Normal People

I lost so much sleep when I discovered this heart-warming, heart-wrenching, and heart-breaking masterpiece. It's uncanny how I can relate to such genuine and unexplainable attraction and emotion. Everybody should be so lucky to find a love like this once in a lifetime.

This absolute stunner of a TV series crept up on me in the way only the best stories do. Initially it seemed like an honest but moderate enough coming of age story, however soon the sweep of time takes us further along in these people's lives. We watch them grow as their world around them evolves. The melancholy atmosphere, yearning soundtrack, Misty Irish setting and expansive time span lends the whole experience an epic quality, like a modern War and Peace. It feels incredibly rich for a series only 6 hours long and at times left me as an emotional jelly. Let it wash over you and enjoy.

This was an incredibly moving drama. One of the most tender and sad love stories I've watched (warning: nudity and sexual situations). The two primary characters are so complicated and vulnerable, I couldn't help loving and suffering with them, myself. This is beautifully performed, written and directed. Based on a book, of the same title (which I just downloaded on Audible), nominated for 44 media awards (Emmys, BAFTAs, etc.) and winner of 17. I give this limited series a 9 (superb) out of 10. {Drama, Love Story}

I started watching this show, thinking it'd be another high school drama with pretty twenty-somethings acting out a middle-aged dude's regurgitation of every other high school drama. I figured that if it didn't suck too bad, it'd be good to have on in the background while I did other things. Instead, I found myself just stopping to watch. Everything about the show, the writing, acting, cinematography, design, etc. captures the tiny moments they way they feel instead of what they look like. It's like life. Beautiful, bland, and, oh, so painful.

Outspoken student Marianne Sheridan (Daisy Edgar-Jones) is an outcast at school. Connell Waldron (Paul Mescal) is the quiet popular jock. His mother works as a cleaning lady in the Sheridan's large family home. The two Irish teens have a secret sexual relationship but he refuses to acknowledge her in public. Their lives and loves would intertwine over the years.

I have to be really honest. I was a little unconvinced at first. The actors are too old to play teens. Both characters have issues that put me off. Marianne is too bitter. Connell is too quiet and his treatment of her is emotionally brutal. By the fourth episode, the age thing stops mattering. Quite frankly if I knew they would be aging up in the show, I wouldn't sweat that issue. As for these characters, they really grow on me, both as roles and the actors. These young new faces are truly engaging and they are beautiful to boot. As characters, there are emotions beneath that are really worthwhile to explore. They become more and more fully formed people and that's the brilliance of this limited series. These are great characters performed by compelling new faces.