Series to Watch for 50 years and Older (and still appeal the younger ones !)
As I reached 50 years, I feel like less and less series truly relate to me. Yes I still enjoy Lovely Runner or Emily in Paris, but it just doesn’t feel relatable with my life now and I hate it that sometime watching these young series inevitably make me reminisce my younger self and I am still young ! So I yearned to watch series that relatable to me, now. Scouring Netflix, I found some and hopefully for those of you who are young at heart will also enjoy these series. There are more out there and do share if you have your favorites !
Western Series
The Perfect Couple
When a series casting Live Schreiber, Nicole Kidman and Dakota Fanning and then infused with murder mysteries set in Hampton or Nantucket, it bounds to be very pleasing to watch. The story is about (what seemingly) to be a perfect couple, the wife, Greer (Nicole Kidman) who is a best selling novelist, and her husband of 29 years the gorgeous as ever Tag (Lieve Schreiber) with their three sons, Thomas ( Jack Reynor), Benji (Billy Howle) and Will (Sam Nivola) with their respective partners (or partner-to-be). The story revolves around upcoming Benji nuptial with Amelia (Eve Hewson) when suddenly unfortunate event struck. Thrown in a lot of drama with Thomas’s wife Abby (Dakota Fanning), Will’s crush Chloe (Mia Isaac) who just happen to be the only daughter of the head of police in the area ( Michael Beach ), it is just a delicious murder mystery with a lot of drama thrown in. Its director, Susanne Bier, an award-winning director, who have won Emmy, Golden Globes and Academy Awards, sure is not leaving the set, props and costume to chance, everything is gorgeously set and then videography is tightly set as well. Many are of beautiful frames.
But enough of me talking about how gorgeous the series is. Most important is this series focus on Greer and Tag, middle-age couple who look impossibly elegant with their out of control kids and yet still in control of the situation, particularly Greer. Nicole Kidman played the character fabulously, inspiring many of the middle age lady to look their best and take control of their destiny, that am sure. As a bonus, the series has this cute little dance like mob-dance where everyone of all age and all roles dance joyously. It is absolutely a must watch if you like murder mystery, drama or simply like to watch series with beautiful set and costumes.
Grace and Frankie
There aren’t that many series I watch twice, Grace and Frankie is one of them. There aren’t many series that can make me laugh out loud and at the same time inspiring, Grace and Frankie is it. This is one of my most favorite series of all time. It is a series about two women whose husbands are partners in the same law firm and as wives they have been each other nemesis. Until they found that both of their husbands are having an affair – with each other. Their world crash and they suddenly found that they can only rely on each other to navigate their new single life.
Grace ( Jane Fonda ) is a successful business woman while Frankie ( Lily Tomlin ) is the ultimate hippie. Grace’s husband Robert ( Martin Sheen ) and Frankie’s husband is Sol ( Sam Waterson ). These are award winning veteran actresses and actors who have played with each other, Tomlin and Sheen in the legendary The West Wing and Fonda and Waterson in The Newsroom, both series are award winning. The stories are written by Martha Kauffman who wrote Friends among others so the story indeed is tightly developed.
All through seven seasons I watch Grace and Frankie dated, developed their business, deal with their children and ex-husbands dilemma, deal with all the problems as one gets older. There are a lot of comedic scenes and all four of them and their kids played with all great actors brilliantly, are played with lovely timing and forte. While the focus is on Grace and Frankie, enough time are given to their respective kids and their dilemmas. There is a story about alcoholic, alpha female, divorce and so on that makes it relatable for the younger audience, if anything it probably is like a roadmap on how to leverage parents gracefully in difficult situations as much as how parents can help their adult children. At the final season, the series with dementia, a condition all of us elderly fear and it is dealt in such a beautiful approach. New York Times quoted “In Grace and Frankie on Netflix, Comedy Enters a New Age”. It is also one of the longest running series in Netflix despite it is supposed to target narrow demographic. It is indeed an inspiring and touching series and I don’t mind to watch it again, all seven seasons of it, for the third time. It is simply an inspiring and joyful series to watch !
Man on the Inside
Another interesting series just newly dropped in Netflix, starred by Ted Danson. For those of you who are not familiar with him, he played in Cheers, Becker, The Good Place and CSI series. This series has been quoted by Forbes as One of the Best Netflix Show in 2024 (and then the sub title is “And Ted Danson Has Never Been Better”).
The series centered around a retired engineering process – likely architecture – whose wife passed away, living a solitary life and maintain distance with his family and all of a sudden – by answering an ad – became an under-cover detective in a retirement home to catch a thief. The story then filled with the drama in retirement home of friendship, romance, dealing with illness, children and then of course murder mysteries. It is one of those cozy murder mystery without too much of action, given the age range is 75 – 80 years.
While Ted Danson is a strong actor who portrayed Charles verywell, the other characters strengthen and bring Charles storyline alive. There is Virginia (Sally Struthers) who are flirty, Elliott (John Getz) who is playing an elderly brute who is crushing on Virginia, Calbert (Stephen McKinley Henderson) whose bromance grow quietly with Charles. Of course not to mention Charles’s daughter Emily (Mary Elizabeth Ellis), Julie the private investigator (Lilah Richcreek Estrada) and Didi – head of the retirement home (Stephanie Beatriz) who played strongly with each other and against Charles.
This series portrayed growing older in a realistic and heart rending story, that while loneliness is inevitable but there are many ways, some will be unorthodox, to brighten the days and make the days exciting. It brings hope and joy to see how people above 70 years can contribute to the society and still stay independent (as long as you can use your mobile phone well). A quiet and cozy series to watch in the afternoon with your loved ones for sure !
K-Drama
Romance in the House
As there are more and more aging populations not just in the western world but also here in Asia, some Asian series are also started to feature more mature romances.
This series is about a family who live in an apartment building. The family is the mother Geum Ae Yeon (Kim Ji-Soo) who worked in a stall in supermarket where her daughter Byeon Mi-Rae (Son Na-eun) also worked. To complete the family Byeon Mi-Rae has a wayward brother Byeon Hyeon Jae (Yoon San Ha). Their father Byeon Mujin ( Ji Jin Hee), has long gone disappeared as he is being divorced by his wife. At the same time, as with any classic K-drama there is a chaebol son storyline Nam Tae-Pyeong (Choi Min-Ho) with his father the chaebol Nam Chiyeol (Jung Woong-in), who just happen to own the super-market where Byeon Mi-Rae work. Nam Tae-Pyeong of course is crushing on Byeon Mi-Rae and that is a cute romance plot.
But the reason I include this series in this category is because the other plot, where Byeon Mujin suddenly returned by owning the apartment where his family live and at the same time strive to woo back his ex-wife, Byeon Hyeon Jae to be back with him again. There are a lot of comedic moments and at the same time touching story on Byeon Mujin effort to rise from his past failure and his valiant effort to romance his ex-wife. Both Kim Ji Soo and Ji Jin Hee are award winning actresses and actors more known to be focused on melodrama and action and therefore this is genre they have not been doing for a while, and yet, they have been able to portray the character in adult romance really well including the comedic timing. The story also portrayed them as struggling parent with wayward son who refuse to go to university and extremely independent daughter who hated his father as in her eyes, he made her mother suffered. This series remind us that romance can be had by anyone, but it just needs a lot of work. Absolutely touching, funny and enjoyable series. Enjoy !
