The Four Seasons / El Eternauta / Exterritorial (Netflix, 2025)

It was a busy week, but I managed to watch some Netflix. So I decided to write a triple of capsule reviews, and send them out before the weekend kicks in.

I’ll be back with something else before too long, but for now I hope you have a great weekend!

The Four Seasons (Netflix, 2025)

Inspired by the music of Vivaldi, The Four Seasons is a remake of Alan Alda’s comedy drama from 1981, reimagined as a limited series by (amongst others) Tina Fey, who also plays one of the leads.

It’s about three middle-aged couples (including characters played by Steve Carell, Colman Domingo and Will Forte) who vacation together every three months - one of the changes to the original being that one of the couples is now colored and gay.

Things get shaken up, however, when Nick (Carell) announces that he is going to divorce Anne (Kerri Kenney) and ends up bringing his much younger girlfriend Ginny (Erika Henningsen) on their next getaways.

The eight episodes show how this cataclysmic event influences the group dynamic, while also finding out what happens to Anne and seeing how Ginny fits in.

The Four Seasons mainly deals in first world problems, but with enough emotional depth and sincerity to keep the audience engaged.

(***)

El Eternauta (Netflix, 2025)

An adaptation of an Argentinian graphic novel from the 1950’s, starring the famous Ricardo Darin (El secreto de sus ojos) as Juan Salvo.

Juan is part of a group of friends that, after a toxic snowfall makes countless casualties, embarks on a struggle for survival, as they are forced to battle an alien threat that is under the direction of an invisible force.

Created and directed by Bruno Stagnaro (Pizza, birra, faso), The Eternaut starts off small and slow.

The first episode is basically about the friends trying to escape from the house where they gathered to play cards, only to find themselves boxed in when the snow makes people drop dead in the streets.

But over the course of six episodes it builds up to something bigger in scope and scale, in classic post-apocalyptic style.

(***)

Exterritorial (Netflix, 2025)

Jeanne Goursaud kicks some righteous ass in Exterritorial, a German action thriller set within the confines of the American consulate in Frankfurt.

Goursaud plays Sara, a widowed former special ops soldier with some mental problems that she is on meds for.

She visits the consulate, with the purpose of applying for a visum to stay and work in the United States (the country het late husband was from).

Sara is accompanied by her son, who is bored by the long wait time, so she lets him stay in the playroom, while she gets a coffee.

When she returns, the boy is missing. Even worse, nobody has seen anything. Is she delusional? Maybe. Is there a conspiracy? Probably. Something to do with her past? Well…

Sara knows that when she leaves she may never see her son again, as the German police has no jurisdiction in the consulate.

So she drops out of sight and starts investigating the enormous labyrinthine building by herself, leading to twists, turns and a whole lot of trouble, the latter of those personified by Dougray Scott as Erik Kynch, the consulate’s head of security.

Written and directed by Christian Zübert, the movie certainly looks the part. The production design looks amazing and makes you believe the consulate is a world all its own where it’s easy to get lost in.

Exterritorial feels like a mix of Die Hard and Flight Plan. Goursaud shines in the action scenes and it’s a shame that she and her co-stars are saddled with some on the nose dialogue that could have been easily fixed with one more script version.

Still, it’s to her credit that Goursaud convinces as a female Liam Neeson and in the end this is a diverting Action Mom Movie that keeps you glued to the screen for most of its running time.

(*** 1/2)