Motherland is a British television series from the BBC, a Cringe Comedy sitcom navigating the competitive world of parenthood. The first series debuted on BBC One in 2016.
Julia (Anna Maxwell Martin) is an ambitious, stressed-out middle-class mother of young children at a well-to-do London school, whose troubles start piling up when her mother Marion decides she no longer wants to be involved in childcare. She finds herself bonding with devil-may-care Liz (Diane Morgan) and spineless stay-at-home dad Kevin (Paul Ready), and deals with her arch rival, the bitchy alpha-mum Amanda (Lucy Punch) and her sidekick, Anne (Philippa Dunne).
The series was originally created for American television by Sharon Horgan, but was then reworked into a British series by Horgan and Graham Linehan. Linehan also directed the British pilot and co-wrote the first season.
The show as a whole is co-written by Horgan, Helen Serafinowicz and Holly Walsh, with Barunka O'Shaughnessy replacing Linehan on the writing team after season one. Horgan is not credited as a writer for season three, but returned for the 2022 Christmas special.
As of February 2023, there have been three seasons of Motherland and two Christmas specials, as well as the original pilot.
Tropes include:
- Abusive Parent: Felicity, Amanda’s mother, is emotionally distant with her daughter. She makes jokes about her daughters insecurities, encourages her to get on dating apps to find a new husband thinking Amanda can’t be happy being single, uses her daughter’s ex-husband and his new wife Tamara (who actually tries to get along with Amanda) to annoy Amanda and purposefully uses the fact that Tamara is pregnant to devastate Amanda. It’s implied the reason Amanda is so bitchy is because it’s the only way she knows, due to having a shallow and snobby mother.
- Ambiguously Bi:When Amanda auctioned to kiss the highest bidder at the fundraiser, Liz won by paying only 50 pence. She did it because she was annoyed as Amanda cleaned anything Liz touched which she had to have contact with, including her sons hands as well as her being drunk. Although this was the main reason, it’s quite possible there was more to it.
- When Meg shows Kevin a leather jacket to the Trio, Kevin’s reaction is that when he thinks of Bill he pictures him “in leather”.
- Alone Among the Couples: Throughout Series 1 and the first half of Series 2, Liz is the only person who is not in a committed relationship. Even for the last episodes of Series 2, it's notable that she and Sam are more casual. But this gets subverted in Season 3 when Amanda gets divorced and Jill leaves Kevin.
- Alpha Bitch:
- Amanda.
- Caroline Lacey is perhaps even worse, as she dominates even Amanda, has others do her work, tries to get the audience to pay for a new musical instrument to give to her son and doesn’t even remember her old friend Julia’s name.
- Anne briefly becomes this after Amanda and Johnny’s threesome is discovered. When Amanda takes her role as the Queen Bee back, Anne wisely goes back to being Second-In-Command.
- Amicable Exes: Parodied. Amanda keeps insisting she and Johnny are this, which largely involves him doing whatever he wants and her pretending to be fine with it. She's in great denial about this.
- Beta Bitch: Julia was this to Caroline briefly before she realises her old friend doesn’t even remember her name.
- Anne.
- Britain Is Only London: The series is set in South London and it's all we see.
- Christmas Episode:
- The first episode of Series 3 is focused on everyone having a Christmas Party.
- "Last Christmas" focuses on everyone having a blended Christmas, which goes well until Marion passes away.
- Class Trip: The final episode of Series 3 takes place at one.
- Cringe Comedy: Constantly. Notable examples include the auction going off the rails.
- Dirty Old Woman: Amanda’s mother, Felicity, seems to like younger men, is very vain, is an emotionally Abusive Parent to Amanda, smokes cigarettes outside the house of her former son-in-law, Johnny, and uses Johnny’s second wife Tamara to upset her daughter.
- Ends with a Smile: The final shot of the first Christmas special is of Julia's children waking her up screaming that Santa has been. Julia, who usually sports a forced Unsmile, beams with genuine delight at hearing her children so happy.
- Forceful Kiss: Liz gives one to Amanda when she realizes Amanda is cleaning her hands whenever she touches anything of hers.
- The Ghost: Kevin's horrible wife Jill never appears.
- Hide Your Children: The children intentionally only appear in very fleeting short bursts.
- I Have Boobs, You Must Obey!: A very drunk Meg tries to get out of paying a bus far by lifting up her top and flashing the driver.Meg: Cheer up, man, it may never happen! [laughs maniacally]
- Lice Episode: The plot of "Nit Blitz" focuses on a nit pandemic sweeping the school. Seeing as the episode aired around the COVID-19 Pandemic, the episode also spoofs some of the reactions around it, including a second wave of nits and announcements similar to that of Boris Johnson's.
- Never My Fault: When Julia is caught out in one of her lies, rather than admit her guilt, she usually manages to blame it on the other person.
- Nice, Mean, and In-Between: Protagonist Julia is (unusually) "mean", Kevin is "nice", and Liz is "in-between".
- Pair the Spares: Of a sort, when Kevin and Amanda are both single, they have a brief 'affair'.
- Proud Beauty: Amanda is very proud of her status as the Statuesque Stunner and she wears short dresses to show off her legs.
- Running Gag: Julia's husband is never seen onscreen with her. Every time she calls him, he's off doing activities, such as sailing or go-karting rather than being an available parent.
- Sex at Work: Amanda and Kevin have sex (twice) on the floor of her hipster store. Downplayed, though, in that she's actually in the process of closing it down when they do it.
- Slippery Swimsuit:: Anne's swimsuit begins to slip down in the pool, revealing one of her breasts.
- The Dog Bites Back: After the debacle over Amanda's surprise party, which she stated she didn't want, then was offended when nothing happened, Anne finally snaps at her for making her do all the catering before marching off (and sharing the secret that Amanda and Kevin had sex.)
- The One Guy: Kevin is the only man in the cast full of women.
- The Smurfette Principle: Kevin is the only male amongst a group of women.
- Token Black Friend: Meg, who isn't even in Series 1, and is the only black mother in a comedy set in South London.
- Vanity Is Feminine: Amanda is quite shallow, as well as also being unconventionally feminine. This also applies to Amanda’s mother, Felicity.
