Between the success of projects like The White Lotus and Glass Onion, “rich people going on vacation” seems to be a whole genre that’s emerging nowadays, and it’s not hard to understand why. There’s nothing like the escape that watching beautiful people in beautiful locations provides. On paper, Netflix’s The Four Seasons is a recipe for success, showing a group of beloved actors playing in a quartet of stunning locations that range from the beach to a snowy wonderland. Unfortunately, it proves to be a rather lackluster getaway.
What Is ‘The Four Seasons’ About?
Image via Netflix
The Four Seasons follows three couples over the course of a year, checking in on them during their quarterly trips together. We meet Jack (Will Forte) and Kate (Tina Fey) first. It’s immediately clear that Jack is the more sensitive and idealistic of the two, while Kate is more blunt and cynical. Though their marriage seems to be relatively happy at first, as the series goes on, it becomes apparent that there are some resentments there — namely, Jack feels like Kate is neglecting their marriage, while Kate grows frustrated that she’s constantly taking care of him.
Next, there’s Danny (Colman Domingo) and Claude (Marco Calvani). Danny is a workaholic with health problems he’s hellbent on ignoring, with Claude his doting and sometimes smothering husband. The two of them have an open relationship — a fact that occasionally baffles their more traditional friends.
Finally, there’s Nick (Steve Carell) and Anne (Kerri Kenney-Silver), who have been together for 25 years. Though they, too, seem content on the surface, Nick surprises all of them by announcing he wants to divorce Anne. To further complicate matters, he begins dating a much younger woman named Ginny (Erika Henningsen), which proves a major adjustment for all involved. Nick and Anne’s breakup has a ripple effect that impacts everyone, forming cracks that might prove impossible to repair.
‘The Four Seasons’ Wastes Its Incredible Cast
The Four Seasons is a character-driven show, which makes the fact that none of the characters have much depth or development baffling. You immediately get a sense of everyone’s archetype — the nagging wife, the pushover husband, the flamboyant younger gay guy — and rarely do they subvert the stereotypes associated with each, nor do their arcs go anywhere unpredictable. There’s a distinct lack of specificity and surprise, giving the whole thing a generic and formulaic feel that rings inauthentic and keeps you from truly investing in any of the characters despite having normally delightful A-list talent playing them.
It’s difficult to buy into the bond that The Four Seasons tells us these characters have, as we rarely sense any real chemistry or history there apart from fleeting moments, like when the group recalls a wild New Year’s Eve hot tub memory. The group’s origin story is randomly thrown in for exposition purposes instead of acting as the cornerstone of their relationships. In fact, it’s hard to see why this story needed to unfold with the group always together at all, as the couples are often siloed and dealing with their own problems without a ton of intersection into each other’s storylines. The fact they’re all trapped together is a concept rich with possible complexities and messiness, but The Four Seasons never fully indulges in its potential, keeping everything too neat, tidy, and consequently boring.
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The most intriguing dynamic is between Kate and Danny, who get the most development. Their friendship feels the most fleshed out and genuine, with Fey and Domingo playing off each other well as the most skeptical and logical of the bunch. Domingo, in particular, is able to light up the screen on charisma alone and inject the script with some much-needed life, and it’s delightful to see him get a chance to flex his strong comedic chops for a change. It’s no coincidence that Danny and Claude’s relationship is the most intriguing of the romances, with Calvani’s earnest nature acting as the heart of the show and getting the most smiles, if not outright laughs. When the show does work, it’s because of them. The others try their best with what they’re given, but even heavy hitters like Carell and Forte can’t redeem their one-dimensional characters.
‘The Four Seasons’ Isn’t Funny Enough to Make You Laugh or Deep Enough to Make You Care
The structure of The Four Seasons logically makes sense, with two half-hour episodes devoted to each trip, but the pacing proves slow and sluggish, with characters rehashing the same predicament over and over again to tedious effect. There’s no real bite to the conflict or stakes to the tension, making all of the problems shallow and irrelevant. A show like The White Lotus, of course, mostly revolves around petty grievances and passive-aggressive arguments, too, but there’s a soapy, self-aware quality to it that’s notably missing in The Four Seasons, which lacks any real sense of style or edge. This would be fine if it played into the silliness and heightened hijinks, but The Four Seasons doesn’t go there either, leaving the audience stuck in a sanitized, risk-free limbo that’s not sharp enough to bring the laughs or dramatic enough to evoke an emotional response.
The best episodes of the bunch are its fall installment,s purely because they ground us in the day-to-day lives of these characters via Nick and Anne’s daughter Lila (Julia Lester) during parents’ weekend at her college. There’s a flicker of a slightly more substantive show there, anchored by more layered moments from Carell, Kenney-Silver, and Lester, though it doesn’t ultimately come off as transformative or impactful in the context of the rest of the series. The twist at the end of the penultimate episode comes off much the same way. It’s clear what the show wants us to feel and think, but its by-the-book execution keeps us from experiencing it the way it was intended.
The Four Seasons isn’t a horrible show, but considering the talent it has in front of and behind the camera, it’s a letdown that never finds a unique voice or clear purpose. I would almost have rather it had been a bold, experimental disaster, as the fact it settles for being broad and unmemorable seems an even bigger waste of the legendary actors it assembled. The Four Seasons won’t offer you the vacation of your dreams or your nightmares. In fact, it’s one mental vacation you’ll probably quickly forget you even went on at all.
The Four Seasons is available to stream on Netflix.
The Four Seasons
Netflix’s The Four Seasons is inoffensive but unmemorable.
Release Date
May 1, 2025
Network
Netflix
Pros & Cons
- It?s a delight to watch Colman Domingo do comedy, with his character?s relationships proving the most intriguing.
- There are small dramatic moments that work, particularly during the show?s fall episodes.
- The characters are underdeveloped and stereotypical, offering little depth and few surprises.
- The pacing drags and often feels tedious.
- The show doesn?t commit to a strong tone, which means it?s neither laugh-out-loud funny comedy nor emotionally effective drama.
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