How is Netflix's The Four Seasons different from its 1981 movie adaptation? Details Explored

Netflix's The Four Seasons, the series adaptation of Alan Alda's 1981 classic movie, is currently talk of the town for those who love to binge.

The Tina Fey adaptation follows three couples through four seasonal getaways as they navigate heartbreaks, failing marriages, and mid-life crises. Alda's classic film drew inspiration from Vivaldi's quartet of compositions, which in turn has inspired Fey's latest comedy.

The show stars Fey, Steve Carell, Colman Domingo, Marco Calvani, Will Forte and Kerri Kenney-Silver in the titular roles.

While Alda's classic movie closely inspires the Netflix adaptation, the show gets a modern twist and makes the tale more suitable for small-screen viewing.

Here's how Netflix's The Four Seasons differs from the 1981 movie.

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Netflix's The Four Seasons gave a tragic fate to Steve Carell's Nick

While Netflix's The Four Seasons made several small changes in the final chapter/season of Winter, the most significant change occurs in Episode 7. In the show, while Nick is driving back to Ginny and her friends in the snow, he dies in a freak car accident.

Kate is the first person to know about Nick's death (from Ginny's texts) and she informs about his tragic passing to Anne and the others. While Nick tragically dies in the show, he survives in the movie.

In addition to this big change, in the movie, following Nick's announcement of Ginny's pregnancy to the group, only Danny went after Ginny when she stormed out of the cabin. He then got stuck in ice, and the group pulled him through.

However, in the show, the whole group goes after Ginny and Kate is stuck on ice (before Jack rescues her). Also, Ginny reveals her pregnancy to Anne and Netflix's The Four Seasons ends on a more emotional note, suggesting that the friends accepted Ginny and her baby in memory of their dead friend.

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Netflix's The Four Seasons added a modern twist to Danny's marriage

In the 1981 movie, Danny is a straight man married to Claudia and they do not have an open marriage. Netflix's The Four Seasons added a modern twist to Danny's marriage by making him gay and in an open marriage to Claude.

This s*xual orientation swap and the new dynamic of an open marriage added a new layer to Danny and Claude's marriage in the show. While all three couples in the movie were bound in a conventional marriage, the show explores relationships in modern times.

Danny and Claude often used Grindr, picking potential men from bars as seen in the Autumn chapter.

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Netflix's The Four Seasons added more emotional depth to each couples' story

While Alda's movie inspired all the characters, Fey's reimagination added more emotional depth to each couple's story. The TV show's format and longer runtime allowed makers to invest more, so each character and their relationships are more fleshed out.

Jack and Kate realise the cracks in their relationship in the show and go to couples' therapy. While the therapy hardly seemed to be working for them, the couple still acknowledged their flaws and tried to work them out, something that their movie counterparts never did.

Anne's character is also given more screen time and her proper due in the TV show. Due to the limited runtime, Anne is a minor character in the movie. However, the series closely follows Anne's character after Nick divorces her. The finale also hints that Anne and Ginny formed a bond over the grief of Nick's tragic death and she finally accepted her.

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Also Read: I think Netflix's The Four Seasons proved that a mid-life crisis can be as chaotic as a coming-of-age comedy