10 Best Midlife Crises in TV Shows, Ranked

You can’t talk about midlife crises on television without mentioning the one that spurred us to talk about this subject, Walter White (Bryan Cranston). The man who was the central focus of AMC’s Breaking Bad had, perhaps, the best and most memorable midlife crisis in television history. He was a guy who was dealing with Stage 4 cancer and stuck in a teaching job that he had zero passion for.

So, what did he do? He resorted to cooking and selling meth, a career change that netted him millions and made his life a lot more dangerous. Breaking Bad set off to answer the eternal question: “What would you do with your life if you knew you were going to die soon?” Walter's choices were about taking back control in a life where he felt overlooked and powerless, and it was an incredible journey to witness.

When we think of the typical mob boss, we think of them being cool, calm, and collected, before they “whack” someone. But The Sopranos did things a lot differently, looking at how chaotic that life can be, and it’s one of the most celebrated shows in television history because of it. Created by David Chase, The Sopranos follows Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini), a New Jersey Mafia boss who begins to suffer from panic attacks. So, he goes to therapy, where he begins to open up about his difficult life, from managing his criminal life to managing his family life.

We never really looked at how wild life must be for a mafia boss, especially with a family in tow. How do they keep their criminal life separate from their home life? How do they seem to still be in complete control with turmoil happening around them? This is what makes The Sopranos such a fascinating series, not just from a crime boss perspective, but from a midlife crisis angle as well.

What happens when a karate feud rages on for years, but both of you are now well into your adulthood? You get Cobra Kai, a martial arts show about tackling a midlife crisis while also trying to settle a longtime feud with someone that dates back to high school. Here, we follow Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka) and Danial LaRusso (Ralph Macchio), two guys whose rivalry rekindles after Johnny brings back the dreaded Cobra Kai dojo to the San Fernando Valley.

While this stellar Netflix martial arts comedy-drama focused more on the kids (especially in its latter seasons), Cobra Kai was, at its heart, a story about trying to pick yourself up after a bout of dreaded midlife crisis. We get the story from Johnny’s point-of-view, who had it all as a teen, but is living on hard times as an adult. We see how he was able to finally find purpose in his life again, and (spoiler alert) find peace with his former rival. How’s that for coming full circle?

While this exciting ABC police procedural has morphed into your typical high-stakes drama filled with action and romance, at its heart, The Rookie was about a middle-aged man who wanted to reinvent himself. Created by Alexi Hawley, The Rookie follows John Nolan (Nathan Fillion) as he moves across the country to Los Angeles and becomes the oldest rookie in LAPD history.

Believe it or not, the series was based on LAPD officer William Norcross, who moved to LA in 2015 and became the department’s oldest rookie officer in his mid-40s. Here, Nolan is also in his mid-40s when he joins the LAPD, and while some of the officers bemoaned this, he became a decorated officer, proving to everyone that age doesn’t matter if you have the determination to better yourself. The Rookie did a good job of doing justice to Norcross’ story, as it isn’t easy trying to reinvent yourself late in your life.

The 2000s were an era for pop groups that stole the attention of young girls everywhere. But what happens when these pop stars, who were on top of the world, suddenly fade into obscurity? That’s the central premise of Girls5eva, which looked at how a girl group that peaked in the 2000s planned to make a comeback in their 40s.

When you look at Girls5eva, you’ll see that this show isn’t really about the music; it’s about how to move forward in life when you have aged out of your prime. Remember, all the singers in this group are in their 40s, with a sound that has long since been played out. So, you reinvent yourself for a modern audience. How do you do that? Those are the interesting questions that are raised in this underrated comedy show, and it did a good job answering those painful but necessary questions.

Say hello to Marianne 'Mare' Sheehan (Kate Winslet), a police detective in a small Philadelphia suburb who is great at her job. But her job seemed like it was the only thing that was kind of normal in her life. Outside the police station, Sheehan’s life is coming apart at the seams. She’s going through a divorce, she lost her son to suicide, and she’s currently in a custody battle involving her grandson.

With a personal life like that, no wonder Sheehan throws her attention into looking into the recent murder of a teenage girl in the HBO miniseries Mare of Easttown. Winslet was tremendous as Sheehan, playing the role of a decorated detective who is really trying her best not to fall apart. The ironic thing is, this happens to a lot of people in real life. Their jobs might be great, but we don’t know the turmoil that’s happening outside their professional life. This makes Mare of Easttown a satisfying watch, if you’re not going through a midlife crisis, that is.

If Elsbeth looked at the bright side of the typical midlife crisis, then Beef looked at this from a darker point of view. Created by Lee Sung Jin, Beef was a Netflix miniseries that deserves a lot of praise for how it handled the story of two people who are thoroughly unhappy with their lives, and how they deal with it.

Beef follows Danny Cho (Steven Yeun), a struggling contractor, and Amy Lau (Ali Wong), a small business owner, who realize that they have a lot of pent-up anger in them after a road rage incident caused the two of them to become embroiled in a long-running feud. One can say that this hilarious, destructive feud was petty, but the dissatisfaction with their own lives heightened what could have been just a one-off thing. This is the dark side of a midlife crisis, where emotion and professional confusion can lead to some pretty disastrous results.

So here’s a scenario for you. You have a great job that turned into a great career, but all of a sudden, you get sacked, losing your means of supporting yourself. If that wasn’t enough, your partner leaves you for someone younger. All of a sudden, life has thrown you sour lemons. What do you do now? If you’re Rosemary Boxer (Felicity Kendal), you focus on horticulture and team up with an ex-constable (Pam Ferris) to solve cases in your small English village.

Rosemary & Thyme was such a unique crime mystery show, not only because you’re watching a gardener solve murder cases, but also because we get a look at how someone pulled themselves up by the bootstraps after life had thoroughly whacked them. It’s hard to bounce back from a job loss, and even harder from a tough breakup, but that’s exactly what Rosemary did, and this series acts as an inspiration for those who are going through a midlife influx.

We don’t normally think about this, but television oftentimes makes being an attorney look cool. The nice clothes, the nice homes, the nice car, winning court cases like you’ve won the Stanley Cup, who wouldn’t want to be an attorney? Well, in real life, that life can actually become quite boring, and if you’re like Elsbeth Tascioni (Carrie Preston), you want to put your skills to better use, like actually stopping crime before it reaches a courtroom.

That’s the central premise of CBS’s Elsbeth, premiering in 2024 and following Preston's Tasconi as an unconventional, but great attorney who moves from Chicago to New York City to put her observational skills to help the NYPD solve cases. Elsbeth does a good job in highlighting that not every midlife crisis has to be solemn and negative. While Elsbeth did switch her career and moved to a different city, she felt that her gifts as an attorney could be best used in solving crime.

While we often think about the midlife crisis in our modern timeline, we can’t help but think about what people centuries ago experienced when that dreaded age range hit. We can actually visualize this in the HBO romantic comedy Our Flag Means Death, created by David Jenkins and starring Rhys Darby as Stede Bonnet, a “Gentleman Pirate” in 1717 who is going through some mind-reflection after abandoning his family for the pirate life.

We look at how a midlife crisis is affecting Bonnet, who, after getting tired of living a wealthy, normal life, wanted to seek out adventure and be a “benign narcissist.” Now, one can say that Bonnet was being a coward, running away from his responsibilities because he couldn’t hack it anymore; but this is what one part of the midlife crisis pyramid looks like, when burnout begins to make you think about the world that you have yet to experience, and we see that all too well through Stede Bonnet’s eyes.