The real housewife of SoHa is back. After proving she could stand on her own two feet as the centre of a Motherland spin-off, Lucy Punch's immaculately coiffed, endearingly self-centered mum-slash-influencer Amanda has returned for a well-deserved second season.
A Season of Social Climbing and Absurdity
Still reeling from her perceived step down from Chiswick to South Harlesden, our heroine has money on her mind. With typical delusions of grandeur, the opening scenes see Amanda stride into a high street bank and regale a baffled adviser with a pitch better suited to an episode of Dragon's Den. She seeks investment in Senuous, her perma-floundering social media brand pitched at 'the aspirational end of the lifestyle content space'.
Ideally, she wants the bank to stump up enough cash so she can upgrade her flat in SoHa for something leafier and more sprawling, as it would be better for business: 'It is vital that I look like someone who lives in a large house.' In the end, she settles for £3,000 to buy some fancy lights for content creation ('illuminate to accumulate!').
Classic Amanda Antics
It's classic Amanda stuff – being obsessed with how things appear on social media while making an absolute fool of herself in real life. Each deliciously silly half-hour episode sees her facing a different low-stakes situation: attempting to get away with genteel fly-tipping, dealing with her mum's forays into online hook-ups, or finagling her way onto the school careers evening to inspire 'a whole generation of online creators'.
The jokes are sharp and sometimes unexpectedly dark enough to puncture the cosiness. When a colleague asks if she has been DBS checked, Amanda promptly spits back: 'Women can't be paedophiles, Daniel!' Punch, with her huge smile and doe eyes, manages to make even Amanda's absurdities and insecurities endearing.
A Woman Fixated on Status
As ever, Amanda is a woman fixated on status – and anyone who can help her achieve it. Last season, she set her sights on chef-of-the-moment Della (Siobhan McSweeney) and her trendy restaurant. This time, she sparks a one-sided feud with Abs (Harriet Webb), the ex-wife of her handsome will-they-won't-they neighbour Mal, played by Samuel Anderson. Upon learning that Abs works at a food bank, not a bank, Amanda's desperate scramble towards virtue-signalling hyperbole is hysterical: 'Senuous is a not for profit organisation – we've literally never made a profit.'
Supporting Cast Shines
Philippa Dunne is wonderful as the forever put-upon Anne, who ends up cultivating a one-sided friendship with ChatGPT. Joanna Lumley steals scenes as Amanda's glamorous mother, now the last OAP standing in her social circle ('They didn't die, they just moved to the Cayman Islands when Labour got in'). McSweeney is slightly short on screen time here, with Della dispatched to cook on a luxury cruise, but Rochenda Sandall's Fi remains an enjoyably offbeat presence.
Conclusion
It's rare for a supporting character to survive the step up to headline act, but season two only underlines that Amanda was far too good to keep on the margins. She's well on her way to achieving BBC comedy icon status. Only don't tell her that – it'll just inflate that already super-sized ego.
