Derry Girls is one of the funniest shows streaming on Netflix, but it doesn’t seem to be getting the love it deserves. There’s plenty of great comedy to be found in Netflix’s library, both from the streamer’s own original content, like BoJack Horseman and I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson, to licensed titles like The Good Place.
But the downside of having so much great content to choose from is that some of the best stuff falls by the wayside. Hilarious shows like GLOW and Santa Clarita Diet have been prematurely canceled because Netflix’s subscribers couldn’t discover them. One of the best sitcoms in recent memory — Derry Girls — is just sitting on Netflix, waiting to be found.
Derry Girls Is One Of The Funniest TV Shows You Can Find On Netflix
Created and written by Lisa McGee, Derry Girls ran for three seasons on Channel 4 between 2018 and 2022. It’s a classic coming-of-age sitcom about five teenagers attending an all-girls Catholic school in Derry, Northern Ireland, set against the backdrop of the Troubles in the mid-to-late 1990s. While it’s not directly autobiographical, the series was heavily influenced by McGee’s own childhood.
The girls deal with the same problems all teenagers do — unrequited crushes, schoolyard bullies, embarrassing parents — but they also have to deal with military checkpoints and bomb threats. It’s one of the best coming-of-age comedies ever made — it’s hilarious and heartfelt and wonderfully endearing — but it’s also an eye-opening look at an underrepresented chapter in recent history.
McGee’s writing is some of the best in the entire genre. Derry Girls masterfully dovetails storylines and builds to ironic twists like Seinfeld, but it’ll also slow down for a more poignant emotional moment, like the 1994 IRA ceasefire announcement or the untimely death of a beloved supporting character, and it balances those different tones and emotional wavelengths beautifully.
3 Years Later, Derry Girls Remains An Underrated Show
Every character in Derry Girls is richly drawn, from the main characters to the scene-stealing supporting players, to the point where you feel like you know these people, and McGee’s writing is so sharp and so funny that there’s a huge laugh every few seconds. The show never had a dip in quality, and it concluded its story perfectly in its supersized series finale.
Three years after it went off the air, Derry Girls still hasn’t found the worldwide cult following it’s destined for. It’s hugely popular in the UK, but it hasn’t found the international success that it deserves. It’s streaming on Netflix, so almost everyone with a TV has access to it — it’s just waiting to be discovered.
