Netflix’s ‘The Four Seasons’ Could Have Been A Film Instead

Based on Alan Alda’s 1981 film “The Four Seasons,” a new eight episode miniseries with the same name has hit Netflix last week and is as heartwarming as the film, yet does not have to be a show–spoilers ahead.

Netflix’s “The Four Seasons” stars Will Forte, Tina Fey, Steve Carell, Coleman Domingo and more iconic comedy stars. It follows a group of friends who have known each other since college. They spend trips together during every season since they have graduated while tackling issues in their marriages.

Kate (Fey) is married to Jack (Forte) as they met in college along with befriending Nick (Carell) and Anne (Kerri Kenney) who ended up getting married to each other as well. Danny (Domingo) is also in their friend group from college and married an emotional Italian man named Claude (Marco Calvani).

The characters keep the same names from the original film. With the exception of Claudia now becoming Claude. Which was a good choice in my opinion because Claude is probably my favorite in the series.

Similar to the original film, every few episodes portrays a new season. Episodes 1–2 are spring, 3–4 are summer, 5–6 are fall and 7–8 are winter.

image via Netflix

In the first episode, the group’s annual spring trip to a lake house takes an awkward turn when Nick tells Jack, Claude and Danny that he wants to divorce Anne. Nick believes that their marriage is now “boring” since Anne never wants to do anything and at night she just stays up to play farm games on her iPad.

The next morning after the guys heard the news, Anne sends Nick to a bagel place that is an hour away in order to set up a surprise for him–a vow renewal.

Anne had no idea that Nick was planning on divorcing her, so it came as a surprise to her during the ceremony.

Alda actually has a cameo in the second episode as Anne’s father–-a great way to honor the original film.

The third episode takes the viewers to the friend group’s summer in Puerto Rico. Nick meets the group on the island with his new young girlfriend Ginny, in which Danny, Claude, Kate and Jack become surprised by.

Differing from the original film, the series is expanded more with the couple’s divorce and how it played out. The backstory is appreciated, but I still think it could have been condensed into a two-hour Netflix film instead of a four-hour show. It just feels unnecessary for another one season show if Netflix ends up canceling like they do with many of their shows.

The fall season follows the group to their original roots at their college. Anne and Nick’s daughter Lila (Julia Lester) and Kate and Jack’s daughter Beth both attend their alma mater for parent’s weekend. Danny and Claude also tag along for the fun weekend as well as Ginny.

Nick and Ginny (image via Netflix)

The fall episodes, five and six, show how the divorce has affected Lila in a negative way. She fosters some type of resentment toward Nick since he moved on quickly with a much younger woman–another factor that the show did great with.

During parent’s weekend, Lila stars in a school production that the friend group attends together. The play strongly resembled her parent’s divorce, especially how much anger she has with her father. The production even included Lila punching a blonde blow up doll and yelling “you’re not my mom!” This was definitely a more predominant shocking yet funny moment of the series.

“The Four Seasons” had a couple of other funny jokes, I mean it was written by Fey, who is known for “30 Rock,” “Mean Girls” and more. However the show also seems like it was made for adults over 30, not for people my age (21).

The dramatic school production is not the only big moment from the fall trip. But in the sixth episode Jack ended up kissing Anne. I knew both of them were eventually going to kiss, ever since that one scene in the second episode where he was staring at Anne in her white dress.

When Jack comes clean about the kiss, Kate begins to laugh and does not take it seriously (as does Danny later on in the series.) Although she laughed, the kiss did break a moment of trust between the couple since Kate shortly noticed that Jack changed his phone password–she sensed that actual cheating was happening.

Danny and Claude’s small argument adds onto the group going through serious moments this fall. The pair decide to hook up with a man they met at a bar, but while in their hotel room Claude finds cigarettes in Danny’s bag–who has a heart condition. This causes Claude to have an outburst as he kicks both of them out of the room.

But do not worry because they make up in the next episode after Claude gets into a minor scooter accident and Danny runs to his location in panic seconds after hearing the news.

The second to last episode brings the friend group to a ski lodge along with Ginny’s friends. The adults and Ginny’s young friends did not end up exactly getting along, as Nick felt insecure that Ginny’s friends were not understanding his jokes.

image via Netflix

I think it’s funny that on the ski trip Nick is now the one playing farm game on his iPad at nighttime, which symbolizes that he now wants to do nothing in his new relationship. Which happened right before Nick and Ginny got into an argument about both of their friend groups.

Kate ended up calling out Jack about his phone password during the trip. After revealing that he changed it because he thought Kate was going to divorce him and that he actually was not cheating, they still had a small argument in the hot tub at the lodge.

After feeling guilty that he has never made a big effort to see Ginny’s friends but always drags her along on the college friend group trips, Nick drives to a local store to pick up the vegan and gluten free groceries that Ginny and her friends like.

Nick ends up tragically dying in a car accident while returning from the grocery store. This leads to the finale revolving around his funeral and if Ginny gets to make a speech there. Anne, Kate, Jack, Danny and Claude felt uncomfortable with the feeling of Ginny giving a speech at the funeral, since the relationship lasted less than a year and Nick was married to Anne for a very long time.

After multiple debates on speeches, funeral arrangements and more, there is luckily some resolution towards the end. The group feels more sympathy and openness to Ginny while Jack and Kate realize that besides their little rough patch, they still love each other.

The final scene of the show ends on the same huge cliffhanger that the movie did–-Ginny is pregnant.

I would definitely be interested in a second season to see how this situation plays out. There is plenty of room for more trips with this fun and drama-filled friend group in the seasons to come.

3/5 stars

Julia Caramagna