If you had asked me before pressing play on Netflix‘s The Four Seasons who I thought would be the lifeblood of the show, my answer would have been conclusively Colman Domingo. No offense to the rest of the cast, of course; I think even they would understand my train of thought.
What I didn’t expect was for the show to tell a beautiful story about two women on opposite sides of a man experiencing a midlife crisis. Enter Kerri Kenney-Silver as Anne and Erika Henningsen as Ginny, the former as the ex-wife of Nick (Steve Carell), and the ladder as the young and boisterous new girlfriend.
As someone who has been around the block a few times, I’ve seen storylines where two women are pitted against each other, especially when one is the “rebound” and the other is the “bitter ex” who has nothing but disdain and hostility toward her former husband. This is why I cannot quite put into words how refreshing it is to see two characters break out of that mold, even if it is in small ways.
One might expect to go into Episode 3, the first time we see Henningsen’s character, and roll our eyes at her, possibly even hating her for being the stereotypical woman dating a much older soon-to-be divorcee. It’s so often that women in this role are boxed into what I call “The Meredith model,” named after the character from 1998’s The Parent Trap. God love Elaine Hendrix for playing a devious woman so well she will forever haunt the younger woman dating an older man archetype. But in The Four Seasons, Henningsen — who previously worked with Tina Fey on Mean Girls the Musical — brings such a light and airy energy to Ginny that it’s hard to not like her.
Take, for example, the autumn episodes where Ginny visits Nick and Anne’s daughter, Lila (Julia Lester), at her college during parents’ weekend. She expresses deep concern over boundaries, taking things slow, and being respectful to Anne and Lila in the situation. Which is why when she has to sit there uncomfortably watching Lila’a play — you know, the one where she’s essentially called a blonde bimbo — it is genuinely hard to watch. There are certainly uncomfortable moments with the character but Henningsen and the writers truly did craft her to be someone we not only know, but someone that most people can understand.
We also get to watch as she makes a concerted effort to connect with the various members of Nick’s friend group, offering up her own friendship even as she knows she is being judged by them. There’s something universal about watching someone put themself out there and do it with a brave face, even as you know others are whispering behind their back. Unsurprisingly to anyone familiar with Henningsen before this, she delivers this performance with such grace that it makes for a character I would want to be friends with. Heck, maybe even go on vacays with.
Of course, there is no “new girlfriend they often want us to hate” without the “ex we’re supposed to feel bad for,” i.e. Kenney-Silver’s Anne. Don’t get me wrong, The State alum certainly fits the mold for part of the series — the whole “sneak onto a vacation and stay a few minutes away from the friend group who abandoned you” is not a good look for her — but she quickly finds herself in that mess. She also never becomes the full-blown ex-husband-hating woman that too is an overutilized stereotype in TV and film.
We give the writers a lot of credit here but tasking any actor with playing a character that could otherwise be portrayed as one-note is no easy feat. It takes skill, likability, and understanding to breathe life into a person that almost any viewer can see and relate to in one way or another. This is where Kenney-Silver truly shines as she is the gold standard when we are talking about The Four Seasons characters.
Apart from delivering arguably some of the funniest lines and scenes in the entire show (I still chuckle thinking about her “demented children” line from Episode 1), she actually feels like every woman I have ever known. Even when she is mad or sad or broken, she has to be the one to keep calm and cool, god forbid she be labeled the “crazy ex-wife” that drove Nick into the arms of a younger woman. There is no better example of this than when the group watches Lila’s production and then Anne has to play the level-headed mother who tries to build bridges. It’s an unfairness every woman has known in their life.
Kenney-Silver also deserves all of her flowers for making the show as grounded as her own character. So much of what a show can get away with comedy-wise is dependent on the timing and precision of their best players. For that reason alone, bringing on someone like the Reno 911! actress would only make sense — I’ll refer back to my comment about the “demented children” line — and since Fey has said it was imperative that this show not get to the point of absurdism, one might even say that Kenney-Silver had the most difficult job. She is, by far, the most animated character of the bunch but somehow puts her on level ground with the others.
All of this is to say that there are so many reasons to watch The Four Seasons on Netflix but if we’re talking about the women who make the show what it is, we cannot leave these two out of the conversation. They took a played-out dynamic and brought it back to life and it makes me want a second season more than anything else.
The Four Seasons is currently streaming on Netflix.