The Four Seasons on Netflix

[d.anders]

I remember enjoying the 1981 version with Alan Alda and Carroll Burnett. I wanted to like Tina Fey's version, but there were too many eye-roll moments. 3 couples vacationing together season after season? Isn't that a very 80's concept? I really didn't get that this group had been friends forever.

I thought Colman Domingo played gay very well, and I especially enjoyed his cute Italian husband. I thought their relationship was the most believable, and the least contrived.

Rotten Tomatoes gives it a 77%, but several top-level critics did not like it. Did anybody see it?

[+ ApexNomad]

56 minutes ago, d.anders said:

I remember enjoying the 1981 version with Alan Alda and Carroll Burnett. I wanted to like Tina Fey's version, but there were too many eye-roll moments. 3 couples vacationing together season after season? Isn't that a very 80's concept? I really didn't get that this group had been friends forever.

I thought Colman Domingo played gay very well, and I especially enjoyed his cute Italian husband. I thought their relationship was the most believable, and the least contrived.

Rotten Tomatoes gives it a 77%, but several top-level critics did not like it. Did anybody see it?

Yes, I binged it over two days and didn’t care for it. I wanted to like it, especially with the cast, but it just didn’t land. The same tired troupe of gay couples in open relationships—yes, they exist (and it’s perfectly fine!!), but it felt overdone and uninspired. Why not show me one of the hetero couples in an open relationship and see how that goes. None of the relationships felt earned or emotionally grounded. It was trying to be profound but ended up feeling hollow.

[+ EVdude]

Watched 2 episodes and done. 

[d.anders]

3 hours ago, ApexNomad said:

same tired troupe of gay couples in open relationships

Oh yes, I forgot about that. I guess this was Tina Fey's way of appealing to the "modern" gays? Introducing the cowboy into the mix was an attempt at funny.

3 hours ago, ApexNomad said:

None of the relationships felt earned or emotionally grounded.

That's what I felt.

2 hours ago, EVdude said:

Watched 2 episodes and done. 

Winter was the most difficult to get through.

[+ poolboy48220]

Well, I liked it a lot. 

[d.anders]

I just found out that Colman Domingo is in fact gay. I had no idea. No wonder he was so good at playing gay (and straight) in The Four Seasons.

[+ purplekow]

I saw the original and i saw this one.  The original one seemed contrived and off putting, but it was still better than this one.  And did they add that bit of information at the end to try for a Season 2?  So the sequel would be Four Seasons Reunited or Fifth Season or Four More Seasons.  I prefer No More Seasons.  

[+ ApexNomad]

12 minutes ago, purplekow said:

I saw the original and i saw this one.  The original one seemed contrived and off putting, but it was still better than this one.  And did they add that bit of information at the end to try for a Season 2?  So the sequel would be Four Seasons Reunited or Fifth Season or Four More Seasons.  I prefer No More Seasons.  

I read that a second season seems unlikely. It was intended as a limited series. One and done. But it’s doing well on Netflix so anything is possible. 

[Manhattan]

Comfort TV. Nothing challenging, objectionable or particularly funny. If you in the target demographic you will recognize attitudes and tropes of our times such as the presence of a guitar as an intolerable intrusion. The acting is what you'd expect -  with Domingo and Calvini at the lower edge of the spectrum and Kerri Kenney-Silver at the top. 
 

I preferred Tina Fey's writing and productions when they were offensive and very funny. After apologizing for 30 Rock's treatment of race, she's become a kinder, gentler and less interesting presence in the industry. 

[jeezifonly]

I was too young and single to really appreciate the original. 
Re Netflix series, I thought the writing and casting were spot on. It’s still a very simple character study, not really a linear story, and I think younger audiences find that kind of dramedy boring without violence and sex.