Amandaland, yeni BBC dizisi, popüler sitcom Motherland’dan bir spin-off olarak, eleştirilerden coşkulu bir yanıt aldı.
Dizi, Lucy Punch’in Amanda rolünü yeniden canlandırmasını görüyor, Motherland’daki orijinal dizide seyircilerin favorisi olan aşırı baskın ve rekabetçi annesi.
The Independent, yeni spin-off’un ” size gülmekten kahkaha attıracak” dedi ve İngiliz aktris Punch’in “hiçbir zaman daha iyi olmadığını” ekledi.
The Telegraph, onu “hem komik hem de duygusal” olarak nitelendirdi ve başrol oyuncusu Punch ve Dame Joanna Lumley’nin “ideal komedi çifti” oluşturduğunu ekledi.
Dizide, yeni boşanmış Amanda, Chiswick’teki Waitrose’u terk ederek South Harlesden’deki Tesco Metro’ya taşındıktan sonra, ergen çocuklarını yeni çevresinde yetiştirme göreviyle karşı karşıya kalıyor.
“Spin-off’lar her zaman riskli, ancak Lucy Punch’in Amanda’sı kesin bir bahis idi,” wrote the Guardian’s Chitra Ramaswamy in a four-star review.
“Üzgünüm, takım Liz, ancak o Motherland’daki en iyi karakterdi: yazar Sharon Horgan’ın, beyaz, orta sınıf, Batı Londra orta sınıfının en kötü aşırılıklarını, kör noktalarını ve ikiyüzlülüklerini hedef alan ideal araçtı.”
O, “Çok şey sevmek var… Yazı bu kadar iyi olduğunda, perimenopozun komik enerjisiyle patlıyor” dedi.
Ramaswamy, Amanda’nın “Özel okuldan çocukları aldım, şimdi Oxbridge’e girmeleri için çok daha fazla şansları var” diyen bir diyalogunu vurguladı.
Amanda ve annesi Felicity arasındaki “narsisizm-güçlü dinamik”, eleştirmen not etti, “Joanna Lumley tarafından Ab Fab seviyesinde zevkle oynanıyor”.
Uzun süredir acı çeken Anne (Philippa Dunne) da spin-off için geri döndü ve yeni karakterler, Amanda’nın bodrum kat komşusu Mal (Samuel Anderson), ünlü şef Della Fry (Derry Girls oyuncusu Siobhan McSweeney) ve onun aşırı liberal eşi Fi (Rochenda Sandall) var.
Yeni gösteri, Bafta kazanan komedi dizisi Motherland’in aynı ekibi tarafından yaratıldı ve yazıldı; Holly Walsh, Helen Serafinowicz ve Barunka O’Shaughnessy, Horgan’ın yaratıcısı olarak kredilendirildi.
Motherland, 2022 Noel özel bölümünden sonra iptal edildi. Takipçisi için, the Independent’s Charlotte O’Sullivan noted: “Arguably, dersler öğrenildi.
“Where the final festive episode [of Motherland] was bracingly bleak, Amandaland (written by roughly the same team, plus Horrible Histories’s Laurence Rickard) has a cosier, more romcom-ish vibe.”
Dört yıldızlı incelemesinde, O’Sullivan, “Punch’in posh alpha annesi hikayesinin, akıllı, neşeli ve dirençli” olduğunu söyledi.
“Even in Motherland, Amanda had angst,” she said. “In the new show, as you’d expect, there’s more time to explore her loneliness and self-doubt. What is Amanda good for? The answer is frequently absolutely nothing. But we root for this absurd and vulnerable woman all the same.
“Richard Curtis [Notting Hill and Love Actually yönetmeni] gentrifikasyon gerçeklerini aşırı derecede minimize etti,” she continued. “Amandaland, by contrast, seems deliberately designed to get us talking about what happens to a deprived area when the middle classes move in.”
The Telegraph’s Anita Singh awarded the series five stars, labelling it as “a treat” from both the writers and its stars.
She added that Punch “excels at physical comedy and is hilarious as she tries to style out her reduced circumstances”.
“The script is deft and the writers nail the various stages of parenting teenagers: helping them through first love, carting them home in disgrace when they’ve got drunk and thrown up on themselves, and realising that you can’t help them with their maths homework any more because you don’t understand it.”
In another five-star review, the Times’ Carol Midgley noted how spin-off series “can easily disappoint, as Joey, a feeble offshoot of Friends, showed”.
“But I just knew that Amandaland, offspring of the mighty Motherland, would be glorious… and it is.”
She likened the “deliciously desperate” new show, and its leading woman, to being “a Hyacinth Bucket for 2025”.
“Keeping Up Appearances was so joyous because it mocked the absurdity of prideful status-seeking,” she noted of the Patricia Routledge-starring 1990s BBC sitcom.
“Amanda is Hyacinth for the new age (imagine if Hyacinth had had social media!).
“Punch carries most of the heavy lifting with ease,” she wrote, “and the result is not only a spin-off that punches above its weight: it is lovely, life-affirming escapism.”
There was another five-star rating from Christopher Stevens in the Daily Mail.
“Amanda’s an awful woman, of course,” he said, “a backstabbing snob who treats her children as accessories and turns every encounter with her ‘mum chums’ at the school gates into a blood sport.”
He also praised Dame Joanna, saying she “gathers up the laughs and sweeps them into her handbag like an aristocratic shoplifter on a spree”.
Tilly Pearce of the Radio Times awarded four stars, writing: “Spin-off shows can often be a bit of a tricky tightrope. To be successful, they need to find balance with the old and new, which is kind of apt, given Amanda’s situation.
“Thankfully, Amandaland manages to achieve this in spades, providing a fresh twist on the familiar humour with a new gang, new location, and new phase of motherhood to deal with.”