‘The Four Seasons' REVIEW: A subtle portrait of long-term friendships and shared midlife crises
‘The Four Seasons' REVIEW: A subtle portrait of long-term friendships and shared midlife crises
Taken from Netflix
I don’t know what it means to be a middle-aged affluent American, but I’m somewhat familiar with long-time friendships and the obstacles that come with trying to maintain traditions.
Netflix’s The Four Seasons miniseries, an adaptation of the 1981 film written and directed by Alan Alda, follows three couples who just so happen to be old college friends now in their 50s as they go on weekend vacation each season of the year. A promising set of couples, namely Kate and Jack (Tina Fey and Will Forte), Danny and Claude (Colman Domingo and Marco Calvani), and Anne and Nick (Kerri Kenney-Silver and Steve Carrell), the cast gives a compelling performance that balances deception, playfulness, and heartbreak among longtime friends, without turning a shared midlife crisis into something too melodramatic.
In the first of 4 vacations, we are thrown into a plot that is arguably unexpected but thankfully emotionally grounded – when Nick tells the rest of the group that he wants to divorce his loving wife Anne. It’s evident among the entire group, especially Anne, that this comes as a surprise to them, and how the group handles the situation gives us a very clear idea about their friendship. Everyone but Anne is now temporarily forced into secrecy, not for malice but rather to give them enough time to deliberate among themselves what the best decision was – should they or should they not tell Anne?
From here, everything that happens to the group is seemingly a natural course of events. So many things about their group dynamic changes based on their life decisions outside of their last vacation, whether that be about their careers or relationships. It’s done so subtly considering we only get to join them for a weekend getaway every season, where each season lasts two episodes, but that’s what makes it so good.
Subtlety was key for the miniseries. It has the nightlife, tension, and hospitality that comes with any vacation, but nothing ever seems too excessive. One of its biggest selling points is watching this group of 50-year-olds navigate new relationship dynamics that they didn’t get to experiment with in their youth, such as labels and fluidity, which the miniseries provides much wisdom on with their own unique takeaways.
Overall, I’d be lying if I said this miniseries was guaranteed to win over most audiences, especially considering its subtleness and how it doesn’t present itself the way most series do. This might have also been the reason that, at some point in the middle of it, I wasn’t too eager to watch until the last episode, which I didn’t expect to feel about a miniseries with just 8 episodes.
However, I can confidently say it had a great acting ensemble and eventually gave justice to its story. The characters weren’t annoyingly rich either, just rich. Its beats weren’t the most hard-hitting but instead were heartwarming words of wisdom that made me thankful I stayed for the ending.
The Four Seasons is now streaming on Netflix.
