The Four Seasons: Season 1

Alright, who is The Four Seaons for? This middling relationship comedy about middle-aged, upper-class white people? I mean, this is hardly a cohort that anyone is courting these days. These people… Oh shit! It’s for me! No, seriously, they think that this series is supposed to appeal to me. And Ms. Hipster. Two middle-aged, upper-class (though not as upper-class as these people) white people. And maybe if it wasn’t so incredibly unremarkable and, frankly, kind of boring, it might have worked. I like cringey situations. And watching Steve Carrell being a selfish a jerk. And, Ms. Hipster’s internal-dialogue-come-to-life, Tina Fey. Themes around aging, health concerns, parenting, divorce and all the other completely not-fun things that come with being a human being of a certain age. All of which is shown in the context of these wealthy people taking their seasonal vacations. White people problems, am I right?!

And, yes, not everyone is white. There’s Colman Domingo. But he’s probably fancier than any of them. Him aside, this is a pretty homogeneous group of complainers. This is ostensibly a comedy, but it has more of a dramedy bent. The issue is the drama piece clanks badly, as the writers seem mostly uninterested in writing it, and just lean in on tropey relationship nonsense. And the comedy piece is mostly unfunny, depending predominantly on Will Forte’s weird energy and frantic “acting” style combatting Fey’s dry, cutting fun-killer vibe. Oh, and also Marco Calvani’s similar high-voltage, fast-talking Italian-accented beautiful, infantilized dummy act. Why oh why have we made Carrell into the rich, serious guy? Why would we have anyone else ever do a cringey, dummy act when we have the man who played Michael Scott in our lives? Is it the nice beard, expensive haircut and perfect spectacles that has made Hollywood think Carell can only play affluent jerkwads like his Nick character here, his dead-serious billionaire in Mountainhead and his awful Mitch character on The Morning Show? Goofy Carrell is the best Carrell. Oh well, apparently we shall never see him again.

Here’s a perfect example of why this show isn’t serious about itself and hardly cares about its subject matter. Or at least isn’t interested in exploring it in any new or interesting way. Carrell’s Nick character leaves his long-time wife, Anne (Kerri Kenney). And subsequently takes up with his young dental hygienist, Ginny (Erika Henningsen). Har har. She’s 32 and is into eco-tourism and yoga and kombucha. Old guy, Nick, tries to hang but finds himself out-of-step with her and her late-stage millennial friends. And makes it awkward for his mostly Gen-X pals (he’s technically a Boomer) when he brings her in place of his ex-wife on their planned seasonal vacations. Because they too find kombucha gross and sleeping in a yurt stupid, I guess. Har har. And, oh no(!), the ex, Anne, seems to continue to show up at their vacation locations to blow up their spot. Har har. Point is, they chose for him to date a dental hygienist. It’s like the oldest joke in the book. And played the whole generational thing. Also, just so tired. Old people being annoyed by younger people’s focus on health and wellness and the earth and shit. I mean, it’s as of they searched “what happens when an old guy divorces his wife and dates a younger woman” in the Cliché search engine (if such a thing existed).

And so it goes. The relationship struggles feel written by AI. The acting is uneven — mostly by Will Forte, who might at times be one of the more annoying actors on television. And the attempt at connecting the seasonal stories is a bit lackluster. It’s not fun. Nor is it funny. To top it off, they Morning Show the Nick character. Yes, the fate of Carrell’s character here is identical to his character’s story in that series. Literally identical. I know the man works a lot, so it feels like they run out of runway with his time and have to abruptly exit him on a Tuesday so he can go work on his next project. So they awkwardly wrap up his storyline offscreen — and, in this case, confusingly — and leave the rest of the cast to deal with the “huh, what?” fallout. Ultimately, The Four Seasons is nothing more than a background watch that has a few amusing moments, but absolutely no lasting impression. So of course Netflix has renewed it for a second season. Guess us Gen Xers have more pull and more interest in dour relationship stories than I thought.