The Four Seasons

Everyone in this cast is notoriously funny, and while this show isn’t exactly doing “prestige comedy” at the level of “Hacks” or even “The Righteous Gemstones,” it’s a gentle joy to watch, even during dicey moments that could hit a little too close to home for some couples.

The new Four Seasons is more than twice the length of Alda’s movie, and it makes good use of its expanded scope, broadening our understanding of each character so no one feels shoved aside. .... But it’s Jack and Kate’s marriage that feels the most lived-in. .... You can feel them [Tina Fey and Will Forte] cradling each other as performers, allowing the tenderness and the spite to flow unchecked.

Just about staying the right side of low-key, and propelled along by Vivaldi’s violins, The Four Seasons is something of a delight.

The mix of Fey and her writing team’s combination of clever wordplay and broad comedy is performed as skilfully as you would expect from a cast this strong, but it is smart rather than smart-arsed.

Part White Lotus without fatalities, part Gilmore Girls on HRT or Golden Girls with men, The Four Seasons is Fey and her writing and acting ensembles on fine form, everything informed by her rigorous intelligence, wit and experience.

Tina Fey’s The Four Seasons is less zany than her previous TV work, but still delivers solid laughs, beautiful locations and a fantastic cast.

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.

Tackling the headaches of marriage with wit and warmth, it contends, persuasively, that the search for peace, contentment, and togetherness—and for who you are, what you want, and where you’re going—doesn’t end once the knot has been tied.

While The Four Seasons was created by a trio of comedy specialists, the writing is just as sharp when it isn’t trying to elicit the audience’s laughter. The series is particularly good at drawing out the little things that can steadily gunk up the gears of a relationship.

Though hardly revolutionary, The Four Seasons is an entertaining watch enlivened by its ace cast.

The adaptation, created by Fey, Tracey Wigfield, and Lang Fisher, is shinier than Alda’s, and perhaps more staid than some Fey and Wigfield fans will want in a show about relationships, but the material stays true to its source.

Despite some languid pacing and a surprising lack of laughs, the chemistry among the cast of The Four Seasons saves the show from being a pale remake of a film that was well-regarded 44 years ago.

The series, as a whole, isn't going to be the most exciting comedy of the year, but as a warm and true-to-life look at marriage and friendship as you age, it really works.

There is something old-fashioned about “The Four Seasons,” a very watchable, breezy, bumpy new Netflix comedy from Tina Fey, Lang Fisher and Tracey Wigfield.

Eight episodes is too much for a thin premise like this, and “Four Seasons” sometimes feels as if its overstayed its welcome. Fey’s potshots at Forte become so repetitive, for instance, that you want this couple to just go away already. Still, the veteran cast and Erika Henningsen, as a radiant late arrival to the tightly knit group, often sparkle and an Alda cameo certainly warms the heart.

It's a hit-and-miss proposition that works every time Kerri Kenney-Silver is on screen.

The result is a warmhearted but uneven TV rom-com that feels like the throwback it is.

It’s unfortunate that The Four Seasons can’t keep things a little more real more consistently. There are some plot contrivances that don’t work. .... But there are enough moments that will resonate with the Gen-Xers in the target demo to keep them clicking through to the next episode. If you’re in your 30s or 20s or younger, The Four Seasons probably won’t be your jam.

Mostly, though, Fey and company seem content to coast on vibes and the chemistry among the cast. The results are pleasant, but rarely more than that.

While you might sometimes roll your eyes at their antics, you might also occasionally dab your eyes as they withstand the fissures and fractures of enduring friendships and relationships while the seasons fly by, reminding them and us that any time spent together with our nearest and dearest is precious and fleeting.

That’s how most of the show is: legible but vague, relatable to many people but maybe not as many as it thinks. It’s a show about spouses and best friends, the closest bonds and deepest relationships, but the show itself doesn’t have any of that intimacy or intensity.

The series has four hours to say something, anything, about marriage or aging or midlife crises, but by the end the show's point of view is not at all clear. Is having a life partner meaningful? Worthless? Somewhere in the middle? "Seasons" is, unfortunately, as clueless as its characters.

The end result invites constant comparisons, which becomes the only way to sort through this strange project made by people who clearly revere the original, but are unable to either channel Alda’s sensibilities or create meaningful ones of their own.

It’s odd to sit through so much of “The Four Seasons” with little more than a sedated smile.

“The Four Seasons” is ultimately able to deliver some astute insights into adult relationships, but also struggles to settle into this awkward new rhythm. The Fey brain trust is visibly working to expand its repertoire — an effort that, inevitably, comes with some growing pains.

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.

“The Four Seasons” ultimately feels like something everyone had time to do, in between projects of actual substance.

Each episode opens with generically seasonal imagery of flowers in bloom or trees dripping with frost over the corresponding Vivaldi concerto, and they rarely get much more memorable from there.

Things do look up in episode six, if you can make it that far. .... What a waste of the assembled talent.

A few performances keep “The Four Seasons” from completely collapsing, especially Domingo and Kenney-Silver, but it’s a show that feels significantly longer than its roughly 4-hour runtime.