The Four Seasons: What Bill Belichick, Donald Trump, and James Sexton Have To Do With The New Message In This Remake   

May 2025

 

I just saw a unicorn...

 

No... really

 

A true unicorn...

 

And it wasn’t a horse with a horn...

Or a startup with a billion-dollar valuation...

 

No...

 

It was a remake of a film...

 

That was better than the original...

 

And that is something I have certainly never seen before....

 

But at first, I didn’t even realize The Four Seasons on Netflix was a remake

 

Because the original The Four Seasons...

Made in 1981...

Was so unremarkable I barely remembered it...

 

And when I finally did....

What most came to mind...

 

Was that all the characters were unlikeable...

And a bunch of whiny New Yorkers...

Played by lesser-known actors who looked like they were all on hiatus from a Woody Allen movie...

 

And that it was another of those Alan Alda movies..

Where he plays a married man wallowing in misery...

(See Same Time Next Year, California Suite, and Crimes and Misdemeanors)

 

And we got to see more of that wet mop of an actress, Sandy Dennis

As the much put-upon ex-wife of Nick...

The central character in the story of four couples grappling with their relationships... and a friend’s divorce...

 

In this newer version...

The story is basically the same...

Although there are a few changes...

 

But the cinematography is well done..

And as a series, this story benefits from the longer time for character development

 

But more importantly, the cast is excellent...

 

Especially, Colman Domingo as Danny and Marco Calvani as Claude..

Who are fun to watch as the now gay couple...

And because this is 2025...

One is black and the other white...

 

But they are so delightful and charming...

You wish they were in every scene...

 

And Kerri Kenney Silver as Anne, as Nick’s quirky ex-wife is definitely an upgrade over Dennis...

And you can’t help but like her...

 

Now Nick and Kate are still unlikeable...

But Steve Carrell and Tina Fey...

Can carry a movie...

 

But this 2025 version did remind me of how much the 1981 film was a period piece...

When divorce rates in the US were peaking...

 

Because its central premise was Nick leaving his wife for a much younger woman...

 

And you had to be living under a rock in the 80s..

To not know that the New York tabloids were full of stories about...

Donald Trump leaving Ivana for the much younger and more beautiful Marla Maples...

Which practically kept W in business as it chronicled that

marital drama...

And high stakes divorce...

 

But the pages of that publication were also full of stories of other high-profile divorces...

Like Henry Kravis exchanging socialite Carolyne Roehm for Marie-Josée Drouin...

Or Sid Bass trading in his uptight social x-ray (Tom Wolfe’s term, not mine) for the arms of a fun-loving Mercedes Kellogg...

 

So in the press at the time...

These men always seemed to be getting an upgrade...

And having fun...

 

But the scorned ex-wife Anne in the original The Four Seasons...

Finds herself ...

And gets a new career...

Landing on her feet, as did Jill Clayburgh in another film of that era,  An Unmarried Woman..

 

So at the time these were reminders that although there will be some rough patches ...

All will be well in the end... and everyone will be better off

 

Now the new version of The Four Seasons...

Is, too, of its time...

So it explores the nuances of gay relationships..

And sends everyone to an awful eco resort...

 

But the story of Nick leaving his wife for a younger woman...

Continues to be timeless...

And is still tabloid fodder when famous men do so...

 

Just witness the social media frenzy over Bill Belichick and his hot new honey...

 

But...

 

Belichick is not receiving the same treatment in the press as did Trump

And those other famous men who left their wives in the 80s...

 

So the real strength of this new version of The Four Seasons...

Is that it picks up on a cultural shift in attitudes toward divorce...

And older men running off with younger women....

 

So what looks like a no-brainer for Nick...

Who gets to trade in the old wife for a newer, prettier, and much more fun younger model...

 

Is not all it seems...

 

Because in this version of The Four Seasons it becomes clear

That the new girlfriend is a band-aid... and not a cure for what is ailing Nick...

 

And Steve Carrell conveys this beautifully in the random shots of Nick..

Who keeps pretending for his friends that his new life is wonderful...

But when he is alone in his thoughts... looks miserable

 

So the 2025 version of The Four Seasons shines a much harsher light on divorce than the original..

 

And reflects how attitudes toward divorce ...

 

Which was young and shiny in the 80s...

As no-fault divorce became available and women had entered the workforce

And so the economic impact... and cultural stigma... of divorce lessened

 

Have changed...

 

Because now... the children of those parents...

Hold no illusions about the toll divorce takes on everyone ...

 

And so its rate has declined... along with the desire to marry...

 

But there is also another message in this series...

 

Because although the rate of divorce has come down...

In the over 50 age group ...

It is now more often the woman who decides to leave the marriage...

Not the man...

 

So now the news is full of stories about how the rich former wives of tech billionaires...

Are flooding the NGO universe with their money...

And accumulating accolades in the process..

 

So they seem to be doing just fine...

 

While their husbands look ridiculous with their plastic surgery Barbies and trips to Epstein’s island...

 

So what is really interesting about the 2025 version of this old story...

Is that it casts a gimlet eye...

Not just on divorce...

But on those May-December relationships..

That on the surface look like so much fun...

But which are now often cast as a cause for concern...

And occasionally approbation...

 

So I suggest we check in on Belichick in a year...

 

But that’s not all...

 

Recently we have been inundated with films and essays about women who leave their husbands...

For much happier and fuller lives...

(See Scenes From a Marriage and A Marriage Story...)

 

Yet in this year’s version of The Four Seasons...

 

Anne... who is back on the market as a 50-year-old divorcee...

And yearning for a new relationship...

Finds out the pickings are pretty slim...

And what’s available is not worth the effort...

 

So she ends up just as sad as Nick...

 

Because the real message of this version of The Four Seasons is ...

Beware the divorce that comes in middle age...

Because no one is going to come out ahead...

 

Except James Sexton...

 

But didn’t he already tell us that...

 

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