Television series
Dear My Friends
A South Korean drama about five women in their sixties and seventies navigating friendship, romance, family obligations, and second chances. It's warm and funny without being sentimental, treating aging not as decline but as possibility. For anyone who's ever felt unseen or wondered what comes next.
Should you watch it?
Watch it if you warm to ensembles of sharp, prickly characters whose friendships grow through bickering and everyday routine rather than grand events.
Skip it if you want a tightly plotted story with fast turns, since this is a slow, meandering one where the comedy and feeling arrive in gentle waves across its run.
What it asks of you: Sixteen hour-long episodes, unhurried and loosely structured, so settle in for a long stretch of small domestic scenes that accumulate rather than climax.
Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.
If you liked this
Gilmore Girls2000
Fast, clever dialogue and genuine affection between characters of different generations who actually listen to each other. The same balance of humour and heart, the same refusal to mock its characters' desires.
But The rapid-fire banter can feel exhausting if you're not in the mood, and some storylines repeat across seven seasons.
Grace and Frankie2015
Two older women finding freedom and friendship after their husbands leave them. It shares Dear My Friends' belief that your sixties are when life gets interesting, not over, with equally warm ensemble chemistry.
But Later seasons lose focus and become scattered. Some plots feel recycled when the show runs out of genuine material.
Goblin Slayer2018
Also Korean, also balancing comedy and genuine emotion, also interested in how different generations connect across time. The supernatural element serves the deeper story about loneliness and finding your people.
But The fantasy plot can feel at odds with the quieter character work. If you want realism, the magical conceit might pull you out.
Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Dear My Friends
The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
Moonlight2016
Both refuse to sentimentalise their characters or rush their emotional beats. Both understand that growing older means becoming more yourself, not less.
Three chapters of a man's life across different decades, each one quieter and more intimate than the last. Like Dear My Friends, it believes in the poetry of ordinary moments and the ache of connection.
But Deliberately sparse, with long silences. If you need plot momentum or clear explanation, the deliberate pace will feel slow and possibly frustrating.
More like this (7)
Schitt's Creek2015
A found family where people of different ages become genuinely close. Warm, funny, and never cruel to its characters, even when laughing at them. That same generosity of spirit.
But The early seasons are broader and broader than later ones. If you prefer subtlety from the start, it takes a few episodes to settle.
Virgin River2019
Smaller-scale community drama with multiple age groups and storylines running parallel. It's earnest and sometimes messy, but genuinely interested in whether people can fix broken things and start again.
But Can veer into soap opera territory, and some plot twists feel forced. The romance subplots sometimes overwhelm the quieter character moments.
When Calls the Heart2013
Wholesome ensemble set in a small community where different generations depend on each other. Light, easy watching that respects its characters' intelligence and doesn't underestimate its audience.
But If you want edge or moral complexity, you won't find it. The tone is deliberately gentle and some find it saccharine.
Parenthood2010
Multi-generational family drama that treats every character—old and young—as the hero of their own story. Genuinely moving without being manipulative, with real warmth between the cast.
But Six seasons in it can feel repetitive; family crises hit the same emotional beats. Some viewers find it manipulatively weepy.
Call the Midwife2012
Ensemble where younger and older women mentor each other, set in a community where people actually need each other. Respectful of aging bodies and minds while celebrating resilience and purpose.
But Births and medical realities are shown unflinchingly. If graphic childbirth scenes bother you, it's not avoidable. Some find the earnestness heavy-handed.
Requiem for a Dream2000
Refuses the usual invisibility of older women. Both insist their older characters' desires—for love, for purpose, for feeling alive—matter absolutely.
A mother in her sixties is the emotional centre of this film about addiction and desire. It's brutal, but treats her yearning with complete seriousness—she is not a side character in her own life.
But This is a devastating, difficult watch. The film uses sound design and editing to create genuine distress. It's about suffering, not comfort.
I'm Thinking of Ending Things2020
Both are interested in the stories older people tell themselves—about who they were, who they became, and whether those two people can ever reconcile.
A young woman visits her boyfriend's older parents. The film uses this generational tension to explore time, memory, identity and what it means when people become strangers to themselves and each other.
But Formally challenging and deeply unsettling. Jarring tonal shifts, an ending that recontextualises everything, and a pervasive dread that some will find alienating rather than affecting.
