The Four Seasons; Genius Game

“The Four Seasons is full of properly funny lines, rooted in properly middle-aged experience. In its comedy and its drama it captures the warm, weary affection for life and each other that only old friends and enduring couples really know… Part White Lotus without fatalities, part Gilmore Girls on HRT or Golden Girls with men, The Four Seasons is Tina Fey and her writing and acting ensembles on fine form, everything informed by her rigorous intelligence, wit and experience.”
Lucy Mangan, The Guardian

“The mix of Fey and her writing team’s combination of clever wordplay and broad comedy is performed as skilfully as you would expect from a cast this strong, but it is smart rather than smart-arsed. Friendship groups in real life can be annoying, exclusive and excluding, but this one welcomes you in and you might be surprised at how much you enjoy spending time with them. It’s a little like The White Lotus but with a bit more heart and warmth.”
Ben Dowell, The Times

“There are echoes of White Lotus in the couples-on-holiday scenario, but we are nowhere near Jennifer Coolidge levels of hilarity. Fey, Carell and a gang including a criminally misused Colman Domingo try to mine hilarity out of the fault lines opening up in their relationships but what’s presumably meant to be witty and sharp simply comes across as bitter and mean. There are few gags here, just endless bitching and backbiting.”
Keith Watson, The Telegraph

“Netflix has taken the unvarnished joy of the film and added a slick coat of gloss. The structure (each season takes place over the course of two episodes) is well suited to television, building from the promise of spring to the dark nights of winter. Just about staying the right side of low-key, and propelled along by Vivaldi’s violins, The Four Seasons is something of a delight.”
Nick Hilton, The Independent

“This IQ show has the arbitrary, undeveloped air of ‘first draft’ about it. It’s like being locked in an airless room while someone shouts random, boring rules at you and you have to pretend to get it.”
Carol Midgley, The Times

“Genius Game is an unforgivably boring programme based on a Korean format, with tests so convoluted that even some of the players struggle to understand the rules.”
Anita Singh, The Telegraph

“The format is based on a South Korean TV hit. This implies that either Koreans are all supernaturally intelligent, or they have an abnormally high boredom threshold. The first hour-long episode consisted of one main game, played repeatedly. It was dull and meaningless the first time, and then it got worse.”
Christopher Stevens, Daily Mail

“While the players seem invested (good for them), we are not. Genius Game is the TV equivalent of watching some people you don’t know play a game you don’t understand all the while telling you what a great time they’re having.”
Rachel Sigee, The i