Broadcaster: BBC (U.K.), Hulu (U.S.)
Normal People, based on Sally Rooney’s 2018 bestselling novel of the same name, is a tender coming-of-age love story, centering on the on-off relationship between a young woman and a man who are outsiders in their own way.
The series depict how Marianne Sheridan (Daisy Edgar-Jones) and Connell Waldron (Paul Mescal) navigate adulthood from their final days in secondary school to their undergraduate years in Trinity College.
It was primarily written by Rooney and Alice Birch, and directed by Lenny Abrahamson (Room) and Hettie Macdonald.
Among her peers at secondary school, Marianne is regarded as an oddball, but she denies caring about her social standing.
Despite her academic achievements, Marianne’s home life is complicated by her dismissive mother, Denise, and her resentful brother, Alan. Her father, who is deceased, is later revealed to have been a domestic abuser, though her family avoids mentioning him.
Connell is an athletic, high-achieving student living with his single mother Lorraine, who is employed by Denise as a cleaner. He is popular in school, though he remains silent while Marianne is constantly bullied. This creates complexity as their relationship develops.
While examining class and privilege, the series depicts sexual relations in a realistic manner, avoiding graphic tawdriness.
Normal People is at once intimate and illuminating, beautifully reflecting the nuances of an ever-changing complex relationship.
The narrative moves up and down Ireland and dips periodically into mainland Europe following the charismatic lead pair, Daisy Edgar-Jones and Paul Mescal, who became global stars overnight.
From Element Pictures, producers of the Oscar-winning “The Favourite” and “Room,” the series benefits from the deft, unsentimental, direction skills of the latter film’s Lenny Abrahamson and Hettie Macdonald (“Howard’s End”) who directed six episodes each.
The BBC’s iPlayer received 62 million requests to watch the series.
At the Primetime Emmy Awards, the series received four nominations, including Outstanding Lead Actor for Mescal and Outstanding Directing for Abrahamson,
Normal People is available to watch on Hulu in the U.S.
