Age is arbitrary. The world you inherited? That’s what counts.

The Gen X lot grew up in a world that promised them nothing and told them to be cool about it, so their shows are about second chances and burning it all down when you are “supposed” to have it sorted.

Millennials were sold a dream that evaporated right as they graduated, so there is this thread of betrayal running through everything, like we are all still waiting for the life we were promised to start.

And Gen Z. They inherited the rubble and a phone that never stops screaming, so their friendships are holding patterns against the void.

But strip away the cultural baggage and generational footnotes, and these shows circle the same truth. Friendships, the proper ones, the kind where someone knows exactly how you take your tea and which ex not to mention, are how we stay human through whatever chaos our particular era is throwing at us.

Whether it’s menopause or student debt or inheriting a mess you didn’t create, none of us can rewind the clock so sometimes what actually matters is having your mates beside you whilst you figure it out. Ideally with wine. Always with banter.

Anyway, this isn’t some deep analysis. Just someone who’s binged way too much telly and spotted a pattern or two.

Generation X (45-60): Mortgages and Menopause

And Just Like That (2021-2025)

The Sex and the City women, except they are not women in their thirties anymore and that is the point. Carrie, Miranda and Charlotte navigate their fifties in New York while dealing with dead husbands, queer awakenings and the absolute nightmare of trying to stay relevant. It is messy, sometimes painfully so. Many love to slag it off for not being the original, but there is something quite brave about showing women this age still figuring themselves out. Though yes, the lack of Samantha stings.

Divorce (2016-2019)

Sarah Jessica Parker again, but suburban and bitter. Frances decides she is done with her marriage and the whole thing spirals into a properly uncomfortable look at what happens when you blow up your life in middle age. Her friends are there, sort of, but mostly everyone is trying not to drown in their own poor decisions. It is funny in that squirmy way where you laugh because the alternative is to cringe yourself inside out.

Grace and Frankie (2015-2022)

Two women in their seventies become unlikely best mates after their husbands leave them for each other. Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin are magnificent, and the show does not treat ageing like a tragedy to tiptoe around. They start a vibrator business for older women, they date, they fight, they exist as full humans. Revolutionary, really, that we get to see older women being funny and sexual and complicated instead of wise grandmas handing out life advice.

The Golden Girls (1985-1992)

The blueprint. Four older women sharing a house in Miami, eating cheesecake at two in the morning, and talking about everything from sex to mortality. It was wildly ahead of its time. These women had real lives and real desires. Blanche was unabashedly flirty, Dorothy was sharp, Rose was lovely and dim, and Sophia did not care about anyone’s feelings in the best way.

Millennials (29-44): The We Were Promised Flying Cars Generation

Sex and the City (1998-2004)

The original. Four New York women trying to have it all in their thirties and early forties: career, romance and designer shoes they definitely cannot afford. Carrie is a columnist, Samantha works in PR, Charlotte wants a fairy tale ending, and Miranda is the cynical one with a good heart. It is white and privileged and has not aged perfectly, but it made space for women to talk about sex and singlehood on screen, which mattered.

Girls (2012-2017)

Lena Dunham’s deliberately uncomfortable answer to SATC, following four Brooklyn women stumbling through their twenties and early thirties. Hannah is a mess of entitlement and insecurity, Marnie is uptight, Jessa is the chaotic hot one, and Shoshanna is trying her best. People either worship the show or want to throw it in the bin. It is self indulgent and the characters are often awful, but that is the point. It shows millennials without gloss, all student debt and bad sex and absolutely no clue what they are doing.

Desperate Housewives (2004-2012)

A suburban mystery wrapped around four very different women on Wisteria Lane. There is a dead body, loads of secrets, and beneath the camp drama, it is surprisingly dark. Susan is clumsy, Lynette is drowning in motherhood, Bree is the perfect homemaker with cracks showing, and Gabrielle is the former model trying to find meaning beyond being gorgeous. The men are proper characters too, not just decorative. The whole thing is a wild ride of murder, affairs and casseroles.

Insecure (2016-2021)

Finally, a show about Black millennial women that is not a trauma parade. Issa and Molly are best friends navigating Los Angeles, career disappointment, messy relationships and the specific pressures of being professional Black women. It is funny, warm, stylish and real. Issa Rae created something that feels like actual conversations you would have with your friends, not a lecture about representation.

Gen Z (23-28): Digital Natives Having a Horribly Good Time

I Love LA (2025-Now)

Rachel Sennott plays Maia, an assistant at a talent management company trying desperately to prove she is not completely useless, when her former best friend Tallulah turns up two years after ditching their plan to move to LA together. Except now Tallulah is a successful influencer. The show is less bothered about friendship and more obsessed with LA as a fever dream of a city that either makes you or chews you up while your Ring doorbell films the collapse. Maia spirals into inadequacy, though she is savvy enough to realise she can use her friend’s clout to claw her way up. It is sharp about influencer culture, and it understands that the only way to take LA seriously is to refuse to take it seriously at all.

Adults (2025-Now)

Five twenty somethings live crammed into Samir’s childhood home in Queens, trying to navigate jobs that do not pay enough, dating apps that make you want to bin your phone, and the American healthcare system which is genuinely terrifying. These mates have no boundaries. They share meals, panic attacks and occasionally a wee while someone is brushing their teeth. They have a thing called mind wipe where you confess something mortifying and everyone must pretend it never happened. The humour does not always land for everyone, but when it does, it absolutely nails how being an adult is equal parts hilarious and horrible. Charlie Cox and Julia Fox appear as well, which is fun.

Sex Lives of College Girls (2021-2025)

Four eighteen year olds become roommates at Essex College in Vermont, all contradictions wrapped in hormones. Kimberly is from conservative Arizona, working part time to afford being there and trying to shed her small town skin. Bela wants to break into the college comedy magazine and quickly learns the comedy world is brutal. Whitney is a senator’s daughter having an affair with her married football coach because that feels easier than figuring out her identity. Leighton is the posh New York girl hiding that she is gay while reluctantly caring about these people. Mindy Kaling wrote it, and it is genuinely funny without patronising Gen Z. The boys are proper characters, not just pretty plot devices. The chemistry is what makes the whole thing work. These four feel like real mates who would actually choose each other.

Euphoria (2019-Now)

The one people either obsess over or dismiss as traumatic nonsense. Rue is struggling with addiction, Jules is trying to understand herself, and everyone is dealing with heavy themes like abuse, dependency and identity crises. It is shot like a music video and leans into aesthetic over realism, but when it works, it really works. It is absolutely not a light watch. The moments that explore male vulnerability, especially through Nate, are uncomfortable and necessary.