Colman Domingo and Tina Fey Shape Season 2 Tone

Colman Domingo directs “Hiking,” the opener of “The Four Seasons” Season 2, aiming to preserve the group’s warm closeness while tightening the screws on the conflicts ahead. Tina Fey makes her directorial debut with “Funky Motel,” while cinematographer Tim Orr

Colman Domingo knew exactly where he wanted the group to land when “The Four Seasons” returns.

In the first episode of Season 2. “Hiking. ” the series star steps into the director’s chair for what he describes as a significant departure from his previous experience directing TV. “Before I directed ‘Fear the Walking Dead. ’ which is big special effects and stunts and all. ” he said during a recent virtual USG University Panel moderated by IndieWire. With the Season 2 premiere serving as a welcome back to the audience. Domingo said his challenge as a director was setting the tone—bringing back the feelings that make the friend group want to stay together. then slowly letting conflict creep in. “I wanted to take us to a place of remembering all those warm feelings of why you want this group to stay together and then setting up that there’s going to be some conflict. some little things that become bigger things that will challenge the group. ” he said.

That tonal plan isn’t just about what happens—it’s built into how the episode looks. Domingo pointed to the way the show frames connection on screen. “That 360 turntable shot. it’s very indicative of ‘Roseanne’ or ‘Hannah and Her Sisters.’ It’s like watching people come together and eat together and enjoy each other. but there’s all these little side conversations happening across the table as well. ” he said.

In Season 2’s second episode, “Funky Motel,” the pivot shifts to Tina Fey. The co-creator, co-showrunner, writer, and star takes on her directorial debut with the episode.

Fey said she waited for this series because she wanted her directing to contribute rather than control. “I’ve always felt that as a writer first. I always wanted to make sure that if I was going to direct that it was additive in some way and it wasn’t just the writer policing that no one changed their lines.” She added that the heart of their show is the actors and their relationships. “But the nature of our show compared to other shows I’ve worked on is it really is so much about the actors and their relationships and the kind of rapport they have with each other. that kind of stuff of talking to the actors I’ve always really enjoyed and I was always intimidated by the camera part of it. but Tim helped me.”.

That Tim is Tim Orr, who serves as the sole cinematographer for the series. Orr described his role as a steady hand—especially when multiple directors bring their own ideas. “the keeper of the tone visually. And what we established in Season 1. trying to carry that over through the second season and keep it cohesive. ” Orr said.

Even with a rotating set of directors. Orr said the mission stays the same: absorb fresh ideas while keeping the show unmistakably itself. “There’s new ideas from each director that kind of come into play into each episode and it’s navigating the right way to incorporate those and have it still feel like it’s the same show.” The visual approach. he said. leans into words like “real. ” “naturalistic. ” and an “elegant simplicity.”.

Keeping things cohesive also means embracing the show’s specific brand of comedy—where the realness of performance meets absurd vacation details. Production designer Sharon Lomofsky. who captures the oddball character of the settings. explained how she builds those contradictions into the space. She talked about a vacation destination she described as a barbecue restaurant a stone’s throw from the remote Upstate New York hotel the characters are staying at. “I put all the animal heads facing everybody so that they were looking at them wherever the camera turned. the animal heads were looking at our table. ” Lomofsky said. “It was sort of like that fine line of, ‘Do we like this hotel?. Is it a bad hotel?. Is it a hipster hotel?’”.

Domingo connected her design choices to what viewers feel immediately: a place that sparks different takes from different people. “It’s beautiful about what she does because every character has a different opinion about the hotel and so it’s depicted in her seating design too,” he said.

But the glue—what keeps Netflix viewers coming back to this particular friend-group universe—starts with the cast. Casting director Sherry Thomas joked that building a Tina Fey show’s lineup comes down to momentum. “It is not difficult to cast for a Tina Fey show. Everybody wants to come and be a part of it.”.

She also described how the core group gets assembled with tonal variety in mind. “When we assembled our core group. we really had a sense of the other elements to bring in because tonally you don’t want everybody to feel exactly the same. You want people to feel like their own person.” Looking ahead to Season 2. Thomas said some recognizable faces will pop in for a day—people who want to be there without ego. “you will recognize people from very significant roles on other things that are popping in for a day because they want to be a part of it and there’s no ego about it for them to come and be a part of the show.”.

For Fey, the benchmark is simpler than it sounds. “Ultimately they feel like somebody we would hang with. ” she said. pointing to Toby Huss and Steven Pasquale as two examples from Season 2. And she tied casting to a practical creative need: “And they’re usually people who are genuinely funny, truly funny.”.

“The Four Seasons” is produced by Universal Television, a division of Universal Studio Group. It is now streaming exclusively on Netflix.

IndieWire partnered with Universal Studio Group for USG University. a series of panels celebrating the outstanding artistry and artisans behind the 2025–2026 television season across NBCUniversal’s portfolio of shows. USG University, a Universal Studio Group program, is presented in partnership with the Motion Picture & Television Fund.

The Four Seasons Tina Fey Colman Domingo Tim Orr Sharon Lomofsky USG University Netflix Universal Television director’s debut Funky Motel Hiking Season 2