Bring on Derry Girls, a sitcom suggested to me, put out of my mind, and then accidentally discovered sometime last week. Let's just say I binged all three seasons as if it was therapy. I love the characters, the storyline, the Catholic school harshness - Sister Michael is something else -, the comedic brilliance, but more importantly the writing. It's a show that just works as a time capsule of that time, my time, and right now, resonating with the insanity of conflicts, religiosity, economic struggles, and my favorite, adolescence. I mean, I knew 80s/90s girls in the USA, but the parallel universe in Northern Ireland is just as entertaining. I've been to Donegal and Belfast, but I don't quite believe I was ever in Derry.
I hinted at the show to my students and they've never heard of it. My favorites were Jamie-Lee O'Donnell (I always crush on the bad girls), Louisa Harland (the weird girls), and Kathy Kiera Clarke (the older woman). Saoirse-Monica Jackson play the hysterical character, Erin Quinn, who centers the cohort of oddities as she positions herself into the world of a conflicted city, almost forgotten by time. Perhaps the scene where they walk away from President Clinton's visit, because Dylan Llewellyn returns to reunite with the Derry Girls was my favorite.
I felt like I knew all of them...time capsules of my own adolescence and comeuppance. If you're looking for a show to entertain, make you think, and deliver a precious time of adolescence, this is the one. I'm late to the fandom, and I want more seasons and a movie of them all visiting St. Patty's Day in Boston, but I'm sure their careers moved to different directions after the finished filming. It debuted in the USA in 2018 and somehow I missed it during the Covid homestay. It ended in 2022. Definitely worth checking out if you haven't seen it.
