TV Shows

Four women who were briefly famous as a 1990s pop group reunite in their 40s for a second shot at fame. A hilarious, tender exploration of female friendship, midlife ambition, failed dreams, and the refusal to accept that your best days are behind you.

A miniseries chronicling the lives of LGBT rights activists from the Stonewall era through marriage equality. Features powerful portrayals of older lesbian and queer women whose lifetimes of activism shaped the rights enjoyed today.

Two amateur metal detectorists search the fields of England for buried treasure. A gentle, deeply felt comedy about friendship, disappointment, hope, and finding meaning in small pleasures. A quiet masterpiece about what matters in midlife and beyond.

A boldly anachronistic reimagining of Emily Dickinson’s young womanhood — her ambition, queerness, and furious resistance to the roles society assigned her. A celebration of creative ambition, nonconformity, and the courage to be fully oneself.

Vicky McClure plays Lana Washington, an explosives disposal operator in London facing a targeted bombing campaign. A gripping thriller centered on a woman over 40 whose competence, courage, and emotional complexity are the engine of the story.

Based on Nancy Mitford’s beloved novel, two best friends navigate love, war, and society between the wars. Lily James and Emily Beecham are dazzling as women who refuse to accept the limited choices offered to them — with Kristin Scott Thomas magnificent as the eccentric, politically ferocious Aunt Emily.

A multi-generational Latinx family drama featuring three generations of women — grandmother, mother, and daughter — navigating love, identity, faith, and ambition. A warm, witty celebration of women who refuse to be diminished.

A brilliant but socially dysfunctional surgeon becomes a GP in a small Cornish village. Features multiple strong female characters including a sharp, capable headteacher love interest. Warm, witty, and a celebration of community and competence.

A widow uproots her dysfunctional family to the Greek island of Corfu in the 1930s. A warm, funny portrait of a woman reinventing her life in midlife with chaos and courage — and eventually thriving.

Gillian Anderson plays Detective Superintendent Stella Gibson — a composed, sexually confident, professionally ruthless woman in her 40s hunting a serial killer. A rare portrayal of a fully realized, uncompromising older woman as the absolute center of a crime drama.

Hilary Mantel’s trilogy about Thomas Cromwell and Henry VIII’s court, with brilliantly drawn female characters — including Anne Boleyn and Katherine of Aragon — navigating a world of absolute male power with extraordinary intelligence, courage, and ultimately tragic consequence.

Set on an NHS geriatric ward, this darkly funny and moving series explores aging, dying, and the staff who care for older women at the end of their lives. Compassionate, absurd, and quietly radical in its insistence on the full humanity of elderly patients.

A quirky comedy set in a rural English Women’s Institute, following a group of women of all ages — including many over 50 — navigating village life, relationships, menopause, and small-town politics with warmth and hilarity.

Ricky Gervais plays a man whose life is turned upside down when his wife dies from cancer. Despite being male-centered, the show features extraordinary portrayals of older women — including a widow in a nursing home and a wise therapist — who model grace, humor, and the possibility of joy after profound loss.

Three women discover they are half-sisters when their fertility doctor used his own sperm. A darkly funny and moving drama about family, identity, betrayal, and the unexpected bonds that form between women who need each other.

The adaptation of Sally Rooney’s novel about an on-and-off relationship between two young Irish people. Though centered on youth, the show’s frank, respectful portrayal of intimacy, consent, and emotional complexity has made it essential viewing for anyone who cares about healthy sexuality at any age.

Three generations of women work as divorce lawyers in London — navigating their own marriages, family secrets, and competing loyalties. Over three acclaimed series, Abi Morgan digs deeper into divorce, infidelity, identity, and the impossible choices facing women who want everything — career, family, and passion. One of British television’s most sophisticated explorations of modern womanhood.

Set in a women’s prison, this gripping drama features complex female characters across all ages — including older women who are ruthless, strategic, vulnerable, and fully realized. One of the most female-centric dramas in Australian television history.

A murder in a small English coastal town unravels an entire community. Olivia Colman is extraordinary as DS Ellie Miller — a woman in midlife navigating grief, betrayal, and professional survival. One of British television’s finest crime dramas.

Skilled craftspeople restore cherished heirlooms brought in by members of the public. A deeply moving show about memory, family history, craftsmanship, and the emotional weight of objects. A gentle antidote to the throwaway culture that devalues what endures.

A Los Angeles family is upended when their parent comes out as transgender in later life. A pioneering, imperfect show that opened conversation about gender identity, family, and the courage to live authentically — at any age.

The lives of an aristocratic family and their servants in early 20th century England. Features Maggie Smith’s Violet Crawley — an elderly woman of ferocious wit, political skill, and unapologetic power — as one of television’s great portraits of older womanhood.

A teenager with a sex therapist mother creates an informal sex therapy clinic. Gillian Anderson’s character is a perfectly drawn portrait of a single, sexually active, professionally successful woman in her 50s. Funny, frank, and refreshingly sex-positive about midlife desire.

Frances McDormand is magnificent as Olive Kitteridge — a prickly, brilliant, difficult older woman whose life unfolds in a small Maine town. An unflinching portrait of depression, marriage, aging, regret, and unexpected grace. Based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel.