The reviews are uniformly warm. Most critics find the Motherland spin-off funnier than they expected, and the praise gathers around Lucy Punch, whose Amanda, divorced, downsized to south Harlesden and chasing influencer status, is described in several places as the best work she has done. Joanna Lumley’s turn as Amanda’s disparaging mother draws almost as much attention, and the gag rate comes up in nearly every notice. The reviews of the second series and the Christmas special are, if anything, warmer than those of the first, with The Telegraph calling it the BBC’s best sitcom.
The spread is narrow, running from good to glowing, and nobody dislikes it. The reservations are small. The i Paper finds the show more ordinary than its parent, with more time spent on the children and a group dynamic that does not come as easily as Motherland’s did. The Evening Standard’s praise arrives with visible surprise, as though a spin-off had no business being this good. That is as close to dissent as the reviews get.