The Four Seasons

It's a show about three couples of a certain age navigating life, love, and everything in between. It focuses on their relationships with their partners, but just as much on their friendships with each other. Not a family by blood, but a family by choice-by friendship.

It's a fun and funny show. Nothing too deep, just something to enjoy. At least, that's what I thought at first. But it still got me thinking.

When you hit the lower end of your 30s, you imagine that life after a certain age will be dull, settled, over somehow. But this show reminds us that life keeps its complexity. You'll still hesitate to speak your truth. You'll still crave change, or comfort. There's still drama, still sex, still parties. Life doesn't stop. It just shifts. It's pretty much the same as now, maybe with more money, and hopefully, more wisdom.

It's a show about living your life, maybe in the same patient, familiar way you always have, even if that comes with its own problems. Or maybe it's about changing everything, blowing it all up and starting fresh-and that also has its problems. There's no simple way to do it. No perfect path. But the show embraces that messiness.

Tina, Steve, and Coleman are carrying the show. Their acting is light-hearted, funny, sometimes dramatic, but always feels realistic and deeply human.

Like I said, it's a fun show. I laughed out loud. More than once. And when I get older, I want to be like Danny. Maybe he's not even a great role model, but he's fun, sarcastic (he has some fantastic lines!), and he has a great fashion sense.

If you're looking for something to binge-this might just be your show.

Hindsight is always 20/20. Case in point: I was not that huge a fan of the 1981 ensemble comedy upon which this eight-episode 2025 dramedy series is based. Now however, the series made me appreciate Alan Alda's deft touch in maneuvering a beloved veteran cast through the machinations of the often prickly relationships among three middle-aged married couples across four vacations they share over the course of a year. The series follows the same basic storyline, even sharing the names and general personalities of the original characters (except one) and even replicating some of the same comedy gags. In regard to scripting, Tina Fey takes the reins with co-writers Lang Fisher and Tracey Wigfield, and her dry comedy instincts and clever observations are on display here but not always effectively. Not for a lack of effort by the cast, there's a nagging arm's length distance in the way the supposed closeness of the characters is conveyed. Also compromising the dynamics is the lack of equality in the way the couples are presented, for instance, playing the Alda-Carol Burnett couple, Fey as Kate appears far more alpha and nuanced than Will Forte's non-confrontational Jack. In a turn that downplays his comedy chops, Steve Carell soberly plays Nick whose middle-aged frustration triggers the primary storyline where he leaves his wet-blanket wife Anne and connects with a vibrant young dental hygienist, Ginny. The one casting twist is that the third pair has become Danny and Claude, a married gay couple in an open relationship. The opposites-attract dynamic between Colman Domingo's emotionally resistant Danny and Marco Calvani's overly unctuous Claude is similar to the fractious Jack Weston-Rita Moreno pairing but with obvious differences. The most dramatic change from the movie is the expansion of Anne as a plot catalyst. Whereas in the movie, Anne (played by the estimable Sandy Dennis) disappeared in the second vacation and was given a poignant send-off in the third, she is portrayed in the series by Kerri Kenney in a more persistent vein that evolves into an edgy ambivalence throughout the series. It becomes clear why this change occurred in the last episode when the story takes an unexpected turn that finally gives the characters a more relatable level of resonance that forces them out of their self-absorption. BTW Alda shows up in a welcome cameo as Anne's father in the second episode.

I did not expect to enjoy this as much as I did. The acting was perfect and the writing was outstanding. Some of the script was so funny and well written I had to rewind to appreciate it all over again. I won't ruin the story so no spoilers here. There is one part where a character is looking at a beautiful moon and then tries to take a picture with their phone and the picture is awful. Not part of the story at all but it just made me laugh as haven't we all done that? I can't recommend more though I'm not sure if a younger audience would appreciate it as much. I went from laughing, cringing to crying and laughing again all in a matter of minutes. As soon as it started it felt like a film not a series and I think that's why I enjoyed it so much. I really hope they do a series 2.

I remember watching the original Alan Alda/Carol Burnett movie when I was younger, finding it amusing. Years later watching this remake, having gone through a divorce myself and realizing how friendship and family dynamics change during and after, I find this comedy to be on point! The storyline is not outlandish, the jokes land well, and the actors really do pull off what appears to be a decades long friendship with occasional speed bumps and misunderstandings.

Do not go looking for high art or deeper meaning. Watching this simply reminded me of my life, my friends, and how we've all changed over the years for better or worse, yet still remain friends.

I'm a gen Xer who watched, and liked, the original Alan Alda movie and it tells you something that the funniest bit in the 3 episodes i have seen is his cameo. This show has a charismatic cast that are let down by a script that simply doesn't quite dare to go where it probably needs to go to be both seriously funny and insightful. It tries, but it just seems a bit scared of itself and every time it goes close it runs away and hides.

A show about long term relationships should offer a fertile ground for both humour and pathos and yet it fails to seriously deliver on both counts. Yes, there are some funny moments...just not quite enough.