It might not surprise people who knew me as a kid that I was a huge M*A*S*H nerd, even when I was 8 years old. So when I heard that Alan Alda was writing, producing and starring in a film called The Four Seasons — also starring Carol Burnett and Rita Moreno, among other luminaries — I asked my parents if we could see it for my 10th birthday. Yes, the film seemed to be quite sophisticated for a 10 year old, but my irritatingly precocious self seemed to get most of what was going on. Now, 44 years later, Tina Fey has co-created a new take on the story of three couples whose four-times-per-year joint vacations get shaken up when one of the couples gets a divorce.
Opening Shot: As strains from Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons” plays, we see the telltale signs of spring.
The Gist: Three couples, all of whom are longtime friends, tend to take four trips per year — one per season — together. This spring, suburban couple Kate (Tina Fey) and Jack (Will Forte) are picking up their NYC-dwelling friends Danny (Colman Domingo) and Claude (Marco Calvani) to go upstate to the lake house owned by Nick (Steve Carell) and Anne (Kerri Kenney-Silver). By the time Kate, Jack, Danny and Claude get to the house, Nick and Anne are already drunk and laughing.
As usual, the wine and banter flows. Because they’re there to celebrate Nick and Anne’s 25th anniversary, there’s a discussion about soulmates, something that Danny seems to believe in but Kate doesn’t. Jack talks about how, during a rough patch in their marriage, they worked on their connection by taking yoga classes together.
During a hike the next morning, though, Nick tells Danny and Jack that he is going to leave Anne. He just thinks she’s given up on doing anything new or having any passion in life; he even built her a pottery shack — and installed the kiln himself! — and all she does is play a farm game on her iPad. “We’re like co-workers at a nuclear facility,” he laments. “We sit in the same room all night, monitoring different screens.”
Obviously, it’s hard for Jack and Danny to get through the rest of the trip knowing what they know, but they also see how reluctant Anne is to throw caution to the wind and jump in the lake with the rest of the gang when they’re on the boat. Jack has no problem telling Kate about it, but Danny doesn’t tell Claude, thinking that Claude will get too emotional. That’s not the only thing he’s hiding from Claude; he needs to go for a procedure to get a stent for his heart, and he’s pretending a design job in Miami will be happening when the procedure is scheduled.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? The Four Seasons, created by Fey, Tracey Wigfield and Lang Fisher, is a direct remake of the 1981 film of the same name, which was written and directed by its star, Alan Alda (who pops up in a cameo during the second episode). There are certainly elements of the show that might remind people of The White Lotus.
Our Take: It’s interesting that, instead of recreating the film, Fey, Wigfield and Fisher were tasked with essentially doubling the length of the original while adhering to the four seasons/four vacations format. You would think that it would give Fey and company more room to explore the three couples as characters, their dynamic as couples, and how they react to Nick and Anne’s eventual divorce.
But that’s not quite what we get. Sure, we get lots of middle-age angst, some lightly funny moments, and more light drama than we expected from this show and its writers. But we don’t get much insight into the three couples beyond some superficial characteristics.
The couple that we get the most insight into are Danny and Claude, which makes sense given how funny Domingo and Calvani are in those roles. While Danny at first seems like an over-the-top, showy type, the fact that he keeps secrets from Claude shows that he turns inward more often than not and is truly scared of what happens when you get into your fifties — like needing a stent put in to keep you alive.
We get a hint about Nick and Anne in the second episode, when we find out that she plans a surprise vow renewal for them. She knows that things between them haven’t been great, but she wants to keep plugging away, which is the opposite of how Nick feels. When we see Nick on the next trip, in the summer, he’s with Ginny (Erika Henningsen), a 30-year-old dental hygienist, and he has convinced the other couples to let her plan the trip, which annoys all of them. What we do see during those episodes are Kate, Jack, Danny and Claude trying hard to have a good time because they support Nick, even if they have doubts about the relationship.
The couple we know the least about, strangely enough, is Kate and Jack. Jack is a hypochondriac, but that’s about all we know. And Fey has essentially installed Kate as the show’s “straight man”, reacting to everyone else’s funny moments and lines but not being particularly funny herself.
What saves the show is the obvious chemistry among the entire cast. It’s hard to go wrong with this cast, to be honest, but we especially love the banter between Fey and Domingo, whose characters apparently have the longest history with each other. And Carell does his usual adept job at playing both the funny moments surrounding Nick’s desire to shake things up and the emotional moments involved in doing just that.
Sex and Skin: Whatever there is in the first three episodes is implied, or we hear some things, but don’t see them. We’re sure we’ll see something somewhere.
Parting Shot: Anne surprises Kate, Jack, Danny and Claude by telling them that there will be a surprise vow renewal ceremony that day.
Sleeper Star: If you’re not familiar with Kerri Kenney-Silver, watch her in Reno 911 and The State, and you’ll know she more than belongs with this group.
Most Pilot-y Line: The Vivaldi soundtrack evokes the original film, but the arrangement seems to be more aggressive and modern than more genteel version from the original.
Our Call: STREAM IT. Despite some languid pacing and a surprising lack of laughs, the chemistry among the cast of The Four Seasons saves the show from being a pale remake of a film that was well-regarded 44 years ago.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.
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