New TV Show: Derry Girls

Marta and I saw the first episode of Derry Girls last night. We enjoyed it a lot.

The Times gave it a positive review:

In ‘Derry Girls,’ the Lighter Side of Life in a Conflict Zone

The sitcom set in Northern Ireland takes place in a maelstrom of sectarian violence and adolescent angst. It’s funny, too.

In the first episode of the first season, a character is distraught at news of a bomb on a bridge, because it means she can’t get to the tanning salon. In a subsequent scene, when the girls’ school bus is stopped by British soldiers, one of them stares down the barrel of their machine guns — and flirts. In the second series, a scuffle at school prom is intercut with euphoric street scenes following the 1994 cease-fire by the Irish Republican Army.

McGee based the show on her own experience of growing up in Derry. The city, which is also called Londonderry by unionists who want the region to remain part of the United Kingdom, was a unique maelstrom of sectarian violence and adolescent angst in the 1990s. 

Read the rest of the review here. The show is available on Netflix.