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Why Is a TV Show About Middle Aged Characters Considered Niche — But a Teen Drama Is Universal?
How Tina Fey’s recent series is challenging ageist biases about media representation
Three couples in their fifties. Four vacations over the course of a year. One divorce. And endless misadventures, jokes, and humorous but biting commentary on the challenges of midlife.
This is, in a nutshell, The Four Seasons, which recently hit Netflix, inspiring a handful of mostly positive though overall lukewarm reviews. Reviews that surprised me by appearing almost confrontational about the show’s focus on middle aged protagonists.
Jen Chaney’s review in Vulture is literally titled ‘The Four Seasons’ Is Probably Not Your Thing, the pronoun “your” referring to, as we find out in the final paragraph, anyone in their 20s or 30s. Chaney begins her review seeming to allude to a sense of confusion as to who this TV series is for. “[It] …stars (mostly) actors who are in their 50s, playing characters who are in their 50s, in a show whose target demographic is (I assume) people in their 50s,” then ends her review with an aside to readers in their 20s and 30s, explaining that this show “won’t be your jam,” a repetition of the title.
“Even though this Netflix Original is…
