“Nothing ruins a vacation like honesty.”
That's the unspoken thesis of The Four Seasons, Netflix's new comedy series whose freshly dropped trailer looks cozy on the surface—but plays like a quiet crisis in every frame. Imagine The Big Chill if it were co-written by your funniest, most passive-aggressive friend. That's the vibe.
Based on the 1981 film of the same name, the show follows three long-married couples who've ritualized vacationing together every season. But when one husband pulls the ultimate friendship faux pas—trading his wife for a newer model—their sacred annual getaway becomes a minefield.
The trailer teases plenty of laughs (Carell and Fey doing what they do best), but what makes it stand out is its simmering emotional tension. The kind you only get with decades of shared history—and resentment.
This isn't just a reboot. It's a roast of the middle-aged marriage machine.
Let's be real: Hollywood's nostalgia-industrial complex usually plays it safe. Reboot the movie. Recast the roles. Sell the merch. Rinse and rerun. But The Four Seasons swerves left. It doesn't just modernize Alan Alda's original story—it rewires its emotional circuitry.
Where the 1981 film leaned into breezy adult drama, the Netflix version weaponizes humor to expose deeper rot. Tina Fey (co-creator, also starring as Kate) and writing partners Lang Fisher and Tracey Wigfield (of 30 Rock and Great News) build something sneakier here: a comedy that's not afraid to feel a little sad.
The trailer opens with a toast: “To friends, family, and finding your soulmate…” Classic setup. But in this world, “soulmate” comes with an asterisk—and a midlife crisis in the passenger seat.
When one husband introduces his new girlfriend (who looks like she TikToks for a living), it sends the group into comic disarray. The series spans a full year of seasonal vacations, chronicling the slow-motion chaos that ensues. Think Scenes From a Marriage, but everyone's holding sangria and side-eye.
The Real Drama? It's What Isn't Said.
If you've ever been part of a friend group where one breakup messed up the whole vibe—you already know this show's premise.
But what's sly about the trailer is how it mines tension from familiarity. These people know each other too well. That's the weapon. That's the trap.
Will Forte, Steve Carell, Colman Domingo—they're not just playing husbands. They're playing archetypes of emotional repression. And Kerri Kenney-Silver, Erika Henningsen, and Marco Calvani fill out the cast with just enough nuance to keep you guessing: who's going to blow up next?
The trailer's breezy tone is deceptive. Beneath the jokes is something rarer on screen: the heartbreak of outgrowing people you love. Or worse—realizing they've outgrown you.
A Decade of “Friendship Dramas”—But This One Might Actually Stick
We've been here before:
- Friends from College (Netflix, 2017–2019) tried the same “messy grown-ups, messier friendships” formula—only to collapse under its own cynicism.
- Togetherness (HBO, 2015–2016) was smart and intimate—but maybe too subtle for its own good.
What The Four Seasons trailer suggests is a smarter balancing act: grounded warmth, sharp writing, and just enough ridiculousness to earn the label “comedy.”
And with directors like Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini—who've shaped everything from Fleishman Is in Trouble to Only Murders in the Building—this series seems built to last longer than one awkward brunch.
Would You Vacation With Your Ex's New Flame?
That's the question no one in the trailer says out loud. But it's lurking behind every laugh and lingering glance.
Netflix premieres The Four Seasons on May 1, just in time for your own summer plans.
So—would you risk it?
Let's hear it: Are you Team Keep-the-Tradition or Team Burn-It-Down?
