The Guardian review is closest to the mark. The description of "modestly entertaining is about right; it’s barely a comedy. What is missing is the key element of the original series that Maggie was often quite lucid and manipulative and you wondered just how much of her symptoms were an act. And the change of gender of the key character of Robert to the female Robbie doesn’t work.
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that’s the issue with a lot of comedies these days. They aren’t actually comedies, at best they are perhaps “dramedys” or a drama with a dash of comedy in it.
It’s certainly not an issue unique to ABC but ABC does IMO perpetuate some of it.
That was the genius with the original and what everyone will be expecting with this new version, and even just from the ads I’ve seen there is not a sign of that level of nuance.
But of course I will give it a proper go and judge it from there but my expectations are being set pretty low if I must be honest.
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Well there is no laugh track to tell the audience what to laugh at. 
2.5 stars
I think this will get a big audience based on curiosity for the first episode.
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Had to turn it off after 10 minutes, just not the same. It’s a shame but won’t be watching the rest.
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Denise is ok. I’m not feeling Arthur or ‘Robbie’ though.
Ok. This is not great. Switching off.
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My expectations were low, and I think even then I was still disappointed, I am sorry to say. I think Matt and Denise work well together but overall this just didn’t work. As is often the case this isn’t really a comedy it’s a drama with maybe a few gags in it. Package it as a drama and with a bit of a re-write and it could almost work.
I have no issue with the level of diversity depicted though perhaps they put so much into making a diverse setup they didn’t think to make it funny.
It was always going to be a tough call to remake or reimagine Mother & Son – made even more evident when you can still watch the original on iview. Perhaps they should take taken the Prisoner-Wentworth approach, give the show a new name so it’s essentially starting from scratch, but have some sentimental links/references to the original?
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At some point, the writers seemed to forget that Maggie is supposed to have dementia.
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How so?
That used to be a significant part of the story line in the original series and was the reason the Arthur had to move home. There is some mention of it in the early part of the show but the rest of the storylines seem to indicated that she doesn’t have any symptoms; most things turn out to be misinterpreted.
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yet the writer from Mother & Son 1.0 was a consultant on 2.0?
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I watched it. I knew Denise would be great, shes the best thing about it but the rest I;m not too sure on. I originally pitched to her a remake with Sam Simmons, I feel like that would have had a whole different feel and more comedy to it.
They did say how do you make dementia funny now and I think they have hinted at it but with todays audiences youre bound to offend people.
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also isnt it weird people in here and Twitter hated it but I just saw a post by ABC/iView on Facebook and hundreds and hundreds of comments are all positive?
I don’t use FB but doesn’t it give the page owner access to delete (negative) comments?
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It does but still more positive comments than I was expected. Surely they cant all be fake profiles?
I think this show was different enough that it didn’t need to be considered a remake or a reimagining of the old show. Having the characters called Maggie, Arthur and Robbie was the most jarring part of the whole show.
I still think they should have just given it a new title and used new character names. If they just said that it was inspired by “Mother and Son”, then it wouldn’t have had the pressure of comparison to the original.
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Episode 2
Wednesday 30 August 8.30pm
Maggie (Denise Scott) tries to inspire a visit from her grandchildren. Arthur (Matt Okine) practices for an online game tournament with a troublesome young teammate. Robbie (Angela Nica Sullen) seeks a sperm donation from Arthur for her friends, Priya (Maria Thattill) and Jasmine (Veronica Milsom).
Episode 3
Wednesday 6 September 8.30pm
Maggie (Denise Scott) keeps going missing, leaving Arthur (Matt Okine) and Robbie (Angela Nica Sullen) to get creative in their attempts to keep track of her so that Arthur can go on a date. Arthur meets Maya (Catherine Văn-Davies), whose family has taken over the local dance studio that Maggie frequents.
Episode 4
Wednesday 13 September 8.30pm
Arthur (Matt Okine) battles with his identity when Maggie (Denise Scott) takes in a Ghanaian lodger at her house. Maggie and her new ‘son’ decide to run a Ghanaian food stall at the local markets.
Arthur helps Dee (Andrea Demetriades) pack for her move to Canberra.
Episode 5
Wednesday 20 September 8.30pm
Arthur (Matt Okine) and Maggie (Denise Scott) both engage in sexual misadventures with disastrous results. Maggie is horrified to learn that Leo’s restaurant has been leased. Robbie (Angela Nica Sullen) tries to convince Maggie to sign over her Power of Attorney.
Episode 6
Maggie (Denise Scott) and Arthur (Matt Okine aren’t speaking to each other after Arthur finds out Maggie’s plans to take her health into her own hands. Maya (Catherine Văn-Davies) and Arthur grow closer when Arthur agrees to review the new restaurant.
After the first 2 eps tonights ep took a weird turn in the story arc.
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