The Four Seasons: Nick wasn’t unhappy because of who he was with — he was just unhappy

Tina Fey's The Four Seasons captures what feels like a midlife coming-of-age drama, as its characters evolve and rediscover themselves across spring, summer, fall, and winter.

Netflix's comedy series takes viewers on a beautiful journey with its six main characters, as they juggle the changing seasons and an ugly mid-life crisis, which ends up not as a second bloom of youth, but of understanding.

While each couple is juggling their own marriage problems, it is Nick (Steve Carell) and Anne (Kerri Kenney-Silver), who get the worst of it, after Nick decides to separate from his wife after 25 years of marriage.

The decision looks sudden and wrong to all his friends, who believe him to be unhappy with Anne. However, as The Four Seasons progresses, it is clear that Nick's unhappiness was not with Anne, but with the general monotony of his old, middle-aged life.

More on this in our story.

*Disclaimer: This article is based on the author's opinion. Reader discretion is advised.*

The Four Seasons: Nick's character highlights a mid-life crisis in all its ugliness

While each individual and couple had their respective ups and downs throughout The Four Seasons, it is Carell's Nick who drops the bombshell of his divorce in the series premiere.

While many middle-aged couples like Anne and Nick fall out of love in the latter part of their marriage, Nick was brave enough to take the step and end his relationship with his wife.

However, most people misunderstood Nick's decision to divorce Anne. He was not unhappy with his partner, but more so with the monotony of his life.

Having spent 25 years with Anne, Nick felt stuck in his life. That's where the ugliness of a mid-life crisis truly shines in The Four Seasons. Even when Anne and Nick were together, the couple led their individual lives, and it was only after Anne suspected that Nick was about to leave her that she planned the surprise anniversary party.

However, the cat was out of the bag as Nick had already realised that he was unhappy. However, his decision to divorce Anne does not stem from his (fading) feelings for his wife — it was the first step in changing his old life.

Nick desperately wanted to move out of his old life, and divorcing Anne felt like the first step to take in that direction. When he finds love again, he chooses a young and exciting partner in Ginny, because of his expectations for his new life.

While his friends thought that Nick was in a relationship with Ginny because she was young and attractive, their pictures suggest that Nick had finally found the freshness he was looking for in his new life, and was ready to welcome a family with Ginny.

While many people would still question Nick's decision to divorce Anne, it might have done more good to the woman herself. While Anne had little screen time in Alan Alda's 1981 film, Fey specifically made Anne a main character in The Four Seasons.

She was an awkward and introverted woman and scared to take the first step in her life. However, Nick's decision to leave her was the push she needed to reclaim her life.

Kerri Kenney-Silver had that understanding of her character, as she discussed with Netflix's Tudum:

“She thought she was set ’til the day she died. When she finds out that is not the case, she becomes completely untethered. You see her go through the four seasons of emotion and grief.”

The other two couples — Kate and Jack, and Danny and Claude — share the four seasons together as couples. However, by the end of the series, Anne becomes her own person and portrays such drastic character growth that she is even ready to welcome her late husband's girlfriend and their unborn child into her life.

Nick's decision felt wrong and unfair, true, but when seen from another lens, he was really trying to shrug away a nasty mid-life crisis.

The Four Seasons is streaming on Netflix.

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Also Read: How is Netflix's The Four Seasons different from its 1981 movie adaptation?

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