Number One on Netflix is a weekly spotlight on whatever is currently the most popular thing on the world’s most popular streaming service. Sometimes it’ll be a movie. Sometimes it’ll be a TV show. Whatever it is, a lot of people are clearly watching, and we’ll try to understand why with a quick review. Today, we’re looking at the new TV series The Four Seasons, co-created by Tina Fey.
Note: The following contains spoilers for the full season.
As one might expect from someone who got her start at Second City and was head writer of Saturday Night Live before creating her own NBC sitcom, Tina Fey is primarily associated with the world of comedy. But despite that legacy, she hasn’t been afraid to weave some drama into her projects, whether it be Liz Lemon (Fey) giving a heartfelt speech about love on 30 Rock or the Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (Ellie Kemper) confronting her past trauma.
She also co-starred in an episode of the Prime Video anthology series Modern Love, playing a woman struggling with her marriage: That might have actually been part of what led her to co-creating and starring in The Four Seasons, Netflix’s number one TV show for the past week, and an unexpectedly sincere and .
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Based on the film starring, written, and directed by Alan Alda (who makes a very welcome cameo in the series), The Four Seasons takes us on four trips across the span of a year with three couples — college friends and their spouses. With an ensemble cast including Fey, Will Forte, Kerri Kenney-Silver, Marco Calvani, Colman Domingo, and Steve Carell, the series is filled with comedy, but it also really focuses on what it means to get older with the people you love, and how things can change in a moment.
Alda’s film is actually a fair bit lighter in tone than the series, co-created by Lang Fisher and Tracey Wigfield, which makes several dramatic choices throughout its run. The biggest of which being the death of Nick (Carell) at the end of Episode 7, after having left his wife (Kerri Kenney-Silver) to strike up a new relationship with a much younger woman (Erika Henningsen).
Nick’s fate does trigger quasi-hilarious memories of how Carell’s character on a different show met a somewhat similar fate (The Morning Show goes hard, y’all). More importantly, the sharp blast of mortality it brings to the back half of the season is without question a powerful choice, yet one that doesn’t feel out of place with the show up to that point in time, which has touched on the realities of aging and loss in profound ways.
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Another consequence of Nick’s death is that The Four Seasons becomes an incredible acting showcase for Kerri Kenney-Silver. For comedy fans, Kenney-Silver first rose to prominence as “the girl in The State,” before her career-defining role in Reno 911!, accompanied by a slew of guest appearances on shows including What We Do in the Shadows, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and Bob’s Burgers.
In The Four Seasons, though, we watch as Anne does her best to pick herself up after the end of her marriage, followed by the body blow of Nick’s death. There’s a steely resolve to Kenney-Silver’s performance that never feels over-the-top or forced, in perfect concert with the sparks of joy Anne manages to find during the summer and fall.
The show’s most iconic pairing ends up being Fey and Colman Domingo — their comedic chemistry is incredible. However, the show’s most significant relationship is the one between Fey and Will Forte, and watching them negotiate the awkwardness of a marriage that’s struggling for life is handled with a great deal of nuance. Out on an icy lake, they’re finally able to overcome the worst of their issues, reconciling sweetly in the aftermath — and without ever going for the obvious joke.
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It all speaks to how The Four Seasons finds that ideal spot between the emotional catharsis of great drama and the welcome reprieve of great comedy. And it leaves me very excited to find out what Fey continues to do going forward, as age seems to have brought a new level of maturity to her storytelling. Comedy is one of the best things on Earth, after all. But comedy that makes you feel something? That’s truly special.
The Four Seasons (both the movie and the film) are streaming now on Netflix.
