'Four Seasons' is better off without Steve Carell in Season 2 - review
'Four Seasons' is better off without Steve Carell in Season 2 - review
Kelly Lawler, USA TODAYThu, May 28, 2026 at 11:01 AM UTC
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Pack your baggage, both emotional and practical, because "The Four Seasons" is back for another vacation. Well, four of them. And you might actually enjoy them this time.
Netflix's dramedy about three couples who take quarterly vacations had a shaky first season in 2025, despite an A-list cast that included co-creator Tina Fey, Steve Carell, Will Forte and Oscar-nominee Colman Domingo.
There was a lethargy to the series, which focused mostly on Carell's character Nick leaving his wife of many years, Anne (Keri Kenney-Silver, "Reno-911!"), for a much younger woman, Ginny (Erika Henningsen). But a late-breaking twist may have set the second season free from its wishy-washy roots.
Tina Fey as Kate and Colman Domingo as Danny in "The Four Seasons."
Carrel's Nick (spoiler alert) dies at the end of Season 1, and a second season without him feels fresher, faster, brighter and more complex than the first.
He may have been the engine on which the plot turned in Season 1, but he was also kind of a downer; all his contributions to the story had a tinge of negativity and odiousness that was hard to shake in his scenes, even as Nick worked to redeem himself near the end of the season.
Season 2 is liberated by his absence. There is plenty of awkward conflict, of course. That's the whole point of "Seasons," a show meant to mine dark comedy from the depths of long-term relationships, just like the 1981 Alan Alda and Carol Burnett film from which the series takes inspiration. If they couples aren't fighting, we're just watching an Instagram reel of Gen Xers on expensive trips.
Kerri Kenney-Silver as Anne, Marco Calvani as Claude, Tina Fey as Kate, Colman Domingo as Danny and Will Forte as Jack in "The Four Seasons."
But out of Nick's shadow, the cast gets to let their freak flags fly, so to speak, and the arguments feel a little less bitter and fatigued.
The show picks up nine or so months after Nick's death, when the gang has gotten back together to spread his ashes at the top of a scenic mountainscape. There's cynic Kate (Fey) and her golden retriever husband Jack (Forte), even more cynical and gossipy Danny (Domingo) and his urbane husband Claude (Marco Calvani), Nick's aggrieved ex-wife Anne and his very pregnant girlfriend Ginny.
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Everyone seems like they're part of a happy but dysfunctional family, just like last time, but the cracks start to show quite quickly (just like last time). And that's just the spring trip.
Much of the story is driven by Anne and Ginny's complicated and fractious relationship, made even more fraught by the elephant in the room of Nick's estate and a brand new baby on the way.
The two actresses, cast in roles often reduced to stale tropes in other media (the angry ex-wife, the hot new girlfriend), help round out their characters to something more. Ginny, in particular, grows from last season and over the course of the season, changes from a punchline to a real member of the group.
The new episodes leave room for seriousness and depth amidst high jinks and naked murderers on the loose (seriously). Jack is struggling to manage his grief over Nick's death, Ginny is terrified by single motherhood, Danny is wondering if he should be a father and Anne is going through a thinly-veiled mid-life crisis.
There are few series on TV that deal with this period of adulthood − not quite young, not quite old − with such nuance.
Kerri Kenney-Silver as Anne and Erika Henningsen as Ginny in "The Four Seasons."
After its shocker ending and its lackluster episodes, it didn't seem like "Seasons" was a show that really had to come back for more. But it's a good reminder that everybody can learn and grow and do better, even a TV show.
It's a season of growth all around.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'Four Seasons' review - Season 2 better off without Steve Carell
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