A new teen love story for the ages
I’m always part of the target audience for a good love story, and this adaptation of Sally Rooney’s novel Normal People will tick just about every box if you consider yourself a fan of romance. The book about young love in Ireland takes form with newcomers Daisy Edgar-Jones and Paul Mescal as the leads, and it is a soaring, beautifully acted, emotional story of two teenagers who fall in and out of love in high school and then through their college years.
The show is directed by Lenny Abrahamson (Room) and Hettie MacDonald, who each did half the episodes, which are just under a half hour (unusual for a drama), making it easy to binge within a few days, if that. The show’s become notable for its sex scenes, which reminds me of the early audience reaction toward Outlander, another series known for its intense, long sex scenes, especially early on. The success of that kind of intimacy onscreen is almost entirely dependent on the chemistry of the actors, and luckily they hit the jackpot here. Mescal and Edgar-Jones make a huge impression as the two tortured teens, and the naturalistic dialogue and intense emotional longing between them feels real. Abrahamson especially directs episodes in long close ups and creates an intimate, visceral connection between the characters and the audience, bringing us along for Connell and Marianne’s coming of age journey.
The show is just about perfect as an adaptation, and the first three episodes in particular are startling in how quickly the show hooks you into the lives of these characters. Paul Mescal’s Connell is the popular jock and Edgar-Jones’s Marianne is the smart, rich outcast, and the two begin a secret romance that is kept hidden from Connell’s friends at school due to his insecurities over her social status. The relationship goes through various heartbreaks and separations but the two cross paths again (and again) through college and can never quite detach from each other.
Some of Connell and Marianne’s inability to connect is frustrating
What problems I had with the series come more from the source material, since the show is so carefully plotted that it covers nearly all of author Rooney’s novel (she co-adapted this miniseries herself with Alice Birch). Though the first six episodes are authentic and devastating in emotional impact, the show loses something in the second half when MacDonald takes over as director, and the reasons for Connell and Marianne’s break-up and waffling reconciliation is never convincingly stated or shown. The aimless wandering and hook-ups with other people are never portrayed as satisfying to either one of them as they continue to long for only each other and you start to wonder…why is it they’re not together? The show doesn’t need to be twelve episodes, as some of the detours taken in the second half are clearly meant to draw things out, but the biggest problem with dragging out their reunion is the complete lack of development of a single supporting character.. Connell and Marianne go through various other romantic partners, none of whom are given any dimension or depth, and frankly every person on the show besides the two leads is an obnoxious, anonymous vessel. You find yourself waiting for the inevitable reunion if only to get these other people off the screen and get back to the sex scenes- and that doesn’t need to drag on for twelve episodes (this could have been done in eight).
Still, while you’re watching it you’re mainly captivated by the performances and the angst, and it’s only after it’s over that you start thinking about all the unnecessary padding (though the problems and non-explanations for their slowness to just get back together already remain, as I’m sure it does in the book as well).
Grade: A-
Young Irish love
