If you’re anything like me, whenever you get asked about your favorite things, your initial response is panic. Most people don’t have a ready-made song of their favorite things. This goes double whenever someone asks me about my favorite pieces of media. After all, I’ve seen a lot of great media in my nearly-twenty years on this planet. But! I have confidently narrowed down my favorite show to the period sitcom Derry Girls, and I’m here to tell you why you should watch it.Â
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Reason 1: It’s funny as hell.
The show thrives on the awkward humor found amid lots of stories centering on teenagers. The five main characters: Erin, Orla, Clare, Michelle, and James (portrayed by Saorise-Monica Jackson, Louisa Harland, Nicola Coughlan, Jamie-Lee O’Donnell, and Dylan Llewellyn, respectively) are prone to finding themselves in hilarious situations that more often than not were their own fault and completely preventable. There’s also a lot of dark humor in the show, considering its setting (which I’ll talk about at a later point). Not only do the main characters have great chemistry together, but the rest of the cast does as well, creating an amusing viewing experience that has a lot of heart thrown in for flavor.
Reason 2: Realism
The five main actors were all in their twenties or thirties when the show aired (2018-2022), yet they make for some of the most convincing teenagers I’ve ever seen on screen. Part of it is their great performances, but many of the show’s conflicts put them in situations where they have to face the wrath of their parents and teachers later. In a world of stories about teenagers saving the world, we, as a collective, seem to have forgotten the whole point of adolescence. They’re just…such losers, and I love them for it. The show captures the awkward mix of budging adulthood and still being a child, and I think that’s beautiful.Â
Reason 3: You might learn something!
The show is set in Northern Ireland, in the town of Derry, in the 90s, the final years of the Troubles. When Ireland first became independent from the United Kingdom in 1922, six counties in Northern Ireland elected to remain part of the UK, primarily because, unlike the rest of Ireland, which is overwhelmingly Catholic, they had a Protestant majority. This decision was much to the dismay of the Catholics living in Northern Ireland, which boiled over into a 30-year conflict beginning in the late 1960s known as the Troubles. Derry Girls takes place in the final years of this conflict, and much of the show’s plot is informed by efforts to achieve peace and how that affects our Catholic main characters’ lives, drawing on the experiences of its creator and writer, Lisa McGee. When I first watched the show, I was unfamiliar with this history, so I sought out resources I would not have otherwise.Â
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And these reasons are just the tip of the iceberg. Honestly, the worst thing I can say about this show is that it’s short. It ran for three seasons, with the first two having six episodes and the last seven. Each episode is about 45 minutes long, with the series finale a bit longer. Though if you want an easy binge, this may be a feature, not a bug. Which is awesome! It’s available on Netflix and on Prime Video and originally aired on Channel 4. So go watch it. I promise you won’t be disappointed.Â