Normal People

It’s a triumph in every way, from acting and direction to script, and if we see a better drama – certainly about adolescence, one which takes it seriously without treating it indulgently – this year, I’d be very surprised. It’s a beautiful, hugely beautiful thing.

Hulu’s immaculate adaptation of a novel already hailed as a modern classic. ... “Normal People” is not only a worthy retelling of a great book; it’s a remarkable love story, both epic and intimate.

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.

This is not a nostalgia-soaked school fantasy, but a drama for grown-ups about growing up in a small town. It is, however, a romance, and an utterly riveting one.

Edgar-Jones and Mescal are utterly convincing as two brainy kids who know instantly that they have a special bond, yet are clueless how to express it. ... It is a pleasure to watch, just as the book was a pleasure to read — except different.

Something uncannily smart, sophisticated and seductively melancholy. Readers are always concerned about how “faithful” an adaptation is going to be. But it’s hard to imagine “Normal People” devotees not lapping up this adaptation precisely because it is something all its own—which, if you haven’t read the book, isn’t bad news either.

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.

I found it all moving and emotionally wrecking, in the best way. Some viewers, I imagine, will find it goopy, or much ado about a much-told story. ... Edgar-Jones and Mescal are radiant individually — she’s a beacon, he’s an ember. But they also create something collectively. ... “Normal People” looks and sounds like a teen melodrama about falling in love and getting it on. But more than that, it’s a double-barreled bildungsroman, an empathetic study of two young people coming, together, of age.

Normal People will punch you in the gut just as much as it embraces you in a hug.

With its trifecta of elegant writing, directing, and acting, Hulu’s “Normal People” is just as bleak and uncompromising as Rooney’s novel — a feat, and one that takes several episodes to fully absorb. In fact, it took me until about halfway through to understand just how much it was affecting me. ... As Marianne and Connell’s relationship grows deeper, “Normal People” becomes as immersive as the book that inspired it, making you both crave and dread knowing — or perhaps more accurately, experiencing — what happens next.

Excellent. ... Of the show's two young stars, much is asked, and even more is given. They are spectacular, apart but especially together, at conveying the vulnerability and longing essential to making a love story like this work. [Apr 2020, p.88]

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 is a beautiful piece of work, capturing the fervid intensity of a first teenage sexual relationship with charm and poignancy. This is almost entirely due to the quality of the two lead actors, although the lean dialogue helps too.

Considering how elegantly the silence speaks in these episodes, and how expertly its stars use the airy, dialogue-free moments to allow their expressiveness to say aloud what their characters can't or more often refuse to, I doubt many will care about the production's fealty to the page. More striking is the series' steady, unhurried pacing and its willingness to examine the weight of memory and regret.

The show rests on the chemistry between the two actors, and their ability to convey wordlessly what each character is thinking. On-screen, Edgar-Jones and Mescal generate so much intensity that any scene without the two of them almost feels like an affront. ... Their relationship is the force that sustains the story, not anything specific that might happen.

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.

[Normal People] is so faithful to the letter of the novel (Rooney co-wrote the first six scripts) that it winds up being different in spirit—swoonier, not that swoony is a bad thing. Despite the care and attendance to just about every scene, beat, and glance in the 266-page novel, it has become a proper knee-buckling romance, the sort of show that lodges in one’s mind as if it were filmed in soft focus.

In the end, Normal People is not the second coming of Dawson’s Creek, the forever pinnacle of cheesy-slash-earnest teen dramas. It’s crafted with much more care and artistry than its WB forebears, and it’s sadder and darker than they were too. But there’s a sweet, silly soapiness to this show that makes it all the more appealing to get lost in.

The result is a show that is surprisingly honest, frequently heartbreaking, and sometimes frustrating, but always worth watching.

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.

Divided into 12 half-hour chapters, the adaptation arrives burdened by prestige-TV trappings, which is to say that the production is unassailably handsome and disappointingly anesthetized.

Generally speaking, the characters, as outlined on the page, are distinctly plain and painted with broad strokes, which serves to highlight Edgar-Jones and Mescal’s acting ability but demonstrates that their talents are in service of a substandard product.

A gloomy adaptation of Irish author Sally Rooney’s 2018 novel that is comprised of twelve half-hour episodes, each one more maddening and less compelling than the last. ... The sole bright spot of “Normal People” is the performance by Edgar-Jones, which transcends the shortcomings of the material considerably with its complexity and nuance, though I grew increasingly tired of watching her character being physically and verbally abused by everyone. ... What we’re left with is a frustrating, fractured romance between an inarticulate weakling and a woman who deserves so much better.