On Screen: “The Four Seasons”
The Four Seasons
Many TV shows get better in their second season — like “Seinfeld,” “The Office,” “Star Trek: Next Generation,” “Parks and Recreation,” “The Mandalorian” and “X-Files.” Add “The Four Seasons: Season 2” to that list.
Inspired by Alan Alda’s 1981 movie of the same name, it’s about six friends — three middle-aged, married couples — who share quarterly vacations in spring, summer, fall and winter.
During the show’s first season, Nick (Steve Carell) decides to divorce his unsuspecting wife Anne (Kerri Kenney-Silver) on their 25th anniversary. His subsequent death on a ski slope stuns everyone, particularly his 30-something girlfriend Ginny (Erika Henningsen), who announces she’s expecting Nick’s baby.
Season 2 begins with the task of scattering Nick’s ashes on his favorite mountain in the Catskills, while edgy Kate (Tina Fey) and uptight Jack (Will Forte) frantically ‘freeball’ their floundering marriage and Danny (Colman Domingo) and Claude (Marco Calvani) debate the pros and cons of parenthood and/or living in Italy.
But the pivotal, plum part belongs to Kerri Kenney-Silver, who was raised in Westport, Connecticut.
As lonely, grief-stricken Anne, who wavers between accepting and/or resenting heavily pregnant Ginny, she wails: “Ladies aren’t supposed to be friends with the woman their dead husband left them for.”
Yet, eventually Anne acknowledges: “Life is not a Nancy Meyers movie.” Her complicated transition from poignantly fearful to fierce and positively feisty is pure pleasure to watch.
Co-created by Tina Fey, Lang Fisher, and Tracey Wigfield, the original, funny and insightful dramedy series explores the many facets of mutual affection and long-term friendships that enhance happiness and reduce misery by sharing joy and dividing sorrow.
Not surprisingly, it’s been renewed for Season 3 — and, hopefully, they can pick up the uneven pacing, perhaps with the addition of Gianpiero (David Tennant), Anne’s new suitor.
On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “The Four Seasons: Season 2” is a sublimely bittersweet 7 — with all eight episodes streaming on Netflix.
Susan Granger is a product of Hollywood. Her natural father, S. Sylvan Simon, was a director and producer at M.G.M. and Columbia Pictures. Her adoptive father, Armand Deutsch, produced movies at M.G.M.
As a child, Susan appeared in movies with Abbott & Costello, Red Skelton, Lucille Ball, Margaret O’Brien, and Lassie. She attended Mills College in California, studying journalism with Pierre Salinger, and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with highest honors in journalism.