Motherland

Motherland, episode 2 review

Magnifying a very special hell in this messy mom-com.

Motherland: one of the best comedies in the last decade

I cannot recommend it highly enough, thanks to its knuckle-chewing awkwardness and leftfield casting.

After the pilot, it was obvious Motherland would return

Creators Sharon Horgan and Graham Linehan mine middle-class motherhood for comedy. These aren't your ordinary middle-class mothers though: they are Mumsnet types that live in large houses in suburban London.

Why Motherland may be a perfect depiction of parenting

Whereas Catastrophe hilariously captured the minutiae of married life, Motherland does the same with parenting.

The pilot episode of Motherland last year just oozed what I would like to call commissionability, if that weren't such a hateful word: the resultant return of a whole series a triumphant vindication (should they need it) for creators Sharon Horgan and Graham Linehan. They might have set out to ridicule the notion of any perfect, "having it all" supermum, but in creating Anna Maxwell Martin's Julia - beset at every turn by a lazily crap ex, a rubbish boss, the passive aggression of the queen bees and tiger mums - have actually, despite themselves, created a supermum for our times. Helpfully, the kids don't get a look-in: this is all about mums. The lifelong panic of being a mum. It is, also helpfully, appallingly funny: best comedy of this year.

Motherland review: A perverse comedy of manners

Please, do not watch Motherland (BBC2, Monday) while your children are in the room.

You should enjoy Motherland, which features the brilliant Diane Morgan (though not here in her usual faux naive alter ego Philomena Cunk), Anna Maxwell Martin and Lucy Punch in a comedy of middle-class manners and mores - think of it as Mumsnet with a more pronounced sense of self-irony. Punch plays the character and anti-hero Amanda, an intensely annoying alpha mum who is a mash-up of Nigella Lawson, Joanna Lumley and Rachel Johnson (by which I mean the worst bits of all of them). Not the funniest thing on the telly, but pretty good satire, and worth catching.

Review: Motherland, episode two, BBC2/iPlayer

If you are or you've been a parent you'll love it, but you'll be watching it through your fingers.

TV Review: Motherland and Man Down

This fourth series of Man Down seems to be operating on a system whereby one week is excellent and the next is merely very good. I've told you before how much I love the anarchic, weird Man Down, so let's look at Motherland.

Motherland's achievement: its near universal appeal

Both parents and the happily child-free will enjoy this borderline revolutionary BBC Two comedy.