Is The Four Seasons woke?
TV Show · 2025
The Four Seasons has a wokeness score of 7/10, which we rate as Strongly Ideological. Woke messaging is very prominent and often feels forced or shoehorned in. Characters and plot are primarily shaped to serve the ideology. Many viewers feel the agenda overshadows the entertainment.
Key points
- Deliberate inclusion of interracial gay couple in open marriage as central 'update' to 1981 source material.
- Creators emphasize queer representation to mirror modern friendship groups and affirm LGBTQ relationships.
- Casting and plot elements prioritize progressive diversity over faithful adaptation of original heterosexual dynamics.
Wokeness analysis
The series is a modern Netflix adaptation of the 1981 Alan Alda film, created by Tina Fey and collaborators. The core plot follows three long-time friend couples on seasonal vacations, disrupted by a divorce. The primary ideological element is the deliberate reimagining of one couple as an interracial gay married pair (Danny played by Colman Domingo and Claude by Marco Calvani) in an open relationship, explicitly chosen by the creators to 'update' the story and reflect contemporary life and the showrunner's real-life social circles. Creators have publicly stated it was 'really important' to include a gay couple to show 'healthy' same-sex marriage with the same issues as straight couples, at a time of perceived threats to LGBTQ rights. This change from the original heterosexual pairing is presented as a key selling point and draws media attention for its representation. Additional elements include a younger woman introduced post-divorce and some midlife reinvention themes. While the show maintains a dramedy focus on friendship, marriage, and aging with sharp dialogue and ensemble performances, the intentional foregrounding of queer representation as a progressive update makes the messaging prominent and intentional rather than organic or incidental. Viewer reactions note the 'token' diversity feel and occasional caricature in the gay characters, with some criticism of it feeling like Netflix propaganda. The ideology shapes casting and narrative framing more than dominating every episode, placing it in the heavily ideological range but not fully didactic.
Plot
The Four Seasons is an eight-episode Netflix comedy-drama series premiering May 1, 2025, created by Tina Fey, Lang Fisher, and Tracey Wigfield. It follows three middle-aged suburban couples—Kate (Tina Fey) and Jack (Will Forte), Nick (Steve Carell) and Anne (Kerri Kenney-Silver), and Danny (Colman Domingo) and Claude (Marco Calvani)—who maintain a tradition of quarterly group vacations. The group dynamic fractures when one couple announces their divorce, leading to tensions, new relationships, and reflections on marriage, friendship, and midlife changes across seasonal trips. A second season premiered in 2026. The series blends humor with emotional exploration of long-term relationships.
Analyzed by AI on June 2, 2026