20 iconic films and TV shows about dealing with middle age

City Slickers is very much a movie right out of the early 1990s, with its story of three middle-aged men who go on a cattle drive, only for mayhem to ensue. They each subsequently learn a great deal about both cattle and themselves. It’s one of those films that manages to be both funny and profound, particularly in the extent to which it reveals the ways in which middle-class life can be stultifying for the very men who were supposed to profit from it the most.

The Incredibles, like so many other Pixar films, manages to be exciting and entertaining for children yet remarkably textured and nuanced when it comes to weightier themes. One of the underlying issues in the film, after all, is that Bob Parr/Mr. Incredible is clearly going through a bit of a midlife crisis. It reveals the extent to which having superpowers isn’t a guarantee of happiness, particularly when one has largely been condemned to lead a boring middle-class life in the suburbs in one’s middle age.

Hacks has received critical acclaim since its premiere, and it’s easy to see why. It features some truly powerful performances from Jean Smart and Hannah Einbinder, who play comedian Deborah Vance and her assistant Ava, respectively. Both women have a difficult relationship with middle age, in that Vance is leaving it with an unclear path for the last stage of her career, and Ava, at least at first, has a clearer idea. Each season of the show has only gotten better, richer, and deeper as it excavates these women’s relationship to age and to each other. 

The Morning Show, the Apple TV series based on the book Top of the Morning by Brian Stelter, focuses on Jennifer Aniston’s Alex Levy and her relationship/rivalry with Reese Witherspoon’s Bradley Jackson. Their sometimes fraught relationship is fascinating in large part because it demonstrates the many challenges that women in the news and entertainment industry face, particularly in an ever more unsettled and divisive media environment. Though the show has broadened the scope with each subsequent season, it will always be Levy and Jackson who occupy the heart of the story.

The Netflix Nonnas is like a charming film that, on its surface, is a simple story about a grieving middle-aged man attempting to deal with his mother’s death by starting a restaurant staffed by Italian grandmothers. At a deeper level, though, it’s about how one must confront grief and loss as one faces middle age. While some might just give in to the despair and the sadness, Vaughn’s Joe instead decides to turn his sadness to good use and start a restaurant that is a love letter to his late mother and grandmother.

Sex and the City remains one of the most notable shows produced by HBO. Starting in 2021, the series was given a new lease of life with the release of the sequel, And Just Like That…, which focuses on Carrie, Miranda, and Charlotte tackling the various challenges of being in their 50s. The show demonstrates the extent to which some stories and some characters simply get better with age, and, after a bit of a rough start, the show has gone from strength to strength with each season.

The 2000s and 2010s produced a number of terrifying antiheroes, and one of the most chilling of these was Bryan Cranston’s Walter White of Breaking Bad. Walter confronts middle age not by becoming introspective or buying a new car but instead by becoming a ruthless drug lord, capable of destroying anyone and everyone who stands in his way. To this day, this remains Cranston’s most disturbing performance, and the show remains as gritty and gripping as it was when it premiered in 2008.

Kate Winslet gave a critically praised performance in Mare of Easttown, in which she plays the title character, a world-weary cop trying to solve a murder. While much of the show focused on her efforts in this regard, it was also very much about Mare’s navigation of middle age, particularly when it came to her children, one of whom took their own life before the show began. The intensity of Winslet’s performance makes one almost feel Mare’s pain and disillusionment. Mare might not be an uplifting show, but it’s compelling.

Taking a page from The Golden Girls, the sitcom Hot in Cleveland  focuses on a group of middle-aged women who find a new lease on their futures once they end up in Cleveland. Betty White was obviously the standout as the sassy Elka, but Valerie Bertinelli, Wendy Malick, and Jane Leeves all gave heartfelt and warm performances in this show, which showcased the importance of female friendship. Hot in Cleveland showed that life doesn’t have to slow down just because one gets older.

Big Little Lies was one of the high-budget, soapy series that HBO excelled at during the 2010s and into the 2020s. The show revolves around a group of middle-aged women in California as their lives are turned upside down by the various secrets that they’re all keeping, both from one another and from themselves. It features some intense and knockout performances from the likes of Nicole Kidman, Reese Witherspoon, and Laura Dern, and both seasons of the show pack quite a punch with the revelations that emerge into the light.

During its three seasons, Girls5Eva was a genuine delight, thanks to a quartet of fantastic performances from Sara Bareilles, Paula Pell, Busy Phillips, and Renée Elise Goldsberry. Middle age was a key part of the series, since the four leads are the members of a ‘90s girl band who get back together in the present. In one way or another, all of the characters have to contend with the pressures and struggles of midlife, whether that’s finding a romantic partner, trying to restart a career, or juggling the life of an artist with the demands of family.

Maya Rudolph gives one of her great performances in Loot, in which she portrays Molly Wells, whose life is turned upside down when her billionaire husband divorces her. Fortunately, she isn’t the type to just lie down and be miserable, and Molly decides to spend the years of her middle age becoming more involved with her nonprofit. Molly is the type of character it’s impossible to dislike, even though some of her well-meaning efforts end up going a bit sideways.

Few shows are quite as unapologetically bonkers as Absolutely Fabulous. Written and created by renowned comedian Saunders, it also stars Saunders as the egomaniacal Edina Monsoon, an aging PR mogul who refuses to accept that she has reached middle age. Along with her best friend Patsy (played by Joanna Lumley), she gets into all sorts of scrapes, often relying on her daughter Saffron to get her out of them. The show is thus a fascinating look at what happens when one never really acknowledges the onset of middle adulthood.

The miniseries Mrs. Fletcher,  which aired in 2019 on HBO, once again demonstrated why Kathryn Hahn is one of the best actresses of her generation. She plays the title character who, like so many people when they hit middle age, has a bit of a crisis of identity. As a result, she ends up having a fling with a younger man and, thanks to Hahn’s performance, it becomes a fascinating look at one woman’s attempt to navigate the treacherous terrain of middle age.

Featuring a stunning cast that includes Nathan Lane, Matt Bomer, Nathan Lee Graham, and the late Linda Lavin, Mid-Century Modern focuses on three gay men who move in together, sharing their lives, loves, and tears. It’s a touching and beautiful look at what middle age can look like when one can share it with friends. Though it is, for the most part, light-hearted, it also isn’t afraid to deal with some weightier issues, particularly the death of a parent. It also demonstrates that just because one hits middle age doesn’t mean one has to stop living.

Maude was a groundbreaking series for many reasons, not the least of which was that it focused on a middle-aged woman, her husband, and their life together. Bea Arthur is nothing short of remarkable in the role of Maude, giving 1970s audiences a character who was an unapologetic feminist who wasn’t afraid to speak her mind. The show itself tackled many fraught issues, and in one of the most controversial episodes in TV history, Maude actually decides to have an abortion. 

Released in 2021 and based on the series of the same name by Ingmar Bergman, Scenes from a Marriage  focuses on Oscar Isaac’s Jonathan Levy and his wife, Jessica Chastain’s Mira Phillips, as they contend with the dissolution of their marriage. It hits most of the same story beats as its predecessor, but what really sets this show apart are the performances from Isaac and Chastain. Because they inhabit their characters so fully, one can well imagine that they are bearing witness to these two middle-aged people grappling with the ending of one stage of their life and the beginning of another. 

While The Seven Year Itch  is arguably most notable for including the image of Marilyn Monroe standing over a subway grate, it’s also very much about how men face middle age. After all, the main character, Richard Sherman, is facing middle age with a job, a wife, and a family with whom he has become disillusioned, which is why he finds himself drawn to Monroe’s “Girl.” The film’s blatant misogyny can be a bit much to take, but Monroe’s performance is still incandescent, making the protagonist’s wanton lusting seem more than a bit pathetic.

Written and directed by Alan Alda, the film The Four Seasons focuses on a group of friends, comprised of three different couples, as they navigate middle age. Things take a particular turn once one of their number, Nick, decides that he wants to get divorced and start life over with a new woman. It’s a bittersweet look at how relationships can change over time and how even couples that seem as if they are really in love often discover that their relationship isn’t as stable as they thought.

Based on the 1981 film of the same name, the Netflix series The Four Seasons  focuses on three married couples who all contend with the realities of middle age. Of particular note is Steve Carell’s Nick, who abruptly decides to divorce his wife Anne and essentially start over. As the season goes on, all of the characters have their own struggles both within themselves and with their partners, and the series demonstrates the extent to which marriage requires more and more work and investment the older one gets.