Derry Girls – Strangers on a Train Review

The third season of Derry Girls has reached the obligatory travel episode with “Strangers on a Train.” This time the gang and the Quinn household face some awkward situations when on the train to Portrush.

It’s the annual trip to Barry’s Amusement Park in the seaside town of Portrush. A simple hour-long train trip quickly goes pear-shaped when one of the girls gets left behind at Londonderry train station, the gang experience a luggage mix-up. and Mary and Sarah meet a person from their past that they can’t remember.

Season Three of Derry Girls has been a rollercoaster so far. “The Night Before” was a weaker episode that had a great cameo and Uncle Colm boring the police into submission, whilst “The Affair” was a hilarious offering from the series. “Strangers on a Train” saw the show going downwards.

“Strangers on a Train” had a sense of overfamiliarity to it. The plot was similar to the Season One episode “Holiday” where the gang goes with Erin’s family on a camping holiday and finds an IRA terrorist stowed away in their car. In “Strangers on a Train” the gang ends up annoying a grumpy man who accidentally mixes up James’ backpack with his own. The gang find out they had a gun, £1000 in cash, and a packet of crisps. The conflict for them was finding a way to return the bag without the gentleman noticing.

“Strangers on a Train” had a standard sitcom plot yet Lisa McGee has elevated these stock plots. The added elements in this episode were The Troubles. The man had a gun and was probably an IRA gunman so the gang couldn’t just say ‘excuse me, sir, I believe there has been a mix-up.’ There was potential for comedy with a little bit of commentary about life in 1990s Northern Ireland. Yet the episode suffered from weak jokes and characterisation.

The gang seemed to suffer from Flanderization, the process of characters being reduced to their basic traits. Orla suffered the most from this. Orla was always an oddball with no sense of social boundaries but she was generally a well-meaning character. In “Strangers on a Train” Orla was reckless. She spends £500 on a Kit-Kat and points an electric toothbrush at the train’s trolley dolly. She crossed the line that made her character so fun and special to irritating. Orla’s best moment was when she put on a balaclava

The humour involving the gang was a lot broader than in previous episodes. The gang had an odd Mexican stand-off with Fra (Michael Fry) the Trolley Dolly and James were forced to put on some high heel boots. The sharpness of the jokes and writing disappeared with the gang.

The scene of familiarity also extends to the character of Fra. Fra was a short-tempered man who got into an argument with the gang about a Kit-Kat and he shouted at them. He was pretty much a younger version of Dennis.

It was the adults that provided the better comedy in the episode. Mary and Sarah ran into someone from their past that they can’t remember. The humour felt more grounded and relatable: I have been in similar situations and had to pretend I remembered someone who knew me. Mary and Sarah had funny interactions with each other as they tried to devise a plan. Joe came up with a great excuse as to why he couldn’t remember who the woman was. Joe’s wink to Gerry was the icing on the cake.

Some actions in the episode did bring back some memories for me. I have run many times in desperation trying to catch a train and when the adults played Guess Who it brought back memories of playing the travel version when I went on family holidays.

“Strangers on a Train” seemed like it was written to accommodate Nicola Coughlan’s schedule. Coughlan has a major role in Bridgerton which makes her incredibly busy. So, in this episode, Clare missed the train and was stuck at Londonderry’s train station. Clare spent most of it in the waiting room and it felt tacked on to the rest of the episode.

The final issue with “Strangers on a Train” was its placement in the series. It should have been the second episode of the season because it would have been the last day of summer fun before the gang had to go back to school. The obvious issue with the episode’s placement was Sister Michael’s appearance. In “The Night Before” she appeared with a leg injury and in the following episode she had healed up. But in “Strangers on a Train” she was walking on crutches again.

“Strangers on a Train” sadly doesn’t live up to the high standards that the first two seasons had set. Fortunately, the adults were able to make the episode enjoyable.