“The success of this show was down to Madeley the empath, the decent journalist with story-getting instincts. And a decent person too”
God bless Madeley…One reason he is so gaffe-prone is that he says what he thinks, often (let’s face it) before fully engaging his brain. But what you see is what you get and his film about crime, punishment and the very worst of humanity was pleasingly serious and eye-opening…The success of this show was down to Madeley the empath, the decent journalist with story-getting instincts. And a decent person too.
Ben Dowell, The Times
The Four Seasons S2, Netflix
The second season of her midlife comedy drama is even more perspicacious, poignant and hilarious than the first…It’s worth watching The Four Seasons for the knitwear alone. The laughably exquisite settings are straight out of a Nancy Meyers movie, and this being Fey, there’s a joke about that, too…I found the levels of lush lakeside lawns and lobster rolls ludicrous at first but by the time these flawed, flailing friends were wintering in the Italian alps and Kate was delivering an Emmy award-deserving speech to Jack (while running a marathon!) about her secret levels of despair, I was all in. The sublime locations are a lure to reel you into the murky depths of midlife experience.
Chitra Ramaswamy, The Guardian
The blurb that comes with Netflix’s The Four Seasons says that it is “a heartfelt and hilarious love letter to long-term relationships”. That should be enough for anyone of sound mind to call for the mustard water. “Heartfelt” generally goes as well with “hilarious” as chocolate with cheese, and long-term relationships need weekends at spa hotels and comfortable spare rooms, not love letters. Throw in a set-up based on the 1981 Alan Alda movie of the same name…and you have a recipe that sounds about as appetising as earwax. This is all to reckon without the brilliance of Tina Fey, however, who, with her 30 Rock writers Lang Fisher and Tracey Wigfield, could probably make a coffee enema entertaining. Because the three female writers all come from a half-hour-sitcom background, The Four Seasons is never indulgent. The characters are catty and caustic, self-pity is mercifully absent and over the run, every member of the gang is the butt of the joke at some point. Thus, a show that smacks of smugness actually turns out to be winningly self-effacing.
Benji Wilson, The Telegraph
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