rock. It’s mature, funny, insightful and kind of tragic. And it boasts a really great ensemble cast.

The Netflix show is actually a remake and update of the 1981 Alan Alda film of the same name, with Fey having teamed up with Tracey Wigfield and Lang Fisher to pen the eight episodes.

The story follows three couples across four get togethers in each of the four seasons of the year.

Fey plays the uptight but practical Kate, who arranges the quarterly mini-breaks, and is solidly married to the somewhat insecure Jack (Will Forte). As a couple, they love to moan and bicker.

The rest of the group is made up of Nick (Steve Carell), who announces early on that he is planning to leave his devoted wife Anne (Kerri Kenney-Silver) after 25 years of marriage, as well as Claude (Marco Calvani) and his husband, Danny (Colman Domingo).

It’s Nick’s announcement regarding his marriage that drives the series, as he goes through with his intention and ends up bringing his new 32-year-old girlfriend Ginny (Erika Henningsen) to all the remaining get-togethers.

It’s a decision that also places strains on the other group members as the strains in their own relationships are exposed and stress tested, allowing for a potent mix of comedy and drama that plays to an adult audience.

And this is arguably its biggest strength and point of difference - a comedy that plays to middle aged audiences in particular but which also boasts universal appeal because of the quality of its cast and the genuine funniness of its best jokes.

The put-downs and witty asides are as sharp as anything on 30 Rock, as well as perceptive, while some of the situations characters find themselves in are laughably absurd (witness Forte having to confess to being spotted in a compromising position in the shower by Ginny or Carell attempting to prove his youthfulness by stepping on a sea urchin).

Their complaints and insecurities feel authentic, enabling audiences to sympathise and empathise even when certain decisions may seem selfish and self-serving.

But there’s a likeability and fallibility to every performance, with Carell in particular standing out as Nick - by turns freed from his stifling marriage yet somehow still sad as he continually attempts to bridge the age gap between him and his new partner. He exists somewhere in between lost and content and it’s a wonderfully ambiguous, ultimately tragic performance.

Fey and Forte also score highly as, perhaps, the most normal of the couples, albeit one that slowly comes to realise they’re in the midst of a mid-marriage crisis. Their bickering is, by turns, witty and sometimes spiteful but is played in such a way that you root for them to find a way through.

Likewise Domingo and Calvani, whose fractious relationship occasionally threatens to test the patience, but who are ultimately guided by the tremendous love they feel for each other. Domingo is typically charismatic, occasionally selfish, yet nuanced in a good way (melding exasperation with a genuine sense of caring), while Calvani works hard to overcome some typically caricatured Italian traits to make his character someone who obviously cares and has emotional depth.

Kenney-Silver is also terrific as Anne, whose hurt and anger is plain for all to see, yet who wears it with grace and vulnerability, while Henningsen manages to imbue her Ginny with both a youthful naivety and a growing sense of confidence and self worth, proving more than just a pretty face for Nick.

The story takes some interesting turns throughout its four seasons and invites viewers to ask some thought-provoking questions about the nature of marriage, commitment and what it means to be happy. But it doesn’t spoon feed or revert to obvious cliche.

Rather, there’s a bittersweet acceptance that life won’t always work out the way you think it will, as well as an acknowledgement that every relationship is unique and different - and may need work.

That it manages to be both insightful and probing, while remaining consistently funny and emotionally engaging, is tribute to Fey’s writing skill and the quality of its ensemble players.

And while comparisons have been made to The White Lotus (without the mystery deaths), this is very much its own thing: a crowd-pleaser that charms from start to finish but which also carries a deceptive emotional punch.