Good observational comedies on the big or small screen are a precious commodity.
Far too often we are subjected to comedies that go for crude, cheap laughs or are poor imitations of much better shows.
So it's comforting to see Tina Fey, Lang Fisher and Tracey Whitfield reboot a successful but largely forgotten romcom hit from the 1980s, give it a 21st Century makeover and turn it into an engaging Netflix show.
Alan Alda's movie 'The Four Seasons' was the ninth biggest movie of 1981 and enjoyed huge critical and commercial success.
Written, directed by and starring Alda, its cast included Carol Burnett, Sandy Dennis, Rita Moreno, Len Cariou, Jack Weston and Bess Armstrong and it followed the ups and downs of three New York middle class couples over four vacations in Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter.
Fey, Fisher and Wigfield's Netflix series isn't the first attempt to turn Alda's comedy drama into a TV show.
Weston and Tony Roberts starred in a 1984 sitcom version that ran for barely one season and was met with critical and audience indifference.
This 2025 version, however, is sharply written, wonderfully acerbic and true to the spirit of Alda's movie while avoiding a complete rehash.
Fey and Will Forte play Jack and Kate, a middle aged couple who met in college and pick up another friend from those days, Colman Domingo's Danny and his Italian husband, Marco Calvani's Claude for a reunion with Steve Carrell's Nick and his wife, Kerri Kenney-Silver's Anne at their rural lakeside retreat to celebrate the couple's special wedding anniversary.
All seems to be going swimmingly until Nick reveals during a hike with Jack and Danny that after 25 years of marriage he intends to leave Anne because she bores him and he no longer loves her.
Blissfully unaware of his intentions, Anne splans a renewal of their marriage vows in front of friends and family while Nick is sent on an errand to buy bagels.
This puts Jack and Danny into a bind and Kate when she is informed of Nick's plans.
Should they prewarn Nick of Anne's surprise celebration or spare Anne any embarrassment by breaking the news gently to her of her husband's plan to end the marriage?
What unfolds over the next seven episodes is the fallout from Nick and Anne's break-up and the impact it has on their daughter, Julia Lester's Lila and the other couples.
Nick lands a much younger girlfriend, Erika Henningsen's 32 year old dental hygienist Ginny who he takes with him on a summer vacation to a Carribbean eco resort with Claude, Danny, Kate and Jack.
A rather lost Anne also heads to the same location but holidays on her own in a luxury hotel while the others struggle to sleep in their teepees.
In the fall, Ginny joins the group on a parents weekend at their alma mater which Anne also attends and where Lila and Jack and Kate's daughter, Ashlyn Maddox's Beth also go to college.
The final two episodes see Kate, Jack, Danny and Claude join Anne at a ski lodge to celebrate New Year's Eve with a new man in her life while Nick and Ginny spend time with her friends.
As the group comes to terms with the break-up, it exposes flaws in the other marriages and also their friendships.
Individuals occasionally fall out with each other and make up.
They aoccasionally bitch behind each others' backs but rally round in moments of adversity.
It is to Fey, Fisher and Wigfield's credit and their fellow writers Josh Siegel, Dylan Morgan, Vali Chandrasekaran, Matt Whitaker, John Riggi, Lisa Muse Bryant that the show works perfectly thanks to sharp comic writing rooted firmly in reality.
This version of 'The Four Seasons' doesn't soft soap the relationships it depicts.
The marriages and relationships in the show are not all hearts and flowers.
They involve compromises and the occasional sacrifice, a big dollop of pragmatism and a recognition that each partner and friend has their flaws and will inevitably make mistakes.
The question is: are they willing to accept each other's shortcomings and forgive?
The show's genius lies in its ability to do that and still deliver laugh out loud moments as well as the occasional surprise - like a student play that delivers a massive comic punch.
It's certainly Fey's finest work as a writer and an actor since the wonderful '30 Rock'.
But the ensemble as a whole are terrific with Forte, Carrell and especially Domingo enjoying some of the best moments and funniest lines.
The cherry on the cake is a rather sweet cameo from Alda, now in his late eighties and suffering from Parkinson's Disease, as Anne's father.
Trading lines with Fey and Forte, his comic timing remains impeccable and it feels like the handing over of the baton to another generation.
Here's hoping we see more of Kate, Jack, Danny et al because this version of 'The Four Seasons' deserves another run.
('The Four Seasons' was released on Netflix on May 2, 2025)
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