We loved the pilot, now there's a series : Motherland

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Remember Anna Maxwell-Martin playing the heroine who's trying to negotiate her way through motherhood, school gate cliques etc? Diane Morgan playing her plucky new friend, and SAHD Paul Ready? Written by Graham and Helen Linehan, Sharon Horgan and Holly Walsh?

The pilot is being shown again on BBC2 on Monday at 10:00pm with the series to start next week, according to Radio Times.

LOVed Catastrophe but disappointed in this - too many cliched characters.

I've watched my cousins treat my aunt like the grandmother in this for the last 20 years. She adores her grandchildren so has looked after each one from around 6m old to school age full time essentially (plus sleepovers almost every weekend as the parents 'need to have a life too'). Then she's done drop offs, pickups, holiday childcare... As soon as the grandchildren have become old enough to get themselves home from school she's barely seen them. My cousins do parties though or they wouldn't be able to put photos on FB that make them look like parents of the year.

It's so sad for her - she'd have loved to enjoy her retirement and go on holidays with friends, days out etc. But any suggestion that alternative arrangements may need to be made for a few days gets angry ranting about how grandmothers are supposed to want to spend time with their grandchildren and what the hell are they supposed to do with the kids for a whole week...

My kids are grown up now but the husband is so like my DH whose job involves a lot of socialising. Luckily I was mostly a SAHM and had a very supportive mum so it didn't land me in the shit like it does Julia

DH left for work today complaining about the cocktail party he has to attend tonight on top of going to the tennis at the O2 tomorrow. Poor, poor thing.

And Lucy Punch is totally brilliant as Amanda as she is in everything. Why she isn't a household name is a mystery to me.

E2 def funnier

The 50p/£1 kiss

I found Motherhood today, and loved it. Lots of laugh out loud moments. Just tried Catastrosphe from the recommendations here and can't get into at all. Can't identify with the characters. :/

Just binge watched this - funniest thing I've seen for ages. Really enjoyed it (which probably means the bbc won't commission another series - they always cancel the good stuff).

Only watched pilot and ep1 so far. Not even remotely funny, I couldn't relate to any of the characters at all.

The kiss was the best bit

Have binge watched whole series. Loved it (but loved Bad Moms more).

And reminded me of a Chikdren In Need kiss with Dawn French many years ago.

I didn’t expect to laugh, I don’t usually at “comedies” but I just laughed from nowhere quite a few times watching this. Sharon Horgan has an eye for comedy and the ridiculous that is unmatched imvho. Yes Julia is horrible to her Mum and a totally imperfect person but that’s the point isn’t it? Only are MN are people perfect and always acting in a decent way. In rl most people are selfish shit head, quite a lot of the time

I think Catastrophe was of its time and if you were a twenty something single woman - as I was when I watched it the first time - it was utterly hilarious. I thought the bit where Karen met that clearly very controlling man and shacked with him, then realised and stood up to him, was brilliantly done and really useful for women of that age who would put up with a lot of shit just to have a boyfriend.

The guy who plays Kevin has a touch of a young Neil morrisey about him don't you think? Like the very early men behaving badly episodes, in appearance and mannerisms. I think Julia and her husband would be more believable if he was an ex and she was recently separated and struggling, the way he treats her doesn't tally up for me with the rest of her character.

MsGame I think you mean Pulling?

I genuinely think that Catastrophe is one of the best things on television. I absolutely love it, and the reason it works is because you really root for Sharon and Rob’s relationship. The peripheral characters are so well-drawn, too. Motherland just doesn’t have that heart. We were given reasons to sympathise with pretty much everyone, even Amanda, by the end of the series - but not with Julia.

I loved Ep2; it wasn't perfect but it was bloody funny. The bit where Julia was putting extra lines on the fundraising thermometer desperately muttering ' I don't even know what I'm doing!'

I did like Liz in the swimming pool episode, getting the lifeguard to send flirty texts for her whilst she was in the pool. Also she has an amaaaazing figure!

Yes, I did. Sorry for confusion. I always mix them up.

I kind of like this, it has its momentsits true. But tv/parenting comedies can never resist taking the kids=unremitting complete chaos angle too far.

I loved Julia's expression when she sampled the poisonous Sangria at the promises evening. (Sangria is Spanish for 'any old shit'.)

Ha, yep you definitely want things to work out for Rob and Sharon where as I didn't give a shit about any of the motherland characters. Rob and Sharon are by no means perfect either, they're both foul sometimes but it's relatable and funny. And I love Chris!

I'm really looking forward to the next series whenever that will be, it's sad that they'll somehow have to write out Mia, Rob's mum 😔.

The bit in the pilot where she bluffed her way into the school pissed me off as much as it amused me, but it's not a plot hole. And I thought the thing about her not understanding anything because her mother had effectively been the default parent until 5 minutes ago was very obvious.

Granted, it's not subtle. It's also cringey which a lot of people don't like. I often find stuff like that too stress inducing to watch myself. But people are calling things plot holes when they're not. It is contrived though.

Re the thing about her mum: I thought what they were getting at there is men not seeing wifework as their problem and being facilitated in that. Julia is conspicuously much nicer to and less demanding of her husband than her mother. I didn't think that was presented as a positive. There are loads of posts like that on here.

I’ve watched it all now and thoroughly enjoyed all the episodes. My favourite was the ‘mum friend’ one (5), some interesting character developments in that.

Ahhh I’ve not watched the pilot- great, that means there’s another episode I can watch on iPlayer!
(I binged them all the other day!)

I THINk Carpool Anne is the most realised/nuanced character in the series.