It is no secret that Hollywood is obsessed with youth and age. Showbiz in general favours the young.
Once you hit a certain age, roles stop coming in, songs don’t make it into the charts like they use to.
Actresses such as Charlize Theron and Meryl Streep have blasted the Hollywood system that discriminates age.
In an interview with fashion trade Women’s Wear Daily, Theron said Hollywood’s fixation on youth as the highest standard of a woman’s beauty is ridiculous and sexist.
“Women come into their prime in their 40s ... And men are like fine wines – the older they get, the better they get. It’s such a misconception, and it’s such a lost opportunity because that’s when I think women are really in the true moment of their sensuality,” the 46-year-old Theron said.
Oscar winner Streep said she was deemed “old” when she hit 40 years old.
“I would say our culture is pretty youth-obsessed. Especially people that pass 40.
“When I was 40, I was offered three witch (roles). I was not offered any female adventurers or love interests or heroes or demons.
“I was offered witches because I was ‘old’ at 40,” Streep, 72, told People.
In a 2016 Forbes article, it is stated: “Television shows often depict the older relative as doddering and feeble, available for an occasional wisecrack or as the target of a young person’s joke.
“Movies generally ignore anyone over 40, as producers apparently assume that the demographic range of most moviegoers is between the ages of 10 and 30.”
While the film industry continues to be ageist, the TV industry has had a change of heart.
It now embraces older actors as TV studios realise the potential of series revolving around older characters. Not everyone is into Gossip Girl or Pretty Little Liars, you know.
“It seems to me there is a change in what audiences want to see.
“I can only hope that’s correct, because there’s an awful lot of people of my age around now and we outnumber the others,” Maggie Smith, 87, told The Guardian. Smith, of course, went and slayed her role as the Dowager Countess in the hit series Downton Abbey.
Smith is absolutely correct. Series centring on senior characters have been well received by TV audiences, and not necessarily by viewers in the same age group.
Younger audiences have embraced these shows too.
For 30-year-old Simon Chong, watching Grace And Frankie – a show on the friendship of two 70-somethings – gives him a perspective on what ageing is all about.
“I love it that they are doing something unconventional with older actors, embracing the ‘old is gold’ adage.
“It also gives me a fresh perspective on how my parents can live their lives, and that they don’t have to be ‘retired at 55’ or ‘I’m too old for that’,” Chong, who is an interior designer, said.
Khadijah Abdul Rahman watches shows like Grace And Frankie and The Kominsky Method to help her understand her parents better.
“With shows like Grace And Frankie, I see older people have their own emotional baggage. Although they look to us older and wiser, they too grapple with issues we face such as insecurities and vulnerabilities.
“After watching these shows, I take a step back and think of how to react to a situation when dealing with my parents,” said the 25-year-old customer service sales representative.
With a wide range of topics, from losing the love of your life and finding your soulmate at a later age to coping with illnesses and having a vibrant career, TV shows with senior characters are giving viewers a different outlook on life.
Here are seven “age-defying” TV shows you need to watch.
Grace And Frankie, headlined by the delightful duo Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin, has won over fans, regardless of age, with its witty dialogue and interesting plot.
Fonda, 84 and Tomlin, 82, play the respective titular characters who are rivals all their lives until their husbands divorce them, leaving both women to fend for themselves in their golden age. They decide to pool resources and live together and help each other rebuild their lives.
Just because they are in their 70s doesn’t hold them back from living life to the fullest. Both of them have an active social life – they dress the part too! – and are entrepreneurs, inventing an adult toy for older women.
The chemistry between Fonda and Tomlin on the show is undeniable. Both actresses, who have known each other for some 40 years, first worked together in the movie 9 To 5 (1980).
“People say we have a lot of chemistry. That’s because you can sense that Jane and I have been friends for so long. We have a soft spot for each other,” Tomlin told Oprah.com.
In the final season, there will be 9 To 5 reunion on Grace And Frankie when Dolly Parton makes a guest appearance on the show – something fans have been asking for since Season One.
Seasons One to Six of Grace And Frankie are available on Netflix. The seventh and final season premieres April 29.
In The Kominsky Method, Michael Douglas, 77, plays Sandy Kominsky, an ageing actor turned acting coach in this three-season comedy.
Just like the Grace and Frankie, Sandy, too, has his sidekick – Norman (Alan Arkin), his longtime agent. Both keep each other company and reel the other person in when he goes off the rail.
(Spoiler alert) However, the final season of the series throws a curve ball for the lead character when Norman dies, leaving Sandy to cope with the loss of a good friend.
Douglas was thrilled to be acting on a TV show again after having made a name for himself in the 1970s procedural, The Streets Of San Francisco.
“One of the reasons I wanted to do it was for comedy, just because I had never done a lot of comedy. It never gets the proper respect it’s due. It’s much more difficult to do than drama,” Douglas told Vanity Fair.
The Kominsky Method won Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy at the Golden Globes in 2018. Douglas also picked up the Best Actor award the same year.
All three seasons of The Kominsky Method are available on Netflix.
Forget about the semi-biopic on Julia Child in the 2009 movie Julie and Julia, starring Meryl Streep. Instead, watch Julia which centres on the original celebrity chef, starring Sarah Lacashire in the lead role.
The 57-year-old British actress has been getting rave reviews for her turn as the affable Julia.
“Sarah Lancashire is fabulous as Child, managing to neither replicate Streep nor do a surface impression of the real woman,” writes Guardian.
This eight-episode series tells how Child, in a second act of her life, wrangled her way into getting herself a cooking show on public TV (unheard of in the 1960s).
It also explores Child’s relationship with her husband of nearly 50 years, Paul.
Lancashire, who wasn’t familiar with the American chef prior to taking up the role, did plenty of research to prepare for Julia.
“I spent many, many hours just watching her. There’s so much source material available and really that’s what I was doing.
“But that’s not a hardship. She’s a joy to watch. You kind of want to be in her company and, yeah, she makes you feel better about the world, really. She’s a tonic,” said Lancashire in an interview with Tribune News Service.
Julia is available on HBO Go.
Film star Samuel L. Jackson, 73, tries his hand on a TV show that explores the heavy subject of dementia.
In The Last Days Of Ptolemy Grey, Jackson plays Ptolemy Grey, a 91-year-old man who is on the brink of sinking further into his dementia.
But when Ptolemy takes an experimental drug, he temporarily gets his memory back and quickly uses that opportunity to solve his nephew’s murder.
Jackson waited 10 years to get this project off the ground.
He told Weekend Edition why this TV show matters to him: “Because of my history with Alzheimer’s and everybody in my family and me having to watch it and deal with it ... and grapple with why is this happening, and is it going to happen to me?”
It was reported that six members of Jackson’s family, including his mother, were diagnosed with the disease.
He added: “... this would be an interesting character for me to dissect and to play and possibly get rid of some of the demons in my head about what’s going on and why the world would do that to all these people that I loved.”
All eight episodes of The Last Days Of Ptolemy Grey are available on Apple TV+.
Hacks is a roaring success bagging many accolades including the Emmys for Outstanding Comedy Series and Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for Jean Smart.
The 70-year-old Smart is having a resurgence of sort in the past few years, having appeared in hit shows like Watchmen and Mare Of Easttown (for which she was also nominated for an Emmy in the supporting category).
“I certainly realise that’s not the norm for most actresses of my vintage,” Smart told Variety of her recent abundance of great gigs.
In Hacks, she plays a legendary stand-up comedienne who has a tough time having to deal with a young comedy writer brought in to spice up her Vegas show.
All 10 episodes of Hacks are available on HBO Go.
British actor Ricky Gervais stars in After Life, a dark comedy centring on the death of a loved one.
Gervais, 60, plays Tony – a nice guy whose seemingly perfect life comes crashing down when the love of his life, wife Lisa, dies.
At first, he thought of suicide, but has a change of heart and, instead, decides to lead a life doing whatever he likes – including being a jerk to everyone.
According to Gervais, he was inspired to write the series by his wife, Jane.
“You don’t get to 60 without seeing most things. I’ve lost both parents and a sibling, and all my pets and some friends.
“But the ultimate for me would be losing my soulmate. That’s the worst thing that could happen to me.
“So, it’s an imagination, a fiction, that stems from that,” he told The Mirror.
All three seasons of After Life are available on Netflix.
Father Brown stars Mark Williams, 62, as the bicycle-riding, umbrella-totting Catholic priest who goes around solving murders in the small town of Kembleford in England in the 1950s.
This much-loved crime series, which started airing in 2013, is now in its ninth season.
“It’s such a privilege to have had the chance to star in such long running shows,” Williams, who also starred in the Harry Potter movies as Arthur Weasley, said in an interview.
Although Father Brown manages to apprehend murderers in every episode, Williams believe judgement is best left to God.
“A big part of Father Brown is learning to practise forgiveness. While Father Brown may spot the guilty first, he also makes the effort to talk to them and counsel them before having them admit their guilt.
“Judgment is best left to God, not humans, and that’s something that I’ve taken away as a big life lesson from working on the show,” he said.
Seasons Eight and Nine of Father Brown are available on BBC Player.
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