The Four Seasons gets serious in season 2, and Kerri Kenney-Silver steals the show

The Netflix comedy co-created by Tina Fey remains immensely watchable

By Saloni Gajjar | May 28, 2026 | 7:42am

Photo: Emily V. Aragones/Netflix

TV Features The Four Seasons

The Four Seasons gets serious in season 2, and Kerri Kenney-Silver steals the show

The Four Seasons is a hangout series at heart. It makes sense considering the respective oeuvres of the TV creatives adapting Alan Alda’s directorial debut into an ongoing Netflix series: Tina Fey, Lang Fisher, and Tracey Wigfield have previously helmed and/or written for several easygoing-yet-sharp comedies bolstered by talented ensembles, including 30 Rock, The Mindy Project, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and Great News. Their latest collaboration is more of a dramatic pivot from those half-hour network sitcoms, but it carries a similarly compelling slice-of-life vibe. As a bonus, it’s a hangout show that takes its characters on multiple vacations, to places like upstate New York, a sunlit Jersey Shore boardwalk, or the baroque chapels and snowy mountains of Italy.

In its second season, The Four Seasons strays from its source material. The charming first season stuck quite closely to the movie’s narrative threads, save for one major twist: The sudden death of Nick (Steve Carell). Nick’s fatal car crash casts a long shadow over his closest friends, his ex-wife, Anne (Kerri Kenney-Silver), and his pregnant girlfriend, Ginny (Erika Hennigsen) in the new season. These eight episodes act as a litmus test for whether Fey, Fisher, and Wigfield can apply their senses of humor to while elaborating on Alda’s time-and-location-hopping formula. The result is a mellower, often poignant, although markedly less funny show about middle-aged folks who are still figuring their lives and relationships out.

The ensemble was and remains The Four Seasons’ strongest asset. It’s consistently enjoyable to watch this friend group go on quarterly holidays—each weekend packed with moments of revelations, intense discussions, and, usually, a good amount of fun, too. Fey and Will Forte are still the anchors, bringing a real sweetness to Kate and Jack, who’ve been married for decades but are struggling with what they want next—individually and as a couple. Jack, clearly affected by Nick’s demise, spirals into depression and anger while his type-A wife tries to hold down the fort. Through them, the show efficiently and refreshingly unpacks the value of honest communication. On the other side of that spectrum are Danny (Colman Domingo) and Claude (Marco Calvani), who grapple with wanting to start a family and move to another country in season two. Their ups and downs get repetitive, but Domingo’s grounded performance—especially during the more emotional scenes—elevates the material.

Then there’s Anne and Ginny, who start on shaky ground while trying to get their own fresh starts. Eventually, Ginny’s newborn son becomes a bridge between the two women. They don’t just become gal pals—they end up as roommates and co-parents for a little while. As far-fetched as the setup sounds, both actors sell their characters’ unlikely dynamic. Kenney-Silver, probably best known as Reno 911!’s flighty Deputy Trudy Wiegel, emerges as the MVP, much like Domingo did in season one. Anne’s believable evolution from a meek housewife (as seen in a pandemic-set flashback episode) to an independent and risk-taking woman by the end of season two is the show’s loveliest arc—one that gives Kenney-Silver a real moment to shine, and features a solid turn from guest star Steven Pasquale.

However, effortless cast camaraderie—because, let’s face it, this is a show that features a lot of real-life friends just hanging out in cool locales—isn’t enough to forgive The Four Seasons‘ most glaring flaw. It’s baked into the premise that the group gets together every few months, but the show doesn’t convey that Jack and Kate, Danny and Claude, Anne, and now Ginny talk to each other between those trips. At all. They’re catching each other up on major life developments and feelings during the vacation, indicating there’s zero communication between anyone unless they’re away from home. Whatever happened to phone calls, emails, or texts? It doesn’t make sense that Danny is considering moving to Claude’s Italian village right after Thanksgiving, but waits until Turkey Day to tell his apparent BFF, Kate. No wonder it causes a rift between the duo. This problem also raises the question of what their lives look like outside of the holidays. At one point, Kate refers to their home as an “immersive Edgar Allan Poe experience,” referring to Jack’s doom-and-gloom attitude. But where’s the proof?

The show’s conceit does work to help mark the passage of time and to highlight that no matter how old you get, you’re forced to adapt to life’s curveballs. Buying into The Four Seasons’ second season requires forgoing logic; expect the more dramatic scenes to sap some of the show’s charms. There are enough one-liners in Fey’s characteristically scathing style to keep the ship afloat, but in this case, it’s mainly the banter between the core ensemble that makes the journey(s) worth it.

Saloni Gajjar is The A.V. Club‘s TV critic.

The Four Seasons season two is now streaming on Netflix.

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