ASA Connect

have three comments (revising displays is always an iterative process, so this is only meant as a start).
1. do some smoothing -- the step function is artificial due to reporting and so smoothing would not only make the data easier to look at, but t would also return it to something closer to the actual vallues).
2. rotate the plots to be horizontal (take out the time trend). We all know that cumulative plots will be increasing, but leaving in the trend obscures the differences that are of interest --looking at the residuals from the trend will allow you to expand the scale substantailly.The scale would this be the excess deaths for that age group
3. Plot all ages on the same axis -- each age group would have its own line -- the y-axis is 'excess deaths' the x-axis is time, and label each line separately (there should be room) and NOT through a legend.

I look forward to seeing what you come up with.