The Four Seasons
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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Netflix's charming comedy The Four Seasons saw the return of Tina Fey starring in a TV show. And we think it's a great weekend binge.
The show is about a group of couples whose friendship dynamic is rocked by their midlife crises. The cast is pretty impressive. It includes Coleman Domingo, Will Forte, and Steve Carell. And while the jokes may not fly quite as fast as they did on 30 Rock, Faye's comedic sensibility is written all over it. The four seasons just returned for a second season, so we thought it would be a great time to revisit our conversation about the series. I'm Glenn Weldon.
And I'm Aisha Harris. And today we're talking about the four seasons on Pop Culture Happy Hour from NPR.
Thank you.
Joining us today is entertainment journalist Christina Escobar. She's the co-founder and editor-in-chief of Latinamedia.co. Welcome back, Christina. Thanks so much for having me. Great to have you here. So in the four seasons, three married couples come together for their semi-regular vacation weekend hang. There's Kate and Jack, played by Tina Fey and Will Forte. You know, even in a ruffle, somebody's got to clean the air for her.
Exactly. Even in an ethical situationship, you can't miss a car payment.
What is the premise of Netflix's The Four Seasons?
Claude and Danny are played by Marco Calvani and Coleman Domingo.
You know I need to be there in person to see all the furniture, touch all the fabrics. Why do you have to be so tactile all the time? I mean, it's sexy, but it's a little frustrating.
And then there's Nick and Anne, played by Steve Carell and Carrie Kenny Silver. Nick and Anne are celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary, but everything's thrown out of whack when Nick announces to some of the others in the group... that he's unhappy and plans to leave Anne.
I built her that pottery shed.
Who are the main characters and cast in The Four Seasons?
She hasn't made one thing. All she wants to do is play this farm game on her iPad. I look over her shoulder some nights. She's really high on the leaderboard.
What a way to throw a grenade in the middle of a vacation, man. So the rest of the show follows the couples as they navigate the fallout from their breakup and their own relationships to one another over the course of the next year or so. This is based on the 1981 movie that was written, directed by and starred Alan Alda. Tina Fey is a co-creator of The Four Seasons, and it's streaming on Netflix now. Glenn, I am going to start with you because I know that this is, this is catnip for both of us. There's this cast, the premise. So how did this strike you?
That's the thing. I mean, I love these individual components, every member of this cast and the premise. I love the Ellen Alda movie back in, I saw it as a tween, age like 12, but I was really, I thought it was so wise about, you know, middle age. Yeah. I really liked it more than I should have. But as a whole, it kind of didn't hit me as hard as I thought it was going to. I mean, for instance, I love Carrie Kenny Silver getting to dig a little deeper than she gets to do in a very broad, silly show like Reno 911. The only actor in this entire main cast that I don't have a preexisting, longstanding, parasocial relationship with is Marco Calvani, who you mentioned, who actually he wrote and directed a pretty great indie film called High Tide.
He plays Claude. Mm-hmm. And Claude is a character you keep waiting to get a moment to deepen or complicate or surprise us in any way, and that never really comes. And I guess it counts as progress that a character that underwritten is played by a gay man instead of a woman, as it would have been done in years past. I guess that counts.
This is not a sign, Danny. Thunder, volcano, when a fish looks at you right in the eye for no reason.
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–1:35
2
What is the premise of Netflix's The Four Seasons?
1:35–2:05
3
Who are the main characters and cast in The Four Seasons?
2:05–8:59
4
How does the show portray midlife crises among couples?
8:59–15:56
5
What themes are explored regarding marriage and relationships?
15:56–18:54
6
How does the show compare to Tina Fey's previous work?
18:54–19:35