Steve Carell and Tina Fey lead The Four Seasons, a non-stop vacation exploring midlife drama with bittersweet humour.
Based on a 1981 film written and starring Alan Alda along with Carol Burnett, the new miniseries updates the original story with a modern as well as poignant take. An extremely bingeable, easy-going show with surprising depth, The Four Seasons is a great watch for people over the age of 30.
Three upper-middle-class American couples in their fifties, who have been friends for a long time and frequently vacation together, the miniseries shows us their lives and relationships through four vacations the group has together. During the spring vacation, Nick (Steve Carell) reveals that he is not happy with his relationship and wants to leave his wife. Carrell is well cast as Nick since he is one of the most liked men in television history. Carrell does here what he always does: improves upon any comedic piece.
The show refrains from judging its characters or justifying their actions. It shows people as they are. The good comes with the bad. And as such, Nick doesn’t go around explaining his decisions to his friends. He is busy being happy with his 30-something-year-old girlfriend Ginny (Erika Henningsen), more than 20 years his junior. It makes for an awkward vacation for his friends as the group’s equilibrium gets disrupted. Plus, it doesn’t make hating Ginny any easier since she is sweet, and she puts effort into bonding with the group.
You can say Kate and Jack, Tina Fey and Will Forte, respectively, form the core of the group. To Kate, Nick’s actions are obvious and indicative of a mid-life crisis, but she mainly despises how happy he appears during their summer vacation. Also a writer on the show, Fey brings her wit and comedic prowess here reliably. Forte’s Jack is kinder, but he never deviates from Kate’s opinions and decisions, the papa bear in their relationship.
Taking them out of their comfort zone for their friend’s benefit, affects Danny (Coleman Domingo) too. Since he had a recent heart procedure, Danny’s husband, Claude (Marco Calvani) worries that this hot and grimy vacation may be too much for him. But just as painful as the cheap vacation is to Danny, so is Claude’s cajoling. Calvani is amazing as Claude, bringing forward the sensitivity of someone who’s constantly deceived by their partner with nuance and exactitude.
Anne (Kerri Kenney-Silver), Nick’s wife, gets the rawest part of this deal because she loves her husband and doesn’t wish to leave him. Adjusting to her new lifestyle is hard, as it can be for someone married for 25 years. Anne’s rebuilding of her life is well depicted in the sequence of her solo vacation.
In the fifth episode, we see the impact of divorce on children in the form of a play that Nick and Anne’s daughter performs. With three very different types of relationships, the show dives into the complexities of long-term relationships. The comedy is a by-product of the story the show tries to tell about adult relationships, showcasing the compromises as well as the perks.
With relatable couples played by well-liked actors, The Four Seasons has enough humour and charm to sustain throughout its 8 episodes.
Nick – ‘All she wants to do is play this farm game on her iPad. I look over her shoulder some nights. She’s really high on the leaderboard.’
Danny – ‘Nick, does Anne know you’ve been feeling this way?’
Nick – ‘Honestly, I think she’d be relieved. I think she’s just as lonely as I am.’
Danny – ‘Really?’
Jack – ‘But, doesn’t everybody have periods where they feel like, ‘Oh, we’re just roommates now’?”
Nick – ‘I wish, I wish we were like roommates. Roommates hang out with each other. There’s porn about roommates! We’re..we’re..we’re like coworkers in a nuclear facility. We sit in the same room all night monitoring different screens.’