The Four Seasons Season 2 Hits Netflix May 28 — Tina Fey and Steve Carell Are Back

By Olivia Hart · May 18, 2026

The Four Seasons season 2 drops on Netflix on May 28, 2026, with all 8 episodes available at once. Co-created by Tina Fey, the comedy brings back its stellar cast — Fey, Steve Carell, Colman Domingo, and Will Forte — for another round of vacation friendship chaos. Season 1 hit Netflix's number one spot, and expectations for this follow-up are enormous.

Why I Couldn't Stop Thinking About Season 1

Let me confess something: I watched all of The Four Seasons season 1 in a single weekend. Not because I planned to. I started it on a Friday evening thinking I'd watch one or two episodes while eating dinner, and then suddenly it was Sunday afternoon and I was emotionally invested in the complicated friendship dynamics of fictional people I'd never met.

That's the magic of this show. It's not high-concept sci-fi. It's not a murder mystery with twists. It's three couples going on vacation together and dealing with all the messy, uncomfortable, hilarious things that happen when people who love each other also kind of drive each other insane. And Tina Fey, who co-created the series, understands that dynamic better than almost any comedy writer working today.

The reason season 1 hit number one on Netflix wasn't because of marketing or star power, though those helped. It was because everyone who has ever gone on a group vacation recognized themselves in these characters. The passive-aggressive itinerary planning. The someone who always wants to eat at a "local spot" that turns out to be terrible. The couple that's clearly fighting but insisting everything is fine. We've all been there.

What We Know About Season 2 So Far

Netflix has been characteristically tight-lipped about season 2 plot details, but here's what we know. The core cast is back: Tina Fey, Steve Carell, Colman Domingo, and Will Forte are all confirmed. The season runs 8 episodes, matching the first season's format. And the vacation friendship dynamics continue, though Netflix's brief teaser suggests the group might be dealing with the fallout of season 1's finale revelations.

What excites me most is the cast chemistry. Tina Fey and Steve Carell together is the comedy pairing I didn't know I needed until this show gave it to me. They play off each other with this effortless rhythm — Fey's sharp, slightly cutting wit bouncing against Carell's talent for playing the lovable guy who is also, underneath it all, kind of selfish. It's brilliant casting.

Colman Domingo brings gravitas to a show that could easily float away on pure comedy. His character grounds the group dynamics in something real — the tensions that emerge when longtime friends grow in different directions. And Will Forte is doing what Will Forte does best: being simultaneously the funniest and most unpredictable person in every scene.

The Netflix Comedy Renaissance Is Real

I've been skeptical about Netflix comedies for years. For every good one, there were five that felt like they were assembled by an algorithm — familiar faces, safe premises, nothing that takes a risk. But something shifted recently. Shows like Perfect Match season 4 prove Netflix is willing to let creators take bigger swings, and The Four Seasons is the strongest evidence yet that the platform can produce appointment comedy.

The difference with The Four Seasons is authorial voice. This is unmistakably a Tina Fey show. The dialogue has her fingerprints all over it — those rapid-fire observations about human behavior that make you laugh and then, two seconds later, make you uncomfortable because you realize she's describing you specifically. That kind of specific, personal comedy doesn't come from data analysis. It comes from a writer who has opinions and isn't afraid to put them on screen.

I think Netflix learned something valuable from the success of season 1: audiences are starving for comedies that treat them like adults. Not every joke needs to be explained. Not every character arc needs to be resolved neatly. Sometimes the funniest thing is leaving the tension unresolved, letting the awkwardness hang in the air, and trusting the audience to feel it.

Can Season 2 Live Up to the Hype?

This is the question that keeps me up at night. Not literally — I'm not that parasocial — but creatively, the sophomore season problem is real and brutal. Season 1 had the advantage of surprise. Nobody expected a vacation comedy to become Netflix's biggest show. The bar was low, the cast delivered, and everyone was delighted.

Season 2 doesn't have that luxury. Now everyone's watching. The expectations are massive. Critics who were charmed by season 1 will be looking for growth. Audiences who binged it will expect the same lightning-in-a-bottle magic, but also something new. It's an impossible balance, and most shows get it wrong.

My prediction? Season 2 will be slightly less universally beloved than season 1, but deeper and more interesting. Second seasons of character-driven comedies tend to go darker — the relationships get more complicated, the jokes get sharper, the emotional stakes rise. If Tina Fey follows the 30 Rock playbook, she'll use the established character dynamics to explore territory that would have felt rushed in season 1.

I'm also curious about whether they'll keep the vacation-per-episode structure or mix it up. The format was part of season 1's charm — each vacation as a self-contained comedy of errors — but it could feel repetitive if season 2 doesn't evolve the formula. If you enjoy shows that blend drama with sharp humor, our Good Omens season 3 finale review explores another series that nailed the balance between comedy and emotional depth.

What Makes This Cast Work So Well Together

I keep coming back to the casting because it's genuinely the secret weapon. On paper, Tina Fey and Steve Carell are both "comedy legends," and pairing two people that famous usually creates a star-power collision where each is performing AT the audience instead of WITH each other. But The Four Seasons avoids that trap because both of them commit to the ensemble.

Carell, in particular, is doing career-best TV work here. He's not doing Michael Scott. He's not doing the lovable sad-sack from his movie career. He's playing a guy who is charming and generous on the surface but has this undercurrent of neediness and insecurity that makes him deeply human. It's the kind of performance that reminds you why he was Oscar-nominated for Foxcatcher.

And Fey is writing for herself in a way she hasn't since 30 Rock ended. Her character isn't Liz Lemon 2.0 — she's meaner, more self-aware, less likely to be the show's moral center. I love it. Watching Tina Fey play someone who isn't always right, who makes genuinely bad friendship decisions and then doubles down on them, is refreshing and funny in a way that feels honest.

May 28 can't come soon enough. I've already cleared my weekend schedule. If season 2 is even close to as good as season 1, we're looking at one of the best Netflix comedies ever made. And if it's better? Then Tina Fey has done it again, and we don't deserve her.