I binge watched Four Seasons yesterday and today after listening to Amy Poehler interview Tina Fey on her Good Hang podcast.
1. I didn’t love Anne as much as you did, but your comments on her character helped me see her better. I’m sure this is my long left over baggage from my first husband’s betrayal. Her best moment for me was smashing strawberries!!
2. And that is why I couldn’t care that much about Jack. He was so self-centered. I wasn’t even sad when he died. Ginny was too good for him.
3. But I was sad for his friends, especially my favorite couple, Danny and Claude. Their characters were so basically drawn as avoidant/pursuer, but they brought a much needed joie de vivre to the series.
4. Kate and Nick are the anchor couple of the series. Your comments along the way underscored the key themes of their relationship. Thanks for not therapizing them too much.
5. Am I mixing up Jack and Nick? I can’t remember who was who. You know what I mean. Context clues.
6. The funeral was over the top and I agree with your assessment. Not the time for slapstick. However, the segment did a good job of bringing Anne to a healing moment and underscored the strong relationship Ginny had with her wasband. The pregnancy was a blatant trope for season two.
7. I’m a retired hospice chaplain of 30 years and I’ve seen some shit in my time. However, I wasn’t familiar with the term you used about spiritual postponement. I probably got the term wrong but if I go back to fact check myself, this whole comment will go away and it already has twice.
8. I love this style of reviewing while watching and I’m going to give it a go on my substack when I find something worthwhile.
9. I enjoy the way you have your opinions and biases and own them. Very refreshing.
Loved this rundown of the show as well as the other 3! I am thinking of watching again. And yes I loved Claude so much!!! It was hard to know where the show was going to go with Nick so I think they killed him off because that was sort of convenient. I find that a lot with shows and books, killing off an expendable or unlikeable character or one where there is no good place to take them in the plot. Anyway I digress, it was a great analysis, I really needed to process the show so I'm glad you wrote it!!
I would watch again for Claude alone! Thanks for reading these and sharing your takes! There are parts of me that would have loved to see Nick grow but it may have been one too many bridges to cross.
Hi Hi Hi Kaitlyn- I found this post out in the Wild Wild West of Notes and I am HERE TO STAY.
I breezed through s1 and desperately wanted to download with someone- but nobody in my circle had seen it yet! I LOVE YOUR TAKEAWAYS. I too, adore Claude and feel we all need a "Claude" in our lives. This is such a brilliant documentation/dissection and I cannot wait to go back and read Spring/Summer/Fall.
I will say that it took me some time to warm up to Ginny (sorry), but I realized after the season ended that my issue was never with Ginny, more with Nick who left Kate the way he did after staying quiet for so long about being miserable. I do think he deserved happiness, and maybe there WAS a conversation between him and Kate before the divorce- but it felt ...cruel, to see him split and jump in with someone so young- rubbing it in her face on their quarterly trips. I felt myself wanting to console her. She is/was worthy of FUN and love too <3
I almost want to say Claude was too perfect, but he wasn't. He was messy in all the best ways. He felt so full to me, in all the ways. Ugh. Just love him. Miss him already, ha!
I can see what you mean about Ginny. I was very skeptical, especially in the Summer eps. I would not be a good travel companion with her character. I wanna chill on vacation.
Totally agree about him deserving happiness, as we all do, but he was treating Anne like an afterthought. The woman you spent 25 years with, had a family and whole life with, and seemingly did nothing to you other than evolve in different ways than you did? That's bleakkkkkkk.
I binge watched Four Seasons yesterday and today after listening to Amy Poehler interview Tina Fey on her Good Hang podcast.
1. I didn’t love Anne as much as you did, but your comments on her character helped me see her better. I’m sure this is my long left over baggage from my first husband’s betrayal. Her best moment for me was smashing strawberries!!
2. And that is why I couldn’t care that much about Jack. He was so self-centered. I wasn’t even sad when he died. Ginny was too good for him.
3. But I was sad for his friends, especially my favorite couple, Danny and Claude. Their characters were so basically drawn as avoidant/pursuer, but they brought a much needed joie de vivre to the series.
4. Kate and Nick are the anchor couple of the series. Your comments along the way underscored the key themes of their relationship. Thanks for not therapizing them too much.
5. Am I mixing up Jack and Nick? I can’t remember who was who. You know what I mean. Context clues.
6. The funeral was over the top and I agree with your assessment. Not the time for slapstick. However, the segment did a good job of bringing Anne to a healing moment and underscored the strong relationship Ginny had with her wasband. The pregnancy was a blatant trope for season two.
7. I’m a retired hospice chaplain of 30 years and I’ve seen some shit in my time. However, I wasn’t familiar with the term you used about spiritual postponement. I probably got the term wrong but if I go back to fact check myself, this whole comment will go away and it already has twice.
8. I love this style of reviewing while watching and I’m going to give it a go on my substack when I find something worthwhile.
9. I enjoy the way you have your opinions and biases and own them. Very refreshing.
10. Thanks. I love a ten part list.
I so appreciate your ten part-er.
I feel the same way about my sadness mostly coming up around his friend's grief.
Also, Jack and Nick are way too close of names for me, too--haha!
The term is spiritual bypassing, but I really like spiritual postponement, too <3
Thank you so much for reading and sharing your takes!!
Loved this rundown of the show as well as the other 3! I am thinking of watching again. And yes I loved Claude so much!!! It was hard to know where the show was going to go with Nick so I think they killed him off because that was sort of convenient. I find that a lot with shows and books, killing off an expendable or unlikeable character or one where there is no good place to take them in the plot. Anyway I digress, it was a great analysis, I really needed to process the show so I'm glad you wrote it!!
I would watch again for Claude alone! Thanks for reading these and sharing your takes! There are parts of me that would have loved to see Nick grow but it may have been one too many bridges to cross.
Hi Hi Hi Kaitlyn- I found this post out in the Wild Wild West of Notes and I am HERE TO STAY.
I breezed through s1 and desperately wanted to download with someone- but nobody in my circle had seen it yet! I LOVE YOUR TAKEAWAYS. I too, adore Claude and feel we all need a "Claude" in our lives. This is such a brilliant documentation/dissection and I cannot wait to go back and read Spring/Summer/Fall.
I will say that it took me some time to warm up to Ginny (sorry), but I realized after the season ended that my issue was never with Ginny, more with Nick who left Kate the way he did after staying quiet for so long about being miserable. I do think he deserved happiness, and maybe there WAS a conversation between him and Kate before the divorce- but it felt ...cruel, to see him split and jump in with someone so young- rubbing it in her face on their quarterly trips. I felt myself wanting to console her. She is/was worthy of FUN and love too <3
TYSM for this breakdown!
I'm so glad you stumbled across this piece!!
I almost want to say Claude was too perfect, but he wasn't. He was messy in all the best ways. He felt so full to me, in all the ways. Ugh. Just love him. Miss him already, ha!
I can see what you mean about Ginny. I was very skeptical, especially in the Summer eps. I would not be a good travel companion with her character. I wanna chill on vacation.
Totally agree about him deserving happiness, as we all do, but he was treating Anne like an afterthought. The woman you spent 25 years with, had a family and whole life with, and seemingly did nothing to you other than evolve in different ways than you did? That's bleakkkkkkk.
Omg I am so excited to read- I have NEEDED someone to download with!
Hi. Just want to say I have really appreciated your notes on this show. Thanks!
🥰 That means a lot. Thanks for saying so.