In a world obsessed with Gen Z, comes a refreshingly Gen X show on Netflix, from renowned makers Tina Fey, Lang Fisher, and Tracey Wigfield.
A series adaptation of a 1981 cult classic Alan Alda movie, The Four Seasons is an easy 8-episode story of three couples, who, as old friends, go on holidays together once every season. Each season’s holiday is in a separate location in America, with lots of conversations, time spent with each other, doing things connecting, disconnecting, having fun, fights, and a fair amount of emotions. Well past their prime, in the throws of their own unique mid-life crises as couples, they move from one holiday to the next, discovering new sides about each other, not always liking what they see, dealing not only with their own internal anxieties and challenges due to their life stage and the choices they’ve made in their lives, but also with changing realities of their relationships with each other as friends. Do they come together or do they fall apart as they grow a little bit more through the four seasons in the year?
I use the phrase ‘refreshingly Gen X’ for this show because that’s exactly what it is. For many of us, at the same age and life stage, we can relate to the very authentic moments and emotions that the show pulls out in relationships within each of the couples as well as between the six friends individually. If there was a sweet, gentle, light, and humorous way of depicting the very clichéd idea of a mid-life crisis, it would be this show. Whether it’s the couple that gets a divorce because the man is bored of his wife and falls for a PYT (another Gen X term, thank you very much). Or the seemingly most normal couple coming apart at the seams subtly over years of not telling each other what they love or hate about each other. Or the overly romantic gay couple that are coming to grips with the right balance between love and space.
What really hits the spot is actually not the story. Or what happens. This is not that kind of show. What works is that the writing actively steers clear of stereotypes and superficial characterisation. Each of the characters has a very human sketch and is highly nuanced, and who you can’t pinpoint as having seen in some other show. And yet, in each of the characters, you can find a truth that you’ve seen in people you know. This makes every conversation between each of the characters in the show eminently watchable. Because it’s like being part of a conversation with your friends and family. As the viewer, you’re not watching a show, you’re just the other person sitting on the next couch with these characters.
Jack (Will Forte), the gentle, nice guy that on the face of it would be perfect husband material, but not being the breadwinner of the family, mildly hypochondriac, with little initiative and a high need for attention and love, makes for a perfectly annoying husband material too. Kate (Tina Fey), Jack’s wife, the accomplished, in control, got-it-all-figured-out wife that’s running the show, but also holier-than-thou, judgemental about the people around her and who, over time, has become emotionally unavailable to the man she actually loves very much. Nick (Steve Carell), divorcing his wife of 25 years, being with a younger woman, living the dream and actually happy with it, yet missing his own age group and friends. Anne (Kerri Kenney-Silver), Nick’s wife, being the grieving and bitter divorcee, but also wondering if they really did have a marriage worth saving or was it just a habit that she had gotten comfortable with. Danny (Colman Domingo) as the strong, independent, successful architect, living life on his own terms, but also dealing with a health issue more with denial than with action. Claude (Marco Calvani) as Danny’s husband, who loves Danny more than anything else but also obsessively so much that it comes close to breaking them apart.
The actors do a fabulous job of their characters. The story is told in a simple, heart-warming way. The humour is light. And the moments and the relationships are beautifully depicted.
Romantic Comedy, as the show is being called, is not really how I would describe it. Is it romantic? Perhaps, in its vision of putting people in their everyday lives at the centre of the storytelling. Nothing grand or dramatic. Is it a comedy? Perhaps, in the way it brings about a light and humorous take on the very real emotions and relationships that make people happy or unhappy on a daily basis. But it’s not a rom-com. It’s not about people falling in love. It’s about how love is experienced in a marriage after the magic and the honeymoon are over. It’s not about two people and their ups and downs in getting together or not. It’s about how it’s not just the two people that matter, but how they matter together and separately to each other and to others. It’s not about the trials and tribulations of the beating hearts. It’s about the trials and tribulations of life and how it takes over and yet how we make the best of our lives and relationships.
And that’s why it’s so refreshingly Gen X. It’s a grown-up show, with grown-up emotions, and grown-up lives. Even though we may deal with it in a childish manner. Like I said, refreshingly Gen X!
To all the people of my generation, watch it, because this is us, is what we feel and see around us.
To the Millennials, watch it, because it will remind you not to take yourselves so seriously.
To the Gen Zs, watch it, because it will help you appreciate why your parents also have moods.
