Late Night Lets Women Age Gracefully

In the opening scene of Late Night, longtime late night host Katherine Newbury, played by a brilliant Emma Thompson, is walking out to the sound of applause as she begins another show. But after her on-air discussion with guest Dianne Feinstein, a representative of the often cerebral and buttoned-up guests Katherine typically invites, network head Caroline Newton (Amy Ryan) tells her that she’s being booted. She’s nothing new, as a one Taylor Swift would say. Her jokes are stale, her guests are no longer relevant to the cultural limelight, and she herself is standoffish and judgy of those beneath her highbrow status. Caroline wants to bring in Daniel Tennant (Ike Barinholtz, famously of The Mindy Project) to replace her. Daniel, a fratty, bomber jacket-wearing misogynist, is your resident million-dollar-budget-standup-special-on-Netflix comic, making xenophobic jokes about people who take their shoes off indoors. Katherine needs to figure out a solution, and fast.

Molly Patel (writer and producer of the movie, Mindy Kaling, certified star) has always wanted a job in comedy, and she’ll go so far as to get in touch with Tonight with Katherine Newbury’s parent company’s parent company to do so. Just because she isn’t currently a star writer at the beginning of the movie doesn’t mean she isn’t involved; she tells jokes while on the job at the chemical plant she works at and emcees a comedy event for charity. She is earnest, ambitious, and foils Katherine’s aloof nature with sincerity. Ultimately, Molly gets the job, a crash course in how to navigate the world of late night, and an opportunity to change Tonight with Katherine Newbury for the better.

I found myself rewatching Late Night while isolating with Covid, wanting a familiar movie to play in the background while I painted my nails and generally tried to forget that I now had developed a cough after spending the past two years terrified of this exact scenario. Instead of letting it become white noise, I ended up getting sucked in, charmed by the script and the way in which Katherine and Molly fight for their spots in comedy. They’re both driven by the love they have for the form, but they also need each other: Katherine needs Molly’s fresh eyes and frank honesty, Molly needs Katherine’s expertise and mentorship, and ultimately they’re uplifted by the presence of the other. Katherine gets to keep her show, and Molly stays on to help her diversify her team and her jokes. In the end, they both get a second act.

The director of Late Night, Nisha Ganatra, showcases another aging woman in entertainment who revives her career with the help of a scrappy newcomer (Tracee Ellis Ross and Dakota Johnson, respectively) in The High Note (2020). Grace Davis (Ellis Ross) is an iconic singer, a Black woman who has jumped numerous hurdles to earn her place in the music industry, who is considering a Vegas residency with her old catalog, letting new ideas fall to the wayside so as not to rock the boat of her storied career. Instead, young producer Maggie (Johnson) pushes her to investigate new material and to take a leap of faith, all while producing David’s (Kelvin Harrison Jr.) debut album on the side.

What makes these stories compelling is their willingness to show real struggles that often go undiscussed: why do we push out women of a certain age, and what is it like to feel like everything you’ve worked so hard for is slipping through your fingers? For Katherine, it’s not just her job; it’s her entire life. She never had children, she doesn't have friends. In a heartbreaking third act conversation with her husband Walter (John Lithgow), she asks tearfully, “What did I leave behind?” He responds: “You didn’t want [that]. You wanted excellence, which almost no one gets in their lifetime. Just be sure you’re ready before you give it up.”

Coincidentally, I recently watched Hacks, a show with similar themes to that of Late Night and The High Note. Aging comedian Deborah Vance (Jean Smart) is slowly being pushed out of her landmark Vegas residency, and while she, like Katherine and Grace, won’t admit she needs any help, her management sends Ava (Hannah Einbinder), a young writer who gained success early but then lost it when she was canceled for a bad tweet. To say that Ava and Deborah don’t get along at first would be an understatement; in one episode, Deborah leaves Ava stranded in the Nevada desert with her broken down car while she takes a one-way helicopter back to the city in order to make her show. Through a series of comical events (including getting high together at a spa where Deborah is getting cosmetic surgery), the two become friends, learning to respect the work of the other while growing in their own sense of self. I particularly love the way that Hacks positions both of these women: although they’re at very different stages of life, they’re both lonely, talented, and a little too cocky for their own good. That is precisely why they need each other.

What all of these women are striving for is to be taken seriously in their respective industries - late night comedy, stand-up, music - and they’ve given up everything to get to where they are. The stories of Katherine, Grace, and Deborah raise the question of whether or not older women in entertainment will ever be valued beyond their physical appearance. Women tend to “age out” of certain roles earlier and are forced to make themselves look as young as possible for fear of being considered “old.” However, what these women teach us is that aging is a thing of beauty: you’re older, yes, but you’re wiser, more experienced, able to truly see what’s important in life. You can make decisive choices in your life and career with assurance of who you are and who you want to be, and there’s still time ahead of you to embrace what’s new, even if it’s unfamiliar. These are valuable lessons for anyone to learn, especially the younger women who come up after them that they worked so hard to create space for. Molly, Maggie, and Ava might be just what these women need to pull back the curtain on their next project, but they also must confront their futures through their older bosses and discover how they can strive for their own excellence while furthering the work of lifting women of all identities up.

(Of course, I enthusiastically recommend that you watch all of these: their perfect blend of catharsis, comedy, and charm make the viewer feel at once comforted and seen by the characters, and I can’t say I don’t enjoy a show or movie that includes career-driven women, a little romance, and a lot of heart. You can find Late Night streaming on Prime Video, The High Note on Hulu, and Hacks on my streaming service du jour, HBOMax.)