Motherland Season Two Review

BBC Two’s Motherland has returned for a second season and shows the struggles of middle-class parenthood.

A new school year has started. Julia (Anna Maxwell Martin) continue struggling to balance childcare and work, Kevin (Paul Ready) has joined the workforce, and Liz (Diane Morgan) is well, Liz. A new mum who seems to have it all, Meg (Tanya Moodle), joins the group, and Amanda (Lucy Punch) opens her own store but has problems at home.

Motherland was a show with a lot of comedic talent behind it. The series was created by Sharon Horgan (Catastrophe) and Graham Linehan (Father Ted) and the stand-up comedian Holly Walsh was a part of the writing team. Diane Morgan was a successful comedian and Lucy Punch has plenty of experience in comedic films. So, the show was able to provide plenty of comedic relief.

The first season focused on Julia’s struggles to find childcare and look for ways to dump her kids. The first episode of this season seems to continue this theme because it opens with Julia buying some inappropriate school shoes for her daughter. In that episode, she had to prepare a big presentation for a promotion. But this storyline gets turned on its head because Julia quits her job becomes a freelancer. So, Julia’s issues in the season were work-related because she has trouble motivating herself or people not treating her new venture seriously. Due to the Corona Outbreak, many viewers will properly relate more to Julia’s struggles with home working. Despite Julia’s business issues, she was a lot more relaxed than she was in the previous season. She even gets to act like an embarrassing mum during the sports day episode.

Amanda was shown to be a queen bee type character who dominated her clique. In this season she opens the most middle-class store possible because all it did was sell decorative niknaks to other suburban mums. She’s vain and pompous with a superiority complex, so easy to dislike her. But the showrunners were wise enough to show there was more to her character. Amanda puts up a front by saying things were going well with her husband despite being separated. But Amanda was living in her hope that she can get back together with her husband.

Meg was shown to a go-get-‘em businesswoman who was also able to look after five kids. However, like Amanda, Meg puts up a front. In the first episode of the season, Meg takes Julia, Liz, and Kevin for a night out drinking and she gets blind-stinking drunk because it’s her way to blow off steam. In the final episode, some vulnerability was shown when her daughter wins a race at sports day because Meg gets surprisingly emotional. Throughout the series, Meg has a little rivalry with Amanda because she didn’t want to be a part of Amanda’s clique and it escalates in the final episode.

As a sitcom Motherland does the job. I binged watched the whole season in an afternoon, so it did something right for me to watch in such a quick space of time. It is a safe comedy that has broad appeal and the occasional risqué joke. Diane Morgan as Liz was the highlight of the show. Morgan is best known for her Philomena Cunk character, but I prefer her character in Motherland. Liz was like Meg and not interested in the Alpha Mums group, but she was marginalised by Amanda because she’s a single mother who lived on a council estate. Liz was a no-bullshit type and as Meg describes her, has the right level of just gives a fuck. Liz often the best lines and gags.

The second season of Motherland was a fun sitcom that was breezy watch and able to show a bit of character growth.