What would it look like if your favorite comedians were all married … and best pals … and went on seasonal vacations to (often) enviable locales? Thanks to The Four Seasons, the cozy Tina Fey–led series that debuted last year and has returned for Season 2, we know the answer to that question.
The series invites you to travel the world with a longtime friend group played by the funniest people: Fey, Will Forte, Kerri Kenney-Silver, Colman Domingo, Marco Calvani, and Erika Henningsen reunite for a slate of new destinations as they weather all the changes in life in Season 2 of The Four Seasons, now streaming on Netflix.
Get a sense of the itinerary with the first look at their latest adventures and the trailer. Keep reading for a Season 1 refresher and everything to know ahead of Season 2.
Season 2 picks up where Season 1 left off: After Nick (Steve Carell) dies in a sudden car crash, his girlfriend Ginny (Henningsen) announces to Kate (Fey), Jack (Forte), Anne (Kenney-Silver), Danny (Domingo), and Claude (Calvani) that she’s pregnant with Nick’s kid.
As they grieve the loss of Nick, our group of friends decides to carry on with their tradition of vacationing together, now with a baby (and a little emotional baggage) in tow. “They have to learn to re-form as a group in a different configuration,” says Fey.
When deciding where the group would travel next, Fey reasons, “These are not people with bottomless wallets who go to crazy places.”
Episodes 1 and 2 take the group on a spring hike to spread Nick’s ashes. “First: beautiful mountains in upstate New York,” says Fisher, “which we joked felt too far upstate.”
In Episodes 3 and 4, the friends head to the Jersey Shore, which had on- and offscreen resonance for The Four Seasons cast and crew. “We assumed the Jersey Shore was Jack and Kate’s pick of where they always go. Colman’s character is from Philly, so he would know the Jersey Shore,” says Fey. “Tracey and I love the Jersey Shore and wanted to represent it on the show.” Since Wigfield is from New Jersey, it made sense that she direct one of those episodes, “which brought authenticity,” says Fisher.
Episodes 5 and 6 take the friends back to a Season 1 location: Anne and Nick’s lake house. “We wanted to revisit that because it was such a prominent location for us in the first season,” says Fisher. In Season 1, the lake house is where Steve breaks the news that he’s leaving Anne.
In Season 2, the showrunners juxtaposed two Thanksgivings. In Episode 5, Anne hosts Thanksgiving, and the group’s anxiety about how it’s dynamic is changing boils over. Episode 6 also chronicles a Thanksgiving, but it’s a flashback to COVID times. “[After] we show them at their almost breaking-apart point in Episode 5, we thought it would be nice to go back to when they were at their closest,” says Fey.
Episodes 7 and 8 see the friends jetting across the Atlantic Ocean to Trento, Italy, and bringClaude and Danny on an unexpected trip to Philadelphia. These episodes return the characters to where they’re from, as well as the actors: Calvani is originally from Prato, Italy, and Domingo from Philadelphia. “There’s this meta universe of character and actor,” says Domingo. “I don’t have to reach too far outside of myself to find these characters. There’s something honest about it, more than [in] my other work.”
Read more about the cast of Season 2 of The Four Seasons.
Fey, Lang Fisher, and Tracey Wigfield return as showrunners, creators, and executive producers. David Miner, Eric Gurian, and Jeff Richmond also executive produce. Alan Alda and Marissa Brennan produce, alongside Universal Television and Little Stranger.
The next travels take place over the course of eight all-new episodes.
Yes! Watch the trailer and hear from Fey, Wigfield, and Fisher about what to expect from Season 2, before diving into the new episodes.
Season 2 of The Four Seasons is now streaming.
The first season, which Fey, Wigfield, and Fisher adapted from the 1981 Alan Alda film of the same name, follows a friend group of three couples with a longtime tradition of vacationing together. Over the course of their travels, their dynamic is suddenly upended when one of the couples breaks up.
When we first meet the crew, they’re headed to Nick and Anne’s lake house for some R&R — but then they’re blindsided by Nick, who announces that he’s leaving Anne in pursuit of more adventure in the empty-nester stage of his life. Months later, the group heads to a less-than-luxurious eco-resort, cluelessly chosen by Ginny, Nick’s new-to-the-group younger girlfriend, and the other couples confront the blind spots in their own marriages. Episodes 5 and 6 return the squad to the leafy college campus where many of them first met for “dry fall,” a confrontational student play, and Ultimate Frisbee, before they split up for two snowy vacations in the final episodes.
Season 2 comes as welcome news to anyone who finished Episode 8, which ends on a massive cliff-hanger: Nick dies in a car accident while on a ski trip with Ginny. As the group gathers to mourn their beloved friend, Ginny tells them that she’s pregnant with Nick’s child. Based on how much heart and humor they bring to the ups and downs of getting older in Season 1, the friends are more than equipped to handle what’s to come in Season 2.
After premiering on May 1, Season 1 of the comedy series maintained the No. 1 spot on the English TV list for its first two weeks with a total of 24.4 million views. “What we loved about the first season is that people would text us, ‘My husband and I got into a conversation because we really saw ourselves in this marriage.’ Or, ‘This is my group of friends,’” says Fisher. “We hope that continues because we want people to see themselves in these stories and for it to feel real.”
Watch Season 2 of The Four Seasons on Netflix now.
