One of the most-watched Netflix series of the spring (and, who knows, maybe the summer, fall, and winter, too) is The Four Seasons, an eight-episode dramedy about middle-aged friends going through some changes, led by Tina Fey, Steve Carell, and Colman Domingo. Series creators Fey, Lang Fisher, and Tracey Wigfield actually adapted this material from a 1981 film written and directed by Alan Alda (who also appears in a small role early in the series), which Netflix has also licensed. So is this earlier version of the same story also worth checking out?
The Gist: As with the series, the film focuses on three Baby Boomer couples over the course of a year’s worth of vacations and weekend getaways, though a runtime of well under two hours means that each season is covered by roughly the length of a single TV episode, rather than the full-hour pairs of episodes the show employs. Fans of the show will recognize the names and some of the basic dynamics: Jack (Alan Alda) and Kate (Carol Burnett) seem compatible and comfortable but still clash over some stubborn middle-aged grudges; Nick (Len Cariou) leaves his longtime wife Anne (Sandy Dennis), eventually bringing around the younger woman Ginny (Bess Armstrong) he dates instead; and Danny (Jack Weston) is encountering signs of his mortality, though his Italian spouse is outspoken Claudia (Rita Moreno) rather than another man. Several specific scenes are also redone by the show.
What Will It Remind You Of?: It’s no wonder that Alan Alda wound up co-starring in multiple Woody Allen movies. What’s surprising is that he wrote and directed this episodic, extremely Woody-ish story of marital neuroses, overlapping dialogue, and midlife crises before, rather than after, that experience. This 1981 movie actually anticipates the particular style of relationship-based comedy-drama ensembles Allen would make in the ’80s and ’90s, so maybe he was biting a bit of Alda’s style for Hannah and Her Sisters and Husbands and Wives (though The Four Seasons isn’t as good as either of those).
Performance Worth Watching: Alda and Burnett, both veterans of CBS prime-time juggernauts, do nice serio-comic work as a married couple so familiar with each other that they’ve become perfectly calibrated to drive each other mad.
Sex and Skin: In its two summer-set episodes, the TV series has a running gag where the other couples are subjected to overhearing Nick and his new girlfriend make love (in the parlance of the ’70s and ’80s). This feels like, if anything, even more of a focal point for the movie’s summer section, which takes place entirely on a boat. Then the happy couple swims naked, eventually inspiring another pair to follow suit. So in case you’re keeping track, that’s some vintage nudity from Len Cariou, Rita Moreno, Jack Weston, and a young Bess Armstrong (Angela’s mom on My So-Called Life).
Memorable Dialogue: Alda isn’t quite as clockwork as Tina Fey or her 30 Rock compatriots (or, for that matter, peak Woody Allen) in terms of producing funny one-liners and rejoinders. But there are some funny exchanges in that vein: “I don’t see any trip to St. Croix unless we have a meeting first,” Danny says when discussing the vacation budget. “I don’t picture us seeing St. Croix unless it floats by,” Jack responds.
Our Take: Typically, a whole TV season adapted from the plot of a two-hour movie can feel torturously drawn-out. But Fey’s The Four Seasons does a wonderful job updating and fleshing out the characters from the 1981 film, even performing some intriguing set-up for how it might follow these characters in a potential second season. Though it’s clearly inspired by the movie and adapted with love, the series also makes its source material look a little flimsy and thin by comparison. This is especially true in the spring and summer segments. In the show, they establish a lot of relationships and themes; the movie they hammer home the characters’ neuroses with an excess of overlapping banter. Perhaps not surprisingly, the show created by three women in 2025 is more nuanced than the movie written by a man in 1981 when it comes to depicting the Anne character, who barely registers in the movie but becomes an unexpected highlight of the series. But for that matter, the men are funnier and more interesting in the show, too. It feels churlish to run down a dialogue-driven ensemble dramedy from 1981; it’s exactly the type of movie big studios don’t put on the big screen anymore, and for that matter, it’s also a movie of exactly the vintage that Netflix doesn’t bother to license. But the truth is, The Four Seasons was a perfect candidate for a remake, because it’s more of a promising outline than a satisfying movie unto itself.
Our Call: The original version of The Four Seasons is a sometimes-amusing, sometimes-observant comedy-drama with some extra contrast in its contrast with the new TV adaptation. But if you’re looking for older human-scaled cinema from the 1970s and 1980s that rewards a catch-up, you can SKIP IT.
Jesse Hassenger (@rockmarooned) is a writer living in Brooklyn podcasting at www.sportsalcohol.com. He’s a regular contributor to The A.V. Club, Polygon, and The Week, among others.