The New York Times review assesses Netflix's "The Four Seasons," a series based on Alan Alda's 1981 film. While acknowledging the star-studded cast (including Steve Carell, Tina Fey, and Colman Domingo), the review criticizes the series for its lack of depth and humor compared to the original. The series follows three couples on four vacations, exploring themes of middle-aged ennui and marital routines.
The review's central argument is that the series is "pleasant enough" but pales in comparison to its source material. The humor is deemed "mild and featherweight," and the characters are overshadowed by the talent of the actors. A key example cited is the understated handling of a marriage nearing its end.
The series opens with a lake house gathering for a 25th wedding anniversary, where one husband unexpectedly announces his intention to leave his wife due to unhappiness and perceived stagnation in their relationship. The dialogue highlights the emotional distance between the couple, comparing their dynamic to that of "co-workers at a nuclear facility."
The Netflix series deviates from Alda's original film, toning down the wit and emotional depth. The review suggests a significant loss of the original's nuanced storytelling and character development in the adaptation process.
“The Four Seasons” follows three couples on four vacations, two episodes per trip. Everyone is thinking about his or her middle-aged ennui and the routines — ruts? — of marriage, what companionship and friendship and sex look like in this chapter and the next.
The show is based on a 1981 movie with the same premise, written and directed by Alan Alda, who also starred. (He has a brief cameo here.) This Netflix version was created by Tina Fey, Lang Fisher and Tracey Wigfield, with Fey and Will Forte as Kate and Jack, the roles played originally by Carol Burnett and Alda. Their friend group is filled out by Steve Carell, Kerri Kenney-Silver, Colman Domingo and Marco Calvani, and the series’s plot is similar but not identical to that of the movie. The biggest change is that the prickly, talky humor and depth have been sanded down into mild, featherweight Netflix chow.
“The Four Seasons,” which arrived on Thursday, is pleasant enough, but it never shakes the fact that most people would rather listen to the cast than the characters. Such talent; such humor; such icons! Anyway, here’s a show where all of those lights are under a bushel basket.
In the first outing, everyone is at a lake house for the 25th wedding anniversary of Anne and Nick (Kenney-Silver and Carell). After a night of toasting one another and congratulating themselves on finding their soul mates, Nick shocks the guys by telling them that he plans to leave Anne. He isn’t happy, and she’s too stagnant.
Every marriage goes through phases when the spouses feel more like roommates than romantic partners, Jack says.
“I wish we were roommates,” Nick says. “Roommates hang out together. There’s porn about roommates. We’re like co-workers at a nuclear facility: We sit in the same room all night monitoring different screens.”
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