Derry Girls

Derry Girls is the kind of show I found myself recommending to everyone, partly because it’s so easy to binge and partly because I wanted someone to groan with me over how awkwardly hilarious these Irish teens are. The plot is nothing mind-blowing: it follows Erin and her friends growing up in 1990s Northern Ireland amid The Troubles, but the genius is how it balances real history with spot-on, character-driven comedy.

The best thing here is the writing, hands down. Every line feels like it’s been lived in, drawn from the memory of someone who actually survived awkward Catholic schooling and family drama. The group’s chemistry is electric—especially Nicola Coughlan as Clare, whose anxious outbursts cracked me up every single episode. You’re laughing at their antics but you’re never laughing at them, if that makes sense.

Stylistically it nails a nostalgic but unsentimental vibe. There are lots of 90s fashion disasters and a killer soundtrack (so much Cranberries and Blur). But it never gets so lost in retro trappings that it feels gimmicky. The handheld camera work keeps it loose and authentic, so you feel like you’re hanging out in the corner of Erin’s bedroom or getting told off by Sister Michael yourself.

Pacing-wise, the episodes are short and sharp, rarely dragging. That said, season three felt a little uneven. A couple of episodes were bigger and more ambitious, but not every joke landed as neatly as the early seasons. There’s also the occasional “everyone yells at once” chaos which works... until it gets exhausting midway through a 22-minute sprint.

What really surprised me was the way the show managed to have emotional depth without turning sappy. When the world outside the girls’ bubble intrudes, it’s genuinely affecting. The finale is perfect, actually—one of the few times I felt a coming-of-age series stuck the landing and didn’t sell out its weird, brittle humor for easy sentiment.

If I have a gripe, it’s that some supporting characters (James, for instance) never quite got the development they deserved, and a few running jokes wear thin by the end. But honestly, there are worse problems a comedy can have than being too in love with its own weirdos.