The end of the first season of Tina Fey‘s adaptation of the 1981 film The Four Seasons certainly changed that film’s formula when (SPOILER ALERT!) Steve Carell‘s character Nick died in the next-to-last episode. How that will be dealt with in the second season was the biggest question. We’re not sure if the change was a good one.
THE FOUR SEASONS SEASON 2: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
Opening Shot: As Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons” plays, we see bucolic scenes of the woods in spring.
The Gist: A group of old friends are hiking up a mountain — Kate (Tina Fey), her husband Jack (Will Forte), Danny (Colman Domingo) and his husband Claude (Marco Calvani). With them is Anne (Kerri Kenney-Silver), the ex-wife of their late friend Nick (Steve Carell) and Ginny (Erika Henningsen), the young dental hygenist Nick dated after leaving Anne. She’s very pregnant with Nick’s child but still hikes ahead of all of them because she takes prenatal pilates classes. Jack, who arranged this trip, is wearing a GoPro on his head to document this round of togetherness.
The idea is that they’re going to spread Nick’s ashes at the top of this mountain, as it was a place Jack loved to be when he was a kid. When they get to the peak, though, they see a group of Brownies on a ridge down below. That means they have to trudge back down and stay at the kitschy lodge overnight to try again the next day.
Kate really wants this for Jack, as he was particularly devastated by Nick’s death. They’re even training for a marathon together (at least as far as Jack knows). At dinner that night, Jack makes a toast saying that they should come to this location every year in honor of Nick. Anne, though, isn’t interested; she accosts Kate as Kate is peeing in the restroom and tells her that, even though it seems like she and Ginny are getting along, she would rather not see this reminder of Nick’s infidelity ever again.
Danny and Claude, who are always fighting about their relationship for one reason or another, are now going toe-to-toe about who said they didn’t want children and when they said it. In the meantime, Ginny tells Claude that Nick and Anne never finalized their divorce before Nick died, and that Anne won’t give her any of Nick’s estate to help her raise her and Nick’s son, whom she’s calling “Cove” (yes, Cove). As they face another trek up the mountain, there’s a whole lot of tension, and it isn’t helped when they get to the top and Danny finds out that he forgot to bring Nick’s ashes.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? The Four Seasons, created by Fey, Lang Fisher and Tracey Wigfield, is a rethinking of Alan Alda’s 1981 film of the same name. At this stage, it has the feel of hangout comedies like Rooster or Shrinking.
Our Take: Despite the seasonal trips and the old friends at the center of them — as well as the Vivaldi soundtrack — the second season of The Four Seasons resembles the film much less than the first season did, and we’re not sure if that’s a good thing or not.
The idea of the first season is that this group of longtime friends, who have the chemistry of a group who have a long history together and know each other’s histories well, is upended when one of the couples separates and a new, younger, member is added. The shocking death of Carell’s character Nick at the end of the first season really threw a monkey wrench into that dynamic. This season now seems to be focused on the aftermath of Nick’s death and how everyone in the group is reassessing things, albeit in their own way.
Part of that is the dynamic between Anne and Ginny. Their relationship may evolve and change, but they’re also going to be remiders to each other about different parts of Nick’s life. Sure, it’ll be interesting to see how they stay in each other’s lives (the second episode hints at what’s to come in that regard), but that dynamic isn’t going to be the same as the other four friends trying to make sure both Nick and Anne stay in the group even if they’re separated.
Kate and Jack are always going to have issues to deal with, as will Danny and Claude. That’s what happens during longtime relationships. Their back-and-forth, along with the airtight dynamics of Danny and Kate’s friendship, which predates all of these relationships, could either be more of the same of what we saw in the first season, which of course would be boring. But we have confidence that Fey, Wigfield and Lang have something new in store for them. As with the first season, though, the chemistry the actors have with each other will carry viewers through any craters in the story.
Performance Worth Watching: Colman Domingo’s Danny is always going to be the funniest person in this very funny cast, espcially when he delivers lines like “This is the town that Tracy Chapman sped away from.”
Sex And Skin: Does a fully-clothed Jack and Kate sinking into their mattress as they start some sexy times count?
Parting Shot: As the group is about to leave the hotel, a patrol car tells them that there’s a manhunt for a serial killer going on; they need to go inside the lobby and stay there.
Sleeper Star: We’re going to give Erika Henningsen’s Ginny her due here; she definitely has her own quriky ideas that the more world-weary members of the group don’t, but she also is very much her own person and has no problem standing up to Anne or others in the group.
Most Pilot-y Line: Danny and Claude have blue Walmart bags in their motel room. First of all: Would either of them ever shop at Walmart? And two: That’s some not-so-subtle product placement there.
Our Call: STREAM IT. The second season of The Four Seasons doesn’t quite have the same fun group dynamic that the first season had, but it still has funny moments and more than enough chemistry between its cast members to be very watchable.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.