The Real Reason [Spoiler] Was Killed Off in The Four Seasons & Why Now ‘It’s A Big Regret’
Season 1 of The Four Seasons, the Netflix dramedy created by Tina Fey, Tracey Wigfield, and Lang Fisher, is making waves as one of the most-watched series on the streaming platform. It also marks Tina Fey’s return to TV for her first regular role since 30 Rock. The adaptation of the 1981 movie, written and directed by Alan Alda, sees the decades-long friendship between three married couples tested when one couple divorces, complicating their tradition of quarterly weekend getaways.
But of course, the show is not just about the relationship going wrong, it’s about the relationships around it and how the group adapts to the changing dynamics. Fey shared with Variety that she watched it “many times” after it came out “in the early days of cable, when they would have three movies in rotation, and that it made her feel like “‘This is what grown-up life should be like.’”
However, Fey, Wigfield, and Fisher had a twist up their sleeves, one that wasn’t in the original movie. In the show, we see the group has to adjust to the fact that one of the friends in the group, Nick, is leaving his wife Anne, and to add insult to injury, has replaced her on the group’s getaways with his girlfriend Ginny. But that’s not the twist, the twist is that Nick ends up dying in a car accident while on a ski trip with Ginny and her friends. Oh, and Ginny is pregnant.
So, why did Nick die in The Four Seasons? Why did the creators choose to go that route? And what happens next? Could we perhaps have another season of The Four Seasons to find out?
Why Did Nick Die in The Four Seasons?
According to Fey, the decision had to do with the fact that “we wanted to do a full eight episodes, we felt like we needed just a little more story engine than the movie.”
Wigfield also added that the tragedy gives the story another dimension. “So much of this show is about middle age, and this group of friends seeing each other through the best times — and the worst. And it just felt like if you wanted to tell a full story in a journey of a group of friends, losing one of them and having to lean on each other through the grief of that, felt like a correct ending. But now, it’s a big regret!” he said, somewhat jokingly.
Ironically, the idea was already in place before Steve Carell was cast to play Nick, who was the first person they thought of for the role. That means Carell came onto the role knowing that this was, potentially, not a long-term role, even if The Four Seasons is lucky enough to get renewed.
And though this story could indeed end with Season 1, Fey has ideas to explore in a possible Season 2, particularly because of the pregnancy twist that was also not part of the original movie. “If we were lucky enough to do more, I think we would definitely explore that, because that kid would be coming into a family — that kid would be Julia Lester’s half-sister.”
Fisher also made it clear that the idea was not to pit Anne and Ginny against each other. “It helps in Anne’s journey, because I feel like what we want to make sure that we honor all sides of this rift, and that it is complicated when your close friends get a divorce. We’ve all had friends get a divorce. We wanted to make sure it felt complicated and nuanced, the way it is in real life.”
In the end, Nick’s death is an accident, but the show wanted to showcase that life has to go on, even though it’s hard.
