The Four Seasons Review: Honesty In Middle-Age

The Netflix series The Four Seasons, from Tina Fey, offers an insightful look at long-term relationships, blending humor and heart effortlessly.

The Four Seasons, airing on Netflix, is based on the Alan Alda 1981 film of the same name. In it, three middle-aged couples who have been friends since college spend each of the seasons together at various events. This series begins in spring, with the three couples gathering at the home of Nick (Steve Carell) and Anne (Kerri Kenney) to celebrate their anniversary. They are joined by Kate (Tina Fey) and Jack (Will Forte) as well as Claude (Marco Calvani) and Danny (Colman Domingo). While some of the men are out on a hike, Nick confides that he is planning to divorce Anne. He wants excitement in his life, and all she does is play a mobile farming game. 

When we reunite with the gang in the summer, we see not only that Nick is divorced, but he is now dating Ginny (Erika Henningsen), a significantly younger woman. She planned the group’s vacation, choosing a sustainable resort over the more luxurious facilities that the friends usually visit. When Claude and Danny decide to ditch the simple in favor of the more extravagant nearby resort under the guise of Danny’s recent heart surgery, they discover that Anne is staying there, trying to build a new life by herself. When a hurricane comes up, the friends all head to the nicer resort, with Danny, Claude, Kate, and Jack joining Anne in her room, while Ginny and Nick are relegated to the business center of the hotel.

As The Four Seasons heads into the fall, the group is traveling back to their old college stomping grounds to visit Nick and Anne’s daughter, Lila (Julia Lester), who is premiering a play that she wrote. They are also visiting Kate and Jack’s daughter, Beth (Ashlyn Maddox), a student at the university who is also a part of Lila’s play. 

Through the weekend, we can begin to see some cracks in Kate and Jack’s marriage. While there were some moments in the first four episodes that indicated that maybe everything wasn’t perfect, they begin to surface with more urgency over this trip. We also see some of the fallout from Nick and Anne’s divorce beginning to show more openly through Lila’s play. Despite a seemingly positive afternoon with Lila, Nick, and Ginny, Lila’s words on stage show her true feelings about her father and the woman he is seeing. It also shows how she views her mother in all of this, causing Anne to reevaluate the way that she is presenting herself in the world.

In the final season, the friends are preparing for New Year’s Eve, though we discover that Nick and Ginny are on a separate ski trip, while Anne brings her new boyfriend, Terry (Toby Huss), along with the other group. Jack and Kate have been in therapy, but Kate has suspicions that Jack is cheating on her, given that he receives constant texts from an unknown number and has changed the passcode on his phone. 

Because this is the first time that Nick has spent time with Ginny’s friends, the age difference between them begins to show in a different way, which causes some conflict between them. There is also conflict between Danny and Claude when a tragedy occurs, and Danny needs to simply sit in his grief while Claude is looking for something positive. And the confrontation between Ginny and Anne comes to a head, with these two women needing to find a way to coexist as a blended family. 

As a middle-aged woman myself, The Four Seasons resonated deeply with me. The show deals with the issues of maintaining and even abandoning a long-term relationship, and beautifully depicts the way that people who have been married for a long time can begin to become numb to the needs of the other person. Comfort with a long-term partner can slip into complacency, and this series depicts that slide with heartfelt accuracy. 

It also shows the way that sometimes relationships need to end, and that you can find happiness in a new relationship, even if things aren’t always perfect. The willingness to engage with the idea that longevity is the only means of measuring the success of a marriage is challenged with tenderness and honesty. We see the value of engaging in difficult conversations about marriage, regardless of the outcome. 

The ensemble for The Four Seasons is fantastic. Not only is this a talented group of actors capable of delivering lovely individual performances, but they also work together beautifully as a cohesive group. Because many of the performers have collaborated on various projects over the years, the authenticity of their friendship is evident. With a blend of humor and pathos, this series effectively captures the complexities of relationships, both old and new.

A decade ago, I got a divorce after 17 years of marriage to my first husband. It was a painful time, and I have learned a lot in the intervening years about how to communicate with my partner, and also with my kids, who had a difficult time following that decoupling. The Four Seasons illustrates many of the things I learned in therapy and through my own experiences. For those in long-term relationships, there is comfort in seeing some experiences put on screen. And for those whose relationships may be newer, there is wisdom to be gleaned in this show.

The Four Seasons is now available to stream globally on Netflix.