TV Shows

Set in post-war East London, this long-running drama follows a community of midwives and nuns across decades. Features multiple storylines centered on older women’s health, aging, menopause, sexuality, and the evolution of women’s healthcare over the 20th century.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

A media dynasty implodes as aging patriarch Logan Roy refuses to relinquish power. Sarah Snook’s Siobhan is a brilliant, compromised woman navigating a world designed by and for powerful men. An unsparing portrait of wealth, power, and family dysfunction.

When their husbands announce they’re in love with each other, two very different women — uptight Grace (Jane Fonda) and free-spirited Frankie (Lily Tomlin) — are forced to reinvent themselves and become best friends. Seven seasons of wisdom, humor, and fierce celebration of older women’s full humanity including sexuality and business.

Jean Smart plays Deborah Vance, a legendary but overlooked Las Vegas comedian forced to take on a young comedy writer. A razor-sharp examination of ageism in entertainment, the invisibility of older women, and the fury and humor of surviving in a youth-obsessed industry.

Michael Douglas and Alan Arkin navigate the indignities of getting old in Hollywood. A rare show that treats aging with both humor and dignity, addressing prostate cancer, death of spouses, and the persistence of desire and ambition in later life.

A grieving therapist breaks all the rules. Features Harrison Ford in a magnificent role as a therapist with Parkinson’s — a rare, compassionate portrayal of aging, vulnerability, and the wisdom that comes with it. Warm, funny, and genuinely moving.

A Cuban-American single mother veteran raises her family across three generations. Rita Moreno’s Lydia is a revelation — an older woman whose sexuality, vanity, and full personhood are celebrated rather than erased. Among the best representations of older Latinx women on television.

The Sex and the City revival follows Carrie, Miranda, and Charlotte into their 50s — navigating grief, career pivots, divorce, and what friendship and identity mean in the second half of life. Brave in its willingness to address the realities of aging women’s lives.

The sweeping dramatization of Queen Elizabeth II’s reign. Later seasons follow Elizabeth as an older woman dealing with family crisis, political pressure, and aging with quiet, steely resolve. A compelling portrait of women navigating power across six decades.

Pamela Adlon writes, directs, and stars as Sam Fox — a single actress-mother raising three daughters while navigating Hollywood, aging, menopause, desire, and her eccentric mother. Honest, funny, and fiercely non-sentimental about the realities of midlife womanhood.