Normal People

A love story that gets so close to the real deal that a viewer becomes as besotted as the lovers themselves. It’s one of the best works of TV I’ve watched so far this year, and the rare show during this pandemic stay-at-home saga that made me forget everything else.

Their grand romance proceeds by tiny gestures. It’s an impressive feat in writing, even more so in adaptation. ... We’re lucky it’s so unusually good.

Normal People, which starts out as a teen romance but evolves over its 12 episodes into a richer, broader portrait of the way first love imprints itself on the psyche. ... There’s an intoxicating wistful and melancholy vibe in Normal People, conjured by its performances, the misty, bucolic Irish setting, and, especially, the terrific songs featured on its soundtrack.

Normal People isn’t just some erotic but sweet story of turbulent young love. It’s a portrait of intimacy itself—and I do mean both kinds, sexual and emotional. There’s an earnestness to it that you won’t find in other TV shows aimed at young adults.

It’s a beautifully done series about love, sex, and class in Ireland that features a pair of indelible lead performances, by Daisy Edgar-Jones as Marianne and newcomer Paul Mescal as Connell. ... Occasionally, the story line gets murky; you may forget exactly where the lovers are on their journey, and you may begin to resent all their nebulous feelings — feelings that work better in writing than on the screen. I suspect eight episodes might have been a better length. But the acting will keep you engaged nevertheless, as these two souls struggle for communion.

Despite the long timespan of the series’ events, the characters’ emotional arcs move at a much slower pace and become lost in the minutiae of Connell’s and Marianne’s lives. This would be fine if the show were populated with compelling supporting characters with stories of their own, but Normal People isn’t interested in developing anyone outside of the main couple.

Beyond illustrating the angst of their mutual attraction with a thousand penetrating angles, Normal People’s TV adaptation fails as both an adaptation and as a standalone show. Without the details of the book, the story is featureless erotica, 12 episodes of two gorgeous people struggling to handle the implications of their ferocious attraction. ... The series strips Rooney’s novel of much of the tone and detail that makes Connell and Marianne worth reading about.

Daisy has no chance to “win” her deserved Golden Globe. Read “At the clinic” a sequel. This show was a book written after a short story- “At the Clinic.” Worth reading, but still frustrating!

Every once in a long while there's a series that's so good you want to slow down watching it because you don't ever want it to end.

What an amazing journey in the life of 2 persons, that build up a well of emotions and feelings during their teenage years, that became in a mutual unworded and indescribable love. That love is nothing more than a resual of ups and downs of relacion betwen two people that the first fase of their life developt a relacionshipt of undefined and uncertain feelings for each. Along this weird relacion that started in the last year of high school, both, with their weird experiences, uncertainties, frustrations, joys, loves and delusions, were dragged to a melancolic life that they actualy like each in their own way, but with an incredible similarity. What an amazing tv show! What an explosion of emocions! A culmination of something sentimentally inexplicable, which makes me want to achieve a similarity in my life.

Naturalistic, sensitive treatment of a much-loved novel. Good performances but characters strain believability at times. Overlong, yet imagining this made as a film proves ultimately there's not much substance to the show.

Maybe I crave fireworks instead of the slow burn of longing, the unspoken anxieties simmering just beneath the surface. So much unspoken longing, so much angst disguised as intellectual banter. Their chemistry, undeniable, but sometimes it felt like watching paint dry - beautiful, mesmerizing, but lacking the explosive brushstrokes that leave a lasting mark. Sure, some pieces were gorgeous - Connell's quiet strength, the Irish scenery that whispers a story with every cloud, the raw ache of unspoken desires. But others were chipped and frustrating, leaving me wanting more, wanting clearer definitions of "normal" than just two teenagers trapped in a push-pull of attraction and insecurity.