AMANDALAND, S1
The original 'Frasier' is probably the best example of a spin-off that really works - so much so that the 21st Century 'Frasier' reboot seems insipid by comparison.
'Better Call Saul' and 'Lou Grant' are also examples of spin-offs that succeeded on their own terms.
Nevertheless the world of television is littered with offshoot shows that failed spectacularly like 'Joanie Loves Chachi' from 'Happy Days,' 'Joey' from 'Friends,' 'Beverly Hills Buntz' from 'Hill Street Blues' and 'Rock and Chips' from 'Only Fools and Horses'.
For three series, Sharon Horgan, Graham Linehan, Helen Serafinowicz and Holly Walsh's London school gate sitcom 'Motherland' built up a loyal following with its smart observations about middle class mores.
In addition to boasting a cast that included Anna Maxwell Martin, Diane Morgan and Paul Ready, it introduced us to Lucy Punch's deluded Queen Bee Amanda Hughes and her mesmerised Irish sidekick, Philippa Dunne's Anne Flynn.
Now given their own spin-off, Amanda finds herself in South Harlesden in the London borough of Brent with her teenage kids, reuniting with Anne who has also moved from Chiswick.
Forced into downsizing because of her recent divorce, Amanda becomes increasingly desperate about social climbing and carving out a new life as a social influencer in a neighbourhood that only she calls So Ha.
Learning that Siobhan McSweeney's renowned chef Della Fry is a parent at the school with a daughter in the local football team, she sets out to befriend her but is greeted more enthusiastically by the restaurateur's lesbian partner, Rochenda Sandall's Fi.
She also has to contend with a cynical neighbour in the duplex apartment below, Samuel Anderson's Mal whose ex-wife now lives with Ekow Quartey's soft hearted JJ.
There's her ex model mum Joanna Lumley's Felicity to handle too who is intent on defying her age and Peter Serafinowicz's overbearing South African Johannes Van Der Velde who is absolutely smitten with her.
Over the course of six episodes, we see Anne fall out with Della over a boozy teenage house party where Amanda is invited to take magic mushrooms.
Other episodes see Amanda find it hard to part with her belongings in a charity car boot sale, land a job with a kitchen sales company, join the gang on camping holiday and organise an end of season soiree for the football club, while Anne gets to indulge her inner maths geek.
It's understandable that fans of a sitcom that was as beloved as 'Motherland' will approach the spin-off with some trepidation but they needn't worry.
'Amandaland' picks up where 'Motherland' left off - delivering lots of laugh out loud moments.
A lot of that is down to Punch and especially Dunne who really shines - particularly in the camping episode.
While it takes an episode or two to adjust to a show without Julia, Liz and Kevin, you eventually get there and warm to Mal, Della, Fi, JJ, Johannes and Felicity as you get to know their foibles.
The writing by Walsh, Seafinowicz, Barunka O'Shaugnessy and Laurence Rickard is as sharp as its predecesdor and the episodes are breezily directed by 'The In Betweeners' Simon Bird.
But it is Punch and Dunne who ultimately impress and convince you that their new show can reach the same heights as the original.
(Season One of 'Amandaland' was broadcast on BBC1 from February 5-March 12, 2025, with all episodes made available on the iPlayer from February 5, 2025)
BIG BOYS, S3
Jack Rooke's award winning autobiographical sitcom 'Big Boys' has provided a lot of frothy fun over the previous two years.
However there has always been a San Andreas fault running under the show - a note of melancholy throughout Rooke's narration, hinting at a terrible tragedy to come.
That tragedy materialises in a more sober, yet hugely satisfying third and final series but not in a manner that you might expect.
Series Three finds Dylan Llewellyn's Jack, Jon Pointing's working class Kent lad Danny, Izuka Hoyle's fiercely intelligent bisexual Scot Corinne and Olisa Odele's Yemi entering final year at Brent University.
Jack, Danny and Corinne are fixated on their dissertations but life keeps getting in the way.
Along with Yemi, a fashion student, the reality of entering a world of greater responsibility after three years as an undergraduate looms large.
Meanwhile Jack's widowed mum, Camille Coduri's Peggy is tentatively dipping her toe in her first relationship since the death of her husband, with James Doherty's Russell wooing her.
Jack's cousin, Harriet Webb's Shannon is wrestling with becoming a mum to Shane Zaza's gormless delivery driver Tariq.
Over the course of the first four episodes, we see the gang go on holiday with Jack's family to the Greek island of Rhodes, Yemi considering a different path outside of uni, Jack dabbling with performance poetry and Shannon facing up to her horrible Aussie based mum, Juliet Cowan's Eileen at a Eurovision Party.
However as the show enters the final furlong, it becomes clear in the penultimate episode that our worst fears for one major character are well founded.
Rather than wallow in misery, though, Rooke does something wonderfully touching and magical in the final episode to reclaim that character's narrative and manages at the same time to reframe perceptions of Katy Wix's irritating student union officer Jules.
This elevates the show to among the very best of Channel 4's sitcoms and it also draws the best out of Llewellyn, Pointing, Hoyle, Odele, Coduri, Webb, Cowan, Doherty, Zaza and Wix.
The strongest of the show's three series, it deserves every plaudit going.
'Gavin and Stacey' isn't the only British comedy that knows how to go out on a high, it seems.
(Series Three of 'Big Boys' was broadcast on Channel 4 in the UK and Ireland from February 9-23, 2025 and was made available for streaming on All 4 on February 9, 2025)
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