We rate Tracey Wigfield most highly for her contribution to 30 Rock's sharp ensemble comedy. The gentler The Four Seasons has warmth in its performances, but the writing too often leaves a familiar marital complaint without a fresh joke.
Fi1m perspective
In The Four Seasons (2025), a friendship group treats everybody's relationship as a matter for collective discussion. That is fertile ground for Tracey Wigfield, who co-created the series with Tina Fey and Lang Fisher, but the complaints are too often more familiar than funny. We were frustrated when another familiar marital complaint arrived without a fresh joke. The warmth of the performances makes this decent company, with Colman Domingo a particular reason to stay, but the writing does not consistently give its capable cast enough to work with.
The sharper benchmark is 30 Rock (2006), where Wigfield began as a writers' assistant during the second season before becoming a staff writer and producer. The ensemble takes time to settle, but Fey and Alec Baldwin make its workplace friction worth watching, and the foolishness is judged with unusual care. No single writer can claim all of that, and our enthusiasm for the programme should not become a claim that every good line was hers. Co-writing its 2013 finale with Fey nevertheless places Wigfield well beyond the margins of that achievement.
After 30 Rock, she wrote and co-executive produced The Mindy Project (2012), created Great News (2017) and developed the 2020 revival of Saved by the Bell. Those credits trace a move from writing on established programmes to shaping series herself. Fey has remained a central collaborator, with Fisher joining them to create The Four Seasons. That series marks a deliberate change of pace, towards more grounded stories about middle-aged friends who have been married for years.
Slowing down is a reasonable ambition for a comedy writer; we do not need every programme to behave like 30 Rock. But with fewer rapid jokes, the characters have to reward closer attention, and too many of these marital complaints tell us little we have not heard before. Fey, Kerri Kenney and Will Forte are among the actors the scripts could give more to do, so there is no shortage of comic ability to draw on. Start with 30 Rock; choose The Four Seasons when the company matters more than the number of laughs.
Biography
Tracey Wigfield is an American comedy writer and producer. Born on 19 June 1983 in Wayne, New Jersey, she graduated from Boston College in 2005 with degrees in theatre and English.
She began her television career as a writers' assistant on the second season of 30 Rock (2006), advancing to staff writer and producer. Wigfield co-wrote the series finale with Tina Fey, winning a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series. She later wrote for The Mindy Project (2012) and created the NBC sitcom Great News (2017).
Wigfield developed the Peacock revival of Saved by the Bell (2020) and is a co-creator, writer and executive producer of the Netflix series The Four Seasons (2025), alongside Tina Fey and Lang Fisher.
