Derry Girls New Series

[Taytocrisps]

Counting down the days here.

Definitely tears shed here 😢
Loved that episode!

'I am glad there is another one as that would be too too sad to end it that way.'

Tomorrows episode is supposed to be set around the time of the Good Friday Agreement so I will be surprised if the Omagh bomb isn't at least mentioned. That is the overarching theme of Derry Girls really, the tragedy and the hope. I expect to sob my heart out in any case even if only because it's over!

Apparently tomorrow's episode is 12 months later. I'm hoping it's a good one!

Bloody hell, I wasn't expecting that. In floods here! Brilliant acting this episode, they really are a fantastic cast.

So - a different sort of bomb going off in their lives … That was all so beautifully done.

Is the finale really tomorrow?!!!

It didn’t work for me personally. I haven’t really been as into s3 as the previous two. I think the first series worked really well and then they just desperately tried to follow the same pattern of nostalgic-sweet innocent moment juxtaposed with tragedy. Worked beautifully with the kids dancing in the talent show contrasted with the bomb, but this ending felt forced to try and elicit a sympathetic response without actually doing any work.

I felt like that moment was really forced. Like they realised what they were going to do and thought ‘oh but nobody will actually care because we haven’t actually developed this character or relationship in any way whatsoever. Maybe if we just try and jam in a sentimental moment really quickly it will work.’

I thought the dad was going to be killed in the Greysteele Halloween massacre. In the end it was a more natural ending. More realistic. First loves coinciding with the loss of a parent. Have loved every second of this wonderful series_ all 3 . I salute you Lusa McGee, cast and crew! Such a unique and authentic series.

Oops Lisa I mean!! Too much wine.

forced …

Well, the writer has said Clare’s father’s death was based on her own experience as a teen when the father of one of her friends died. (I forget which review I read this in overnight.)

It might not have had the elegant poetry of the previous two finales which so potently set youthful innocence against national events - but it was very much How Life Is. (And they had established Clare’s da as a character earlier in the series. It was he who spoke so sweetly about her coming out, at the school dance.)

Brilliant episode, I'm really looking forward to the finale tonight.

The ending had me in tears but I was loving Sarah's accidental proposal to Kieron

Engagement rather!

I was half asleep watching it so will need to watch again but my initial reaction was that I didn't like the ending. Clare's father was far too much of a peripheral character for me to care. And in fact Clare herself is my least favourite main character.
Although I am glad it wasn't a troubles related death. That would have felt a bit too obvious.

It hit me in the gut as I lost my mother at exactly that age (October after GCSEs) from a sudden huge stroke and found out from someone else’s mum when I was called back from a school trip.

I feel a bit like that as well. I couldn't even remember seeing Clares dad before, so it didn't have the sucker punch that it would have been if it had been Gerry or Joe.

Perhaps its because it felt like Clare was barely in it this season as well.

I understand what they were trying to do, with the juxtaposition of having the best moment of her life followed by the worse. But to me, it felt a bit rushed to be over and done with in less than 3 minutes....

Sister Michael will be on Woman’s Hour today! (Towards the end, apparently.)

I feel like Erin and James might have been a better ending with him saying "I'll wait". I felt more invested in that.

I just felt like it was a grab for sympathy without really making the effort, by killing off a character nobody really knew or cared about. I don’t even know the character’s name. And it felt like pushing in the death of a character who was one step above an extra in in the last 10 minutes was just a bit blah.

Even the kiss with the shop girl seemed forced and rushed to me - it was nothing like James and Erin kissing, which I’d say has been building ever since her jealousy over him and the Ukrainian girl, with him taking her to the dance when she’s stood up, then eventually kissing etc. This was just forced and lazy, with a sudden character being pushed in who we find out is a lesbian, Claire saying just because she’s gay doesn’t mean she’s attracted to every other lesbian (then kissing the only other lesbian we’ve seen in the show) then them kissing randomly without bothering to have a conversation. It just felt like they were trying to develop a lot without the effort of character and plot development. It didn’t feel satisfying.

Yeah agree with this. If you're going to kill off a character in the final episode of a series then kill off a major character. It just fell a bit flat.

Glad that they didn't kill off a major character. I'd have preferred no death at all. I did like the image of being embraced by angel wings, but still, I agreed about it being a "grab for sympathy" that didn't feel fully earned.

I don't think it was about us feeling the death of a character we care for though - it was about us feeling the impact on Claire, and on the group as a whole. The girls didn't love Claire's dad, but they love Claire; it's about the shock that something so huge and random and mundane could reach right into their world and rock it to its foundations.

I didn't mind the girl from the record shop either; for me it was more about the hope for Claire that she'd ever meet another girl. I can well believe she felt like the only lesbian in all of NI, not just Derry - and she didn't have the internet. I was a year or two younger in the rather more cosmopolitan Belfast and I didn't meet an out gay woman there ever. Some of the girls I went to school with subsequently came out, but not until some years later. Now, things would be very different - she'd have been in the local online LGBTeens group before you could blink.

Interesting article in the Times today with Lisa McGee who as a pp said, based Clare’s Dad’s death on a similar incident happening IRL. She said it is signifying them all having to grow up but remain supportive. I was a bit 😩 as I was watching with DD to relieve exam stress and we both ended up going to bed not cheered up at all…

Loved this episode. Very clever how it can go from funny to poignant and sad in a moment.

I also liked:

• that Gerry did explain to Ciaran, despite his strong objections, just because he knew he was the only person who would explain it both kindly and directly.
• James putting his arm wordlessly around Orla when she said that Claire's dad would be okay, right? Like Sarah, Orla is "special".