Derry Girls Season 3 Review: A Masterpiece Of A Comedic Ending

Emerging from my half-day binge of Derry Girls Season 3 (and it’s guilt-free binge-worthy entertainment), I’m surprised at the range of emotions I feel.

“Dreams” by The Cranberries still rings in my head. Happiness, hopefulness, satisfaction, reluctant sadness, and slight open-ended frustration — everything that makes up the feelings of a perfect series ending to a wonderful and thoughtful show.

Three short seasons might not have felt like enough, but Derry Girls ends at the right place after four of arguably the show’s strongest episodes.

Derry Girls’ popularity is an interesting case. The series quickly became the most-watched show in Northern Ireland and became a hit with Derry Girls Season 1 in the United Kingdom.

However, partly due to the delay in Netflix’s release timeline, it took a bit for the show to catch on in the United States. American viewers, myself included, might not have been as familiar with the historical background of the show’s Northern Ireland setting.

The hour-long final episode weaving in the historic Good Friday Agreement Referendum proved an excellent history lesson and a refreshing outlook on the democratic process that remains ever-relevant in today’s complicated political climates.

While most of Derry Girls features farfetched humor sequences of wrongdoings and an excellent showcase of female friendship, it ends on a more complicated, emotional note.

The gang, Erin, Clare, Michelle, Orla, and the wee English lad James, are growing up, moving beyond Our Lady Immaculate College. On Derry Girls Season 3 Episode 4, they adventure away from their parents, albeit not willingly, and their maturity gets tested.

We perhaps see the most growth from James. Played by Dylan Llewellyn, he gets behind the wheel during the trip, for once leading the gang. Suddenly, he’s full of wisdom too, with philosophical one-liners filled with newfound wisdom.

James: What terrified me most was all the things I hadn’t done, and all the things I hadn’t said because I’d been too scared, or… or too nervous.

Between the long-hinted romantic gestures and surprisingly adult resourcefulness, James comes into his own, additionally displayed alongside Erin and Michelle– characters finally getting to prove themselves and showing deeper complex layers in these final episodes.

Derry Girls Season 3 Episode 5 is a rare departure from the girl gang. The episode stars the moms, supporting characters that served the purpose of comedic fodder for much of the series.

Petition for a spin-off with the parents! They rock in the episode, and it’s so great to see another side of them.

Derry Girls Season 3 Episode 5 is also a heart-wrenching contrast to Derry Girls Season 3 Episode 6, easily the saddest episode of the whole series where humor no long outshines any tragic circumstances in the instance of Clare’s father’s death.

Suddenly, the girl gang’s magical little Derry bubble burst into reality with pain just as Clare starts to come into her own, finally kissing a girl at the Halloween concert and looking forward to starting university.

Initially, viewers in the UK and Ireland believed Derry Girls Season 3 Episode 6 to be the final episode… can you imagine? Yet, the hour-long series finale premiered the next night, reigniting the delightful hope that’s come to define the series.

If Derry Girls Season 3 has any flaws, it’s a contestant nit-picky problem of some comedic bits dragging on just a tad too long.

The KitKats on the train cart bit in Derry Girls Season 3 Episode 3 went in circles, feeling never-ending. Orla’s cluelessness and her mother Sarah’s naïveté get overplayed, sometimes missing the mark comically and over-doing it.

And there’s also the disappointing letdown of Erin and James’s almost non-existent romance. To the show’s credit, I’m still upset about this “almost-ship.”

Derry Girls‘ creator and only writer, Lisa McGee, said in a press panel that she didn’t want a love story to take over from the fact that the show’s a friendship story about a powerful group of young girls. She added that James and Erin’s future together remains open-ended.

It makes sense, Derry Girls is a love letter to Northern Ireland, adolescence, and friendship — overcoming the trials of growing up in a world full of conflict that doesn’t quite make sense. As Erin says right at the end of Derry Girls Season 3 Episode 7:

Erin: There’s a part of me that doesn’t really want to grow up.

Me too, Erin, and there’s a part of me that doesn’t want Derry Girls to end either, but end it must.

Additional Thoughts:

• The best cameo role of the year goes to… Liam Neeson! What a delightful surprise from the Northern Irish
• The 90s music soundtrack is a highlight!
• Speaking of celebrity cameos, the strange additional scene with Chelsea Clinton felt unnecessary. I was ready to see the girl gang in the present!

What did you think of this season of Derry Girls? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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Derry Girls Season 3 is available to stream now on Netflix.

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