Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for The Four Seasons
It’s been almost a decade sinceSaturday Night LivealumsTina FeyandWill Forteshared any screen time since their Studio 8H days. But as their latest Netflix series proves, their long-simmering comedic chemistry hasn’t lost a beat! Starring in the heartwarming and sharp friendship comedy,The Four Seasons, based on the 1981Alan AldaandCarol Burnettfilm of the same name, the modern update finds the duo part of a married friends group navigating emotional landmines across spring, summer, autumn, and winter.
Co-created by Fey herself alongsideLang FisherandTracey Wigfield,The Four Seasonscleverly balances the crumbling marriage of its central couple — played bySteve CarellandKerri Kenney-Silver— with everything that simmersbeneath the surface of longtime friendships. In an exclusive interview with Collider, Fey and Forte open up about working together on the series and what’s in store for Kate and Jack should the series return for a potential Season 2.
Tina Fey and Will Forte’s History Brought Depth to ‘The Four Seasons’
“People atSNL, you’re just family. There’s just a comfort level.”
From the moment Fey and Forte’s characters step on-screen in the premiere spring episode, seated at a table during their anniversary dinner while their friends bicker, it’s clear they’ve weathered storms — but also grown comfortable ignoring them. There’s warmth, familiarity, and playfulness between the group of six (including performances fromColman DomingoandMarcoCalvani). But as the moments progress,we also see cracks that quietly widen through summer and erupt in winter. The two don’t just play the couple; they carry decades of off-screen chemistry that makes every glance, pause, and apology land with lived-in emotional weight.
“We obviously have known each otherfor almost 30 years because ofSNL, and we are super comfortable with each other,” Fey says, explaining why their dynamic feels so natural. “People atSNL, you’re just family. There’s just a comfort level.”
Fey admits that though the two had never played romantic leads opposite each other, their initial trust as friends helped them embrace scenes that could have easily felt awkward or too tender. “It’s great. It’s Will. I don’t care how I look, and it’ll just be super easy,” she says. Forte adds that despite their closeness, “There’s something a little nerve-wracking about having a kiss scene with somebody you’ve known for so long,” but agreed it was “less weird than having a kissing scene with somebody you don’t know at all.”
That balance of absurd humor and emotional restraint shows up in their performances, especially in the winter episode, where their post-couples therapy session devolves into chaos after a hot tub fight, only to end on a surprising note of reconnection.Fey reflects on how that bumpy arc between the two mirrors real long-term relationships: “Sometimes part of being married a long time is you do accidentally hurt each other’s feelings, and then you have to either just let it slide or you have to reboot and start over.” Forte agrees, adding, “While it seems like they’re in a pretty good place, marriage you’ve got to constantly work on.”
Tina Fey and Will Forte Sharply Navigate the Awkward Scenes in ‘The Four Seasons’
“For a lot of the stuff, I’d be having to kiss her and grind up against her.”
If fall was the season that exposed Jack and Kate’s intimacy issues, it’s also where theFour Seasonscast leaned into comedy’s awkward edge. That rawness played out both in the writing and on set, especially when it came to staging one of theshow’s most unexpected scenes: a shirtless hot tub kiss, directed by Fey’s real-life husband,Jeff Richmond.
“The one scene, my husband was directing, and then on the fly, I was like, ‘I think we should take our shirts off,’” Fey laughs. “And Will was like, ‘Okay…’ I think you had a moment where you’re like,‘Is this their kink? Are they weirdos?’”The result? A scene that walks a delicate line between vulnerability and farce, just like the characters and their personal anxieties.
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Despite the scene’s awkward potential, the pair’s long friendship made it easier. “It’s so much less weird,” Fey says of kissing Forte. “I think we literally could have been like, ‘Hey, does my mouth taste weird?’” Forte confirms with a smile, “It never did. Very fresh breath. Very nice-smelling face.” And while the physicality was minimal,Forte still often found some moments of hilarious discomfort: “I’d be having to kiss her and grind up against her,” he jokes, noting the added weirdness of her husband being just feet away.
As Fey laughs over how “they didn’t have to do very much of that,” the balance between absurdity and affection isexactly what makesThe Four Seasonsfeel as grounded as it is goofy. Between Fey’s striking and sharp performance as Kate and Jack’s absorbingly honest vulnerability that holds you tight, but Kate and Jack’s marriage isn’t as easy as it appears.
‘The Four Seasons’ Finale Resets Kate and Jack’s Tensions
“You can’t always unpack every single mistake.”
By the end ofThe Four Seasonsfinale, Jack and Kate are back where they started — together in nature, quiet and uncertain — but somehow changed. It’s a tender moment that earns its full-circle feeling without tying a bow too tightly. They are human, after all. But when askedif the couple is finally out of therapy, and after a rather scary moment on ice that found the two working together, Fey responds with optimism, “I think so. I think they’re reset, in a better place.”
But Fey was quick to clarify that the show’s take on marriageembraces the imperfect rhythm of real long-term relationships, which is what makesThe Four Seasonsso much more honest, as it’s rooted in realism. “Part of being married a long time is you do accidentally hurt each other’s feelings, and then you have to either just let it slide or reboot and start over,” she explains. “You can’t always unpack every single mistake.”
That openness leaves Season 2 wide open — not exactly as a reset for the characters, but as a continuation of the show’s core question: What does it take to stay? Especially after the routines, the kids, the back and forth of wants and needs. “While it seems like they’re in a pretty good place, marriage, you’ve got to constantly work on,” Forte says. “For the purposes of this story, you could also get unraveled pretty quickly with one or two wrong moves.”
WhileThe Four SeasonsSeason 2 is still TBD despite some major plot twists at the end following Nick’s death (Steve Carell) and Ginny’s (ErikaHenningsen) pregnancy, Fey did tease another reunion with a familiar collaborator fans will be most excited about. When asked about a30 Rockrevival, she pivoted to a new project in the works that even Forte is “excited” about: “We are doing a new show withTracy Morgan, a pilot for Peacock, that, if you’re missing the flavor andjoke density of30 Rock, come check that out onPeacocksometime in the next year.”
