Yes, I said it. It’s not Friends, or Breaking Bad, or Stranger Things. It’s Derry Girls, a sitcom centering on a motley group of Irish teens during the final years of the conflict known as the Troubles in Northern Ireland. This is my go-to recommendation whenever someone asks for a TV show to watch. This post discusses why this TV show is God’s gift to earth, and why everyone on the planet should watch it.
A Sitcom Done Perfectly
Derry Girls is a sitcom that does everything right, because it understands this: the hallmark of a great sitcom is one with characters in their well-defined archetypes. In Orla, we have the eccentric one. In Clare, we have the voice of reason. In James, we have the English one. It’s so fun to watch Derry Girls because we know exactly how the characters will react to the absurd situations they’ve been put in.
This is part of why the TV show has spawned multiple posts on TikTok portraying how each of the cast would react in certain scenarios. There’s the Derry girls reacting to the release of the last season of The Summer I Turned Pretty TV show, where Michelle is Team Jeremiah and Orla still thinks that Shayla is in the show.
@nooraslaytre idk if anyone else will enjoy this also this was inspired by andrewsgrotto <3 (the accent is obvi inaccurate im canadian xo) #derrygirls #thesummeriturnedpretty #tsitp #skit #fyp #teamconrad #teamjeremiah ♬ original sound – Rox
Then there’s the Derry girls going to the Eras tour, where of course, Ma Mary refers to Taylor Swift as Haylor Swiftie and Clare is panicking over not having an outfit ready yet. These creators don’t even need to tell us which characters they’re playing at the moment, because their personalities are so distinct.
@andrewsgrotto Derry girls dont bave tickets for the Eras Tour in Dublin and Clare is PANNICING! #derrygirls #erastour ♬ original sound – Andrew 🧜🏻♂️
Not only that, but the show is sprinkled with tons of Irish slang, such as “wee,” and “boke,” and “wean.” The fact that the jokes are often said in Northern Irish accents adds to the show’s charm.
Humor Balanced With Heaviness
Derry Girls is set in the 90s, during a troubled time in Ireland’s history. Northern Ireland was divided between Protestants, who mostly wanted Northern Ireland to remain part of the United Kingdom, and Catholics, who mostly wanted to leave the United Kingdom and join a united Ireland. This was a dark time for Irish Catholics, who were faced with violence and discrimination.
But our main characters, who are Catholic and attend a Catholic all-girls school take it in stride and continue living their lives despite the destruction going on around them. This is portrayed perfectly in the first episode, when the girls (and James) still go to their first day of school despite a bomb threat on a nearby bridge. Their primary concern is not the bomb but how they’re going to survive the new school year, and of course, have some fun. Michelle says “Do you think if I told him I had an incendiary device down my knickers, he’d have a look?” about a soldier who is inspecting their school bus.
Although Derry Girls is first and foremost a comedy, the show doesn’t let you forget that the main characters are part of an oppressed social class. In the first episode of season three, when the girls are taken to a police station for questioning after inadvertently aiding in a robbery, their heightened panic at being taken by the police is played for laughs, but underneath it is a valid fear: They are Catholic, and it would be easy for the police to treat them unfairly during the questioning process and make them confess to a crime they didn’t commit.
A Tribute To Youth And Teenagehood
Last but not least, this show is a tribute to our youth, when our most pressing concern was who we would take to prom and whether we would pass our exams. Erin, Clare, Orla, Michelle, and James may be kids growing up during a time of war, but they still experience all the trappings of teenagehood: bad decisions, ridiculous escapades, and petty fights between friends. A polar bear might be loose in Belfast in episode three of season two, but the girls aren’t going to let that stop them from attending a Take That concert, because as Erin puts it, barely any artists perform in Ireland given that they can’t stop fighting each other.
This series has it all: young love, eccentric relatives, and one atheist nun.
If I could trade places with anyone in the world, I’d trade places with someone experiencing this show for the very first time. All three seasons are available on Netflix, and the episodes are only 20 minutes long while still packing a punch. So what are you waiting for? Strap in. We’re going to Derry.
