By Vicki Shabo, Better Life Lab at New America and Lydia Storie, Caring Across Generations
An estimated 130 million people in the United States are caregivers, whether parenting a child or caring for a loved one who is older, ill, disabled, or a combination. Care is part of the fabric of our lives. Our shared goal at Caring Across Generations and the entertainment initiative at New America’s Better Life Lab is to weave care into the fabric of pop culture.
Research commissioned by New America in the spring of 2025 showed that the vast majority of U.S. streaming viewers, across gender, age, race, ethnicity, and ideologies, want to see characters who manage work, family, and care responsibilities in authentic ways. In addition, 63 percent of viewers say they are interested in seeing more stories that include characters with a chronic illness or disability, and similar shares want to see a range of family structures and caregiving realities on screen. Thankfully, we have seen a lot of progress since Caring Across Generations and the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media looked at care representation on TV in 2021.
As part of our annual series celebrating top moments for care on screen, we’re recognizing 10 exemplary shows from 2025, plus a few honorable mentions. When we see the role of care in our lives reflected more fully back at us, we can also see its true value in society, feel validated in our experiences, and better understand the realities facing others.
1. ADOLESCENCE (Netflix)
Psychological crime drama limited series
This miniseries about Jamie, a young teen boy accused of murdering a female classmate, sparked a global cultural conversation about teen mental health and parenting kids in the age of social media. It also highlights two nuanced father-son relationships. Eddie is the primary parent supporting his child amidst a shocking situation, and Luke is an investigator on the case who develops a new understanding of his son, Adam. These fathers—who become more emotionally attuned to their children as the story unfolds—reflect on their parenting and subvert negative stereotypes about fatherhood. They model positive, emotional masculinity that embraces care. Also notable are the grief and guilt held between Eddie and his wife, Manda, as they struggle to understand to what degree their long work hours and ignoring of early warning signs at home make them responsible for their son’s behavior and the community’s tragedy.
2. ALL HER FAULT (PEACOCK)
Thriller limited series
Based on Andrea Mara’s book of the same name, this show centers on a kidnapping and explores parenting relationships, work, and gender roles across families with stark economic class differences.Through cutting dialogue and the depictions of two key marital relationships, it illustrates the mental load that women often carry in parenting, arranging playdates, making connections with other families, and running a household. The show also considers how far parents will go to ensure their children receive the education, care, and love they deserve.
In contrast to the affluent families where women carry the load alone, the series also focuses on the middle class life of Detective Alcaraz, his wife, Casey, and their 13-year-old mostly nonverbal autistic son, Sam. The show acknowledges Sam’s joy, agency, and strengths, and this element of the story was inspired by series creator Megan Gallagher’s own experiences as the parent of an autistic child. The detective is a loving, hands-on father; he and Casey trade off care when Sam is not in school and try to actively nurture him. They want to move Sam out of his overcrowded public school and into an exclusive school better suited to his needs. But they can’t afford the change without a scholarship, leading the detective to make a compromised—and relatable—decision.
3. AND JUST LIKE THAT (HBO)
Comedy drama series
In the third and final season of And Just Like That, viewers see the isolation that can come with managing a loved one’s care alone. In episode five, Harry reveals his cancer diagnosis to Charlotte, his wife, but asks her not to tell anyone because he doesn’t want to be treated like a “cancer guy.” Charlotte tries her best, but feels stressed. She has to lie to a friend she runs into at the hospital and is finally caught and breaks down crying when she runs into her best friend downtown buying Depends underwear for Harry. The lie builds in a series of comedic misadventures until finally Harry realizes that he’s put Charlotte in an unfair position and tells her friends about his condition. The arc illustrates that caregivers, too, need support—and reminds us that needing care isn’t something to be ashamed of.
4. BLACK MIRROR (Netflix)
Sci-fi anthology series
In episode one of Black Mirror’s seventh season, Amanda, a teacher, collapses in front of her classroom and is diagnosed with a brain tumor. Her husband, Mike, agrees to have a medical device implanted in her brain to save her, only to learn that the device manufacturer extorts patients by making its own tech obsolete and escalating its fees. Mike works overtime but still cannot afford the costs of maintaining Amanda’s care on his blue-collar salary. He goes to extraordinary measures to raise the money to keep her alive until the two of them are left with an impossible, horrible choice. This speculative sci-fi underscores the evil of health care profiteers, darkly illustrating the financial pressures that families face in a pay-to-play system and the sacrifices that care in America too often requires.
5. DYING FOR SEX (FX/Hulu)
Comedy drama limited series
After receiving a terminal cancer diagnosis, Molly embarks on a journey of sexual discovery and turns to her best friend, Nikki, to be her wingwoman and primary caregiver. The show uses humor to illuminate the sometimes overwhelming work of care administration as well as the trade-offs that caregivers often make: Nikki loses a job when she is late to work one too many times due to care responsibilities. Rather than dwell on this professional cost or frame care as a burden, though, Nikki relishes the opportunity to deepen their friendship. A fuller care circle forms around Molly, including social worker Sonya, her mother, Gail, her ex-husband, Steve, and her sometimes-lover, “Neighbor Guy,” who support her end-of-life journey and her self-advocacy along the way.
6. THE FOUR SEASONS (Netflix)
Comedy drama limited series
One of four sets of friend couples who take a series of trips together, Danny and Claude end up confronting their feelings about aging and care after Danny is diagnosed with a heart condition. Claude instinctively takes on the role of caregiver and gets frustrated with Danny for prioritizing his work and social life over his health, while Danny feels smothered by the constant concern and attention. Their arc culminates in a conversation that both reflects their growth as characters and helps show the importance of frankly discussing uncomfortable topics: aging, health concerns, and how we want to care and be cared for.
7. HIGH POTENTIAL (ABC)
Procedural crime drama
This network drama depicts Morgan, a divorced mom of three children, working as an investigator for the Los Angeles Police Department. In the first season, Morgan negotiates a child care stipend at her job that she uses to pay her ex-husband, Ludo, to care for their infant daughter, Chloe. Ludo must manage his job as a driving instructor alongside household tasks as well as caring for Chloe and the couple’s two other children, pre-teen Elliot and teenage Ava. In season one, episode 12, Morgan works longer than normal hours and asks Ludo to pick up the slack without fully appreciating his competing obligations. While caring for the children, Ludo feels faint and collapses. He hasn’t eaten and is having a hard time balancing his work with family caregiving responsibilities. In showing the strain on Ludo, High Potential demonstrates that managing work and care is hard for dads as well as moms. The show also models how two parents can recognize and support each other’s needs, even when they are no longer a married couple.
8. THE PITT (HBO Max)
Medical drama
This series, set in an underfunded Pittsburgh hospital’s emergency department, explores many topical issues in its first season including family caregiver burnout. In episode four, when Rita brings in her mother, Ginger, for treatment after a fall, she confides in Dr. Melissa King that she struggles to manage Ginger’s Parkinson’s disease as the primary caregiver at home without other support. Dr. King offers a rare onscreen suggestion for their family to look into social benefits that could provide respite care, and in episode eight, Rita learns that the hospital social worker has arranged 10 hours per week of respite care for them. This is notable even though the story doesn’t get the policy details quite right, referencing Medicare (a social insurance program that covers medical, but typically not respite, care) rather than Medicaid (a means-tested health insurance program that does offer respite care, though often with long waitlists.) Dr. King, herself neurodiverse, is also the primary family caregiver for her autistic sister, who lives in a care facility. She draws on that experience to make the ER more accessible for a neurodiverse patient.
And Dr. Cassie McKay is a single mother who unexpectedly has to parent during her shift, making visible the juggling that working parents often do. Dr. McKay also comforts a mother experiencing homelessness who feels hopeless by reassuring her that she is a good parent, and models respectful care for this patient when another doctor rushes to intervene with services the patient doesn’t want.
9. SIRENS (Netflix)
Dark comedy limited series
Devon is a Millennial caregiver living at home with her dad, a veteran recently diagnosed with dementia. A well-intended but ill-timed gesture sets Devon on a path to confront her younger sister, Simone, for getting caught up in work and leaving Devon to handle everything alone—reflecting a common sentiment between siblings regarding a parent’s care. Their arc goes deeper when we learn that Devon raised Simone because their father was absent during Simone’s childhood. Simone has a hard time showing up for a parent who abandoned her, illuminating the ways that complicated parent-child dynamics can play out when care needs arise.
10. TASK (HBO)
Crime drama limited series
Set in a blue-collar Pennsylvania town outside of Philadelphia, this compelling story about robberies, drug money, and murder follows two families in which flawed, grieving fathers try to run their households—and rely on young women to pick up the slack when they fail. Robbie, a sanitation worker turned criminal, is raising his two young kids after his wife has left, with significant help from his 21-year-old orphaned niece, Maeve. Robbie loves his children but is ultimately focused more on revenge than parenting. Maeve arranges her afternoon work shifts so that she can pick Robbie’s children up from school—relatable care logistics that audiences rarely see on screen. Maeve also looks after a boy whom Robbie kidnaps at a murder scene.
In the other household, FBI agent Tom is raising his teenage daughter, Emily, who is grieving the death of her mother and the incarceration of her brother, working an hourly job while going to school, and managing her father’s alcoholism. Emily is the family’s true caregiver, and it strains her mental health. The show does a wonderful job of showing the support Emily receives from her therapist as she cares for her father, her sister, and the kidnapped boy once he is placed in foster care with her family. What’s unique about Task is how care is woven into these characters’ lives, making them all more interesting and relatable amid a crime plot.
Honorable Mentions:
We also want to recognize a handful of other shows that demonstrate aspects of care:
- Andor (Disney+) season two shows a revolutionary fighter experiencing posttraumatic stress disorder and receiving support from a circle of loved ones as she recovers.
- The Bear (FX/Hulu) season four explores what happens after a chef’s father has a heart attack, and the chosen family that surrounds her as she waits for news at the hospital.
- Paradise (Hulu) shows the relationship between an agent and his father who is trying to keep his Parkinson’s diagnosis under wraps, as well as the multigenerational home shared between the U.S. president, his son, and his father, who has dementia.
- Reasonable Doubt (FX/Hulu) season three includes an episode in which the show’s central character, an attorney with a strong work ethic, is encouraged to put work aside and ask for a continuance in a high-profile murder trial so she can be at the hospital for her mother’s cancer surgery.
- Sheriff Country (CBS) season one portrays a grandfather without health insurance forgoing beneficial care for his heart condition, prompting his granddaughter to see her value in helping to look out for him.
Vicki Shabo is a senior fellow at New America’s Better Life Lab and the founder and director of the Lab’s initiative, Re-Scripting Gender, Work, Family, and Care. She is also a policy expert, advocate, and strategist on issues related to workplace gender equity and care.
Lydia Storie is the director of culture change for Caring Across Generations, leading the organization’s work with the entertainment industry to advance and amplify authentic storytelling related to aging, disability and care. Prior to joining Caring Across, Lydia spent over a decade as a creative executive and producer in film and TV.
This story is cross-posted on New America’s website.
