The 1981 film “The Four Seasons,” written and directed by and starring Alan Alda, gets re-envisioned as a relatable, ultimately winning eight-episode Netflix comedy starring Tina Fey, Steve Carell, Colman Domingo and Will Forte.
Two episodes cover each season, beginning with spring, as six college friends, most in their 50s, travel to a rental home for a weekend getaway.
Kate (Fey) and Jack (Forte) are recent empty nesters. He’s the funny one, she’s the organizer. They enjoy gossiping about their friends and, as Danny (Domingo) puts it, “Complaining is their version of having sex.”
Danny and his husband Claude (Marco Calvani) hit on rough times because Danny finds Claude smothering in his caretaking after Danny receives a worrying medical diagnosis.
But the couple with the most turmoil from the outset are Nick (Carell) and Anne (Kerri Kenney-Silver, “Reno 911!”). Nick is eager to divorce Anne, who Nick finds boring and overly cautious, complaining that she takes “practice steps” before getting on an escalator and that she’s given up wanting to do anything other than play iPad games.
“Four Seasons” wobbles a bit at the start. It’s not as funny as one would hope. But the series improves as it continues, expanding on the characters and their relationships, which become more recognizable, realistic and funny with each episode. A cringey-yet-hilarious highlight is a scathingly autobiographical college theater performance staged by Nick and Anne’s daughter late in the season. “Four Seasons” will most resonate with viewers who have lived a life, those who are middle-aged and older.
The entire cast is terrific, but Kenney-Silver is the standout because it’s such a different, more grounded role for her compared to the loopy Deputy Trudi Weigel on “Reno 911!” In “The Four Seasons,” she gets to play both the comedy and the drama of Anne’s sad situation.
Calvani, an Italian writer-director (“High Tide,” “The View From Up Here”) who’s returning to his acting roots with this role, imbues Claude with puppy-dog loyalty and unbridled optimism that sometimes grates on the more cynical Danny.
The Netflix series, now streaming all episodes, follows the contours of Alda’s film, albeit with changes to some of the characters’ personalities as well as some of the plot. Alda has a cameo in episode two as Anne’s elderly father.
In a virtual press conference last month, Fey said she was a fan of the original movie, which is available on DVD but doesn’t stream (legally). Fey created the series with Lang Fisher and Tracey Wigfield after the trio worked together on “30 Rock.”
“We assembled just a fantastic writers’ room of people, almost all of whom we have known for, like, 20 years,” Fey said. “And a lot of people in the room (are) married a long time and everyone was really generous about sharing their real experiences and their real feelings about all their own relationships. Hopefully, that added up to stories that felt very truthful.”
For Kenney-Silver, the opportunity to try a new style of performance was terrifying and gratifying.
“I spent 34 years of my career doing a different kind of comedy and I always wanted to have a chance to do something like this, but nobody would really see me in that way,” she said. “Just getting the audition, I felt like I had won something.”
The opportunity to play in a comedy was also part of the appeal for Domingo, who’s often cast in serious dramas like filmed-in-Pittsburgh “Rustin.”
“Usually I’m supposed to mine some deep soul-searching or I’m (playing a character who’s) organizing the March on Washington,” Domingo said. “This was an opportunity to join an ensemble and I feel like Tina laid out to me, ‘I just wanna go and do something really sweet with some people who are gonna love each other and talk about relationships.’ And I was like, wait, I get to actually wear a cute sweater and sit at a table and have some witty banter? That’s interesting to me. It’s some chops that I haven’t been able to flex in a long time. Most people don’t know that I did sketch comedy years ago when I worked on stage.”
Forte said “Four Seasons” felt prescient in its depiction of long-standing relationships.
“There just were so many instances in this where I saw glimpses into my own life and relationship with my own wife,” he said, hastening to add, only the positive aspects of Kate and Jack’s marriage. “It was really fun to portray this couple where we start thinking we’re the perfect marriage and looking down on the other people who are having problems and then we start to have problems ourselves.”
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SNP’s ‘Unobstructed Views’
SportsNet Pittsburgh will offer alternate telecasts of some Pirates games with “unique insights, analysis and commentary” by former Pirates players, available on streamer SNP 360 and on SNP , the network’s secondary cable channel (262/1258 on Comcast; 81/581/1528 on Verizon Fios TV).
Games that will get the alternate telecast, hosted by Steven Brault and Michael McKenry, include those on May 20 (6:30 p.m.), June 30 (6:30 p.m.), July 18 (6:30 p.m.), Aug. 22 (6:30 p.m.) and Sept. 15 (6:30 p.m.).
Renewed
Netflix renewed “Sweet Magnolias” for a fifth season.
It took a year but BET finally renewed its critically acclaimed series “Diarra from Detroit” for a second season.
Channel surfing
TVLine.com reported Hallmark Channel’s shows are no longer on Peacock following the end of a three-year deal as Hallmark seeks to bolster its own Hallmark streaming service. … NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” ends its 50th season with Quinta Brunson as host May 3 and Benson Boone as musical guest; Walton Goggins hosts May 10 with Arcade Fire; Scarlett Johansson hosts May 17 with Bad Bunny. … NBC is developing a revival of USA’s “Royal Pains” with Mark Feuerstein returning to star in the potential series. … A&E moved the premiere of its “Duck Dynasty” revival from late May to 9 p.m. June 1. … ABC ordered more “Match Game” with Martin Short taking over as host duties from Alec Baldwin.