So disappointed with Motherland **Thread contains spoilers**

[Fenty1]

I'm the biggest fan of Motherland normally but I feel so let down by the Xmas special! Have been looking forward to it all day but didn't laugh once. Yes it was very sad etc but not what I wanted from a Xmas special at all.

Title edited by MNHQ to add a spoiler alert

I think Amanda getting on with Tamara was another vehicle for her mum to stick her oar in and put her down. To show that Amanda could actually be a likeable person but her mums constant put downs and outing the pregnancy were a way to show why Amanda is the way she is.

My dad died a few weeks ago and I was fine until Julia said “my mum’s dead”, which set me off. But…it was good. I felt like, shit things happen, people have bereavements at Christmas, other people rally around, and maybe it’s just my family but there’s often a massive tragicomic element to anything bad happening. The day my dad died we cried our eyes out and laughed our heads off.

I also have a big Irish family and when Amanda first drove past Anne’s I said “she should go in, she’ll be welcome!” so I was glad to see her there.

I’ve also lost parents - both died on significant days, albeit not Xmas - and maybe that has hardened me a bit to it, because it was an amusing way for Marion to go, and was all handled a bit farcically, so it didn’t upset me as such, but Julia’s puffy faced tears and regret at her last words were actually really moving and made her a bit more human to me!

I thought the Tamara/Johnny storyline was acknowledging another cliche. Man leaves wife for woman who was his wife before they had kids. Man then leaves the replacement. Repeat ad infinitum.

Agree with Atomic too - we were all laughing at something ridiculous not long after my mum died, it’s just how some people cope.

Sending lots of Xmas love to those who have lost loved ones on any day, but especially those for whom Christmas will be extra hard this year.

@SteveHarringtonsChestHair that also got me. I also lost a parent this year and having to say the words ‘they’re dead’ for the first time is very hard.

That said, I’d have far preferred them to have gone the way Marion did than the years of suffering. I also really sobbed at the Venice present.

Maybe Johnny isn't actually a monster, we don't know him well. Tamara is who Amanda could have been, if she wasn't so uptight. Probably due to her mum as a PP said.
Maybe he was just really unhappy with Amanda?

I thought it was brilliant. It does seem to have split opinion.

I love what they've done with Amanda. Anne knew all along she was unhappy and needed a friend.

I need to rewatch I think.

I really loved Amanda. I liked the bit when her and Tamara were getting on then the malice from her mother deliberately ruining it. The sympathy from Johnny and Tamara over the baby news where again her mother was deliberately hurtful. She was lovely to Julia (and as a non hugger I did enjoy 'don't hug me), telling her mum to fuck off then partying with Ann.

I also stand by my love of Paul (and Oliver Chris). When my dad died I remember my husband being incredibly loving and supportive and letting me cry. Then asking some baffling mundane shit.

Didn't enjoy Liz though. Where was Sam shepherd? Why did she feel guilty about lee ffs?

Finally I liked the present but with Meg and Giles from Buffy. That she got pissy with him when he didn't like her present but she was allowed to tell him she didn't like his.

This absolutely. My Mum died in a care home after years of Alzheimers and my Dad died in hospital with various problems, he had been going downhill for two years after a bad fall. If I could drift away in my sleep surrounded by family I think it would be a peaceful way to go.

Ann is a lovely character - so looked down on, particularly by Amanda, but actually the happiest of them all.

I really enjoyed it but wouldn’t go as far as to say I loved it. DH started watching it with me, having heard me all week going on about how much I was looking forward to the Motherland christmas special, and he went to bed after 5 minutes. It wasn’t the episode to watch with someone who’s never watched Motherland before.

Yes the only but I was baffled about was Liz thinking she should go get Lee.

Bit

I thought she looked early 40s when I watched it, so on the older side but still plausible. However I’ve just looked up the actress and she’s 53!!

I know a few men who’ve followed the pattern of divorce —> remarry quickly —> new wife is pregnant almost instantly. In those cases the new wife was always younger, usually around 30.

I thought the sting in the tale for Amanda was that Johnny took up with an older woman rather than a 'hot young blonde'?

The pregnancy was a surprise as I knew the actress was older than me.

I couldn’t find this last night. What channel was it on?

I thought the Tamara/Johnny relationship was really well done. It would have been much more obvious to put him with a younger blonde woman. Agree with pp that he was unhappy with Amanda and wanted a better relationship.

I watched last years Christmas special the other day and I’m convinced they talked about Tamara being blonde and maybe I just assumed she was younger. Maybe that’s the brilliance of it - our assumptions then we finally meet her.

The pregnancy at that age doesn’t make a whole load of sense though. Unless she’s supposed to be early 40s.

@ArseInTheCoOpWindow it was on BBC1 at about 9.30. It’s on iPlayer now.

I think it was Amanda who assumed that Tamara would be young and blonde. So I guess PPs are right and they were trying to show that he is looking for something different rather than the “younger model” cliche.

Didn’t they say Mail, not Maui?

One person was in Bali and the other in Mali.

Anyway I loved. I like episodes where characters get a bit more rounded out, like Amanda did in this one.

It's possible to be blonde one year and brunette the next. 😉

I got it completely wrong as I thought he was referring to the Mau Mau uprising in Kenya and was being vaguely racist.

She did reply that she was born in Brockley so I think there was an element of 'Where do you really come from' about it.

I got it completely wrong as I thought he was referring to the Mau Mau uprising in Kenya and was being vaguely racist.

You didn't get it wrong, that's exactly what he was saying!