Netflix’s 2025 miniseries The Four Seasons serves as a reimagining of the 1981 movie of the same name, but while the premise stays the same, numerous details change. The Four Seasons‘ cast is composed of three couples, played by Tina Fey, Will Forte, Steve Carell, Kerri Kenney-Silver, Colman Domingo, and Marco Calvani. The series comprises eight episodes, two for each season of the year, as the group goes on different vacations.

While The Four Seasons’ settings are beautiful and lead to entertaining moments, the drama series is equally focused on exploring the relationship dynamics between friends who have known each other for a long time and couples struggling to deal with the problems they encounter. As a result, The Four Seasons has received positive reviews and has become one of Netflix’s most-watched shows. Additionally, the show’s success has brought attention back to the 1981 classic movie, prompting viewers to note the biggest differences between the two.

9Kate Plans All The Vacations In The 1981 Movie

The Series Gives Kate Other Stressors

In both the 2025 series and the 1981 movie, Kate and Jack are married and make up one-third of the friend group, but the new series gets rid of one important detail about Kate. In 1981’s The Four Seasons, Kate is responsible for planning each of the group’s trips. This changes the dynamics of responsibility within the group quite significantly and allows the show to explore different aspects of their relationships. In the miniseries, the responsibility also falls on Ginny and Anne for the summer and winter vacations in particular.

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Having Anne plan the trips is a significant source of stress for the character, and she admits as much to her husband late in the movie, showing that she does not always want as much responsibility as she is given. Kate in the series also expresses her frustration over bearing the majority of the responsibility in her relationship with Jack, but taking some of the vacation-planning pressure off of her allows them to go deeper into the problems their relationship faces, while simultaneously exploring the group’s dynamics with Ginny and Anne.

8The Vow Renewal Does Not Happen In The Four Seasons Movie

Though The Circumstances For The Spring Vacation Are Similar

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One major event that is present in the show but does not have an equivalent in the 1981 version is Nick and Anne’s vow renewal. In the show, the friends gather at Nick and Anne’s lake house for a relaxing weekend getaway and learn that Anne is planning a 25th-anniversary vow renewal ceremony. At the same time, Nick admits to Danny and Jack that he wants to divorce Anne instead. While the vacation itself and the set-up for Nick and Anne’s divorce are the same, the vow renewal is added.

In both versions of The Four Seasons, Nick tells his friends during the spring trip that he is planning to divorce Anne, but Anne’s surprise plans are a new addition, as is Nick’s kiln for Anne, which ultimately parallels the end of their marriage. The addition of the vow renewal ceremony does create extra drama for the series, and the other characters to go through different stages of how they should address the issue and potentially approach Anne about it.

7The Group Ventures To A Different Location For Their Summer Vacation In The Series

The Eco-Resort Vacation Is A 2025 Addition

The Four Seasons 2025 has numerous modern updates, but one of the funniest changes is that of the group’s summer vacation. In the movie, the group (with Ginny and without Anne) vacation on a sailing trip around St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands. They run into some minor trouble when their sailboat is stuck in a shoal, and they struggle to adjust to Nick and Ginny’s intense relationship. Anne is not present at all during the summer vacation, so the movie turns its attention to the new configuration of the three couples.

The new series also prominently features Anne during the summer vacation, which allows audiences a much better understanding of what she is feeling after Nick leaves her.

In contrast, the 2025 series sees the couples go to an eco-resort in Puerto Rico, which is planned by Ginny. The eco-resort scenes are some of the funniest and most unfortunate of the series and feel like a very modern addition. Danny, Claude, Kate, and Jack clearly do not have fun with Ginny’s very modern, Bohemian idea of a vacation, with Danny and Claude even deciding to leave. The new series also prominently features Anne during the summer vacation, which allows audiences a much better understanding of what she is feeling after Nick leaves her.

6Danny’s Partner Is A Man In The Series

The New Show Represents Modern Relationships

Another change that helps to modernize the story from the 1981 movie is that the series is more representative of the relationships that exist in the modern world. In the movie, Danny is married to Claudia, whose name and character became Claude in the updated version. Positive LGBTQ+ representation was largely nonexistent in popular media in the 1980s, so making one of the three main couples a queer relationship feels like a great adaptation that still retains the essence of the couple in the 1981 version.

Danny and Claude’s storyline in The Four Seasons also delves into different aspects of their characters. The 1981 version includes Danny and Claudia arguing some, but many of their storylines revolve around Danny’s health troubles. As a result, their romantic issues and high moments are often overshadowed by those of their friends. In contrast, the 2025 series explores their open relationship, Claude’s concerns for Danny, and what makes their relationship work a bit more.

5Anne Plays More Of A Role In The 2025 Show

The Series Gives The Character More Depth

The Four Seasons series also approaches Anne’s place in the group in a much more modern way. In the movie, after Nick divorces Anne and begins seeing Ginny, Anne is basically no longer part of the friend group, or at best an afterthought. She is not invited to the summer vacation, and when her friends see her in the fall, they learn that she has become more adventurous without them. Rather than Anne standing as a strong character on her own, she is mostly seen through the lens of her relationship with Nick.

The 2025 series allows Anne the time to be messy and upset about her divorce without losing her friends in the process.

In the movie, Anne is not given much character development, with no real attempt to dive into her immediate reactions after her separation from Nick. The 2025 series allows Anne the time to be messy and upset about her divorce without losing her friends in the process. This is best seen in the summer when she goes to Puerto Rico, and Danny says that he only wants the best for her. Anne has much more agency in the series, and the friend group is far more on her side than in 1981.

4Danny Does Not Have A Heart Condition In The Original Movie

He Is Very Concerned About His Health Though

In the movie, Danny is the oldest of the friend group and does have a lot of worries about his health, though the new series makes those far more explicit. Danny was originally characterized as being a hypochondriac and having Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, or at least exhibiting some of the common symptoms of it. However, he is generally physically healthy, and his friends make fun of him for his concerns. While worrying about one’s health is not uncommon, the conversation surrounding mental health is different and more comprehensive than it was in the 1980s, so the change makes sense.

Instead, the show makes Danny’s health concerns far more explicit, and they become an important talking point in Danny and Claude’s relationship. In the series, Danny has a heart condition and undergoes surgery for it, which ultimately leaves Claude scrutinizing Danny’s health. 2025’s The Four Seasons takes Danny’s health much more seriously, even when the character himself does not. This allows the show to touch on the characters’ changing health as they age and how they still feel young and free.

3The Four Seasons Show Delves Into Each Character’s Journey More Deeply

The Longer Runtime Makes The Characters More Well-Rounded

The series versus movie format change of The Four Seasons is responsible for many of the biggest alterations, quite simply because the eight-episode TV show has a much longer runtime than the 107-minute movie. The movie fits in all the different vacations and allows the characters to fill in certain archetypes, but the series gives the characters much more nuance. None of The Four Seasons‘ main characters are perfect, but it is much easier to feel sympathy for them when their actions and feelings are fully parsed.

The longer runtime also allows the series to delve into more events than the movie, which helps explore the characters more as well. For example, the series includes more information about how Nick and Anne’s daughter, Lila (Lisa in the movie), feels through her college play. Likewise, though Nick and Ginny get married in the movie, the show actually gives Ginny screen time and depth, showing her dynamic with Nick’s older friends and her own friends, who are slightly younger and more adventurous.

2Kate, Rather Than Danny, Falls Into The Frozen Lake

The Moment Focuses On Kate & Jack’s Relationship

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There is one example of a scene that takes place in both versions of The Four Seasons, but the characters involved are different. The new series changes the movie’s ending quite a bit, and, as a result, the characters are in different locations at the end of the winter vacation. In the movie, Ginny gets into an argument and Danny goes outside to look for her. He eventually finds her but falls into a frozen lake while trying to talk to her. She brings the rest of the friend group to their location, and they all help rescue Danny, creating a happy ending.

Jack rescuing Kate proves to the couple just how much they still love and need each other.

In 2025’s The Four Seasons, it is Kate rather than Danny who falls into a frozen lake and the circumstances are fairly different. Rather than looking for Ginny, Kate is out with Jack, who rescues her instead of the whole group. This moment creates a much-needed connection between the couple, who are struggling to emerge from the rut in their marriage. Jack rescuing Kate proves to the couple just how much they still love and need each other. This forms its own sort of hopeful ending for them, even with the bleak moments in the show’s conclusion.

1Nick Dies In The Netflix Series

The Character Survives In The Movie

Perhaps the biggest change that the 2025 version of The Four Seasons makes is that of the shocking ending twist. While in the original version, Nick is married to Ginny and survives, the series sees Nick die in a car crash. The movie’s ending aligns with the group rescuing Danny and remaining on fairly good terms. In contrast, Nick dies in the series in episode 7, meaning that episode 8 mostly surrounds the events of his funeral and its aftermath, during which Ginny and Anne interact more.

While the other friends go on a skiing trip with Anne and her new boyfriend, Nick and Ginny go on a trip with her friends, and Nick dies in the car crash. The other friends learn of his death later, and prepare for his funeral, where Ginny and Anne fight over who will speak and Kate and Jack struggle to pick out an urn. The ending of both versions includes the revelation that Ginny is now pregnant with Nick’s child, but Netflix’s version of The Four Seasons leaves more ambiguity about Ginny’s place in the group and what will happen now that she is all alone.