Warning: This article includes SPOILERS for The Four Seasons season 1!
Tina Fey has answeredThe Four Seasons' most pressing questionsabout the episode format and Steve Carell’s possible return in season 2. Although The Four Seasons was originally advertised as a Limited Series, the show found so much success thatNetflix renewed it for season 2less than two weeks after it debuted. The quick turnaround is unsurprising considering the show stayed in the Number 1 spot for Netflix’s English-speaking TV shows for two weeks straight, garnering 24.4 million views within that timeframe. However, the renewal raises many questions about the story, format, and Steve Carell.
Luckily, Tina Fey spoke withDeadlineto answer the most pressing questions, including whether Steve Carell could return. For starters, The Four Seasons season 2 will have eight episodes, and it will follow the same basic format of friends meeting up across four different events. They also brought back the full staff from season 1, including the writers, which bodes well for the narrative integrity. Unfortunately, the news about Steve Carell isn’t so positive.
DEADLINE:Is there any world in which you could do flashbacks with him?So he gets to live a little longer on the show?
FEY:“I couldn’t possibly say. We have our format. I mean, of the many mistakes I’ve made in my career, killing him will hopefully go down as the biggest.”
It seems like Nick’s death at theend of The Four Seasons season 1might mean Carell’s permanent departure from the show. It wouldn’t fit the tone of the show for them to bring him back from the dead, and the flashbacks might not fit within the format. However, Fey didn’t explicitly say “no,” so there’s room for hope.
What Tina Fey’s Comments Mean
Nick’s Death Will Likely Have A Permanence
Nick’s death in The Four Seasonswas a major change from the 1981 comedy movie of the same name. In the film, he gets divorced from Anne and marries Ginny. While it’s sad that Tina Fey didn’t confirm Steve Carell’s return in The Four Seasons season 2,it’s a logical progression for the Netflix show to move forward without him.
The character’s death in the Netflix show adds real-life stakes to The Four Seasons, and the choice not to bring back Steve Carell’s Nick, even for flashbacks, makes the loss more permanent. If dead characters keep popping up in flashbacks, their death won’t have nearly as much of an impact on the audience.
Our Take On Steve Carell’s Absence In Season 2
Tina Fey Was Correct That Killing Steve Carell’s Nick Was A Mistake
Tina Fey’s comment that killing off Steve Carell is spot on, but I’m willing to give her a little bit of grace for that decision.The choice to kill Nick made perfect sensewhen The Four Seasons was just going to be a limited series. His death forced them to confront their own mortality and the futility of life. However, it ultimately could hurt season 2 of the show.
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While all the actors in the show have recognizable names, Steve Carell was a significant reason why fans watched the show to begin with. In a way, he was the glue that held everything together, and it’s hard to imagine The Four Seasons without him. That being said, the writers ofThe Four Seasonsare brilliant, so I’m sure they’ll find a way to make it work.
