If we think of reviewing a TV show or film as observing someone throw a large rock into a pristine lake, I believe that most critics often spend too much time reporting on the height of the splash. They do this with such speed that they often miss the ripples that are beginning to smoothly race over the surface.
Back in April when the BBC/Hulu's adaptation of Sally Rooney's Booker longlisted novel Normal People first appeared, it was clear that a splash of some proportion had been made. Five-star reviews followed five-star reviews. Words like ‘triumph' and ‘masterpiece' were used again and again. I was furloughed at the time and I devoured it within a matter of days; it was clear we were instantly obsessed with this intimate story of teenage love.
But obsessions, especially in this age, fade fast.
Five months on, however, the show that launched a thousand lusty Reddit threads about that chain, has not only maintained its lovability, it has also matured into something close to (and I don't use this phrase lightly) era-defining; in my eyes, it is clear that the initial response caught the show's splash but underestimated the ripples it would cause.
Revisiting the six-hour-long series, I was amazed by how Normal People manages to be so dense and restrained at the same time. No show since maybe Mad Men, has raised a close-up of an actor to the point of sheer spectacle; there is more content, emotion, and complexity in a few tight shots of the lead actors Daisy Edgar-Jones and Paul Mescal than there are in hours of others shows. Their incredible performances coupled with the pared-back scripts lay bare the intricately grand struggle between the internal and external; watching the two perform is like witnessing an earthquake: we see and feel the strong reverberations on the surface but we are aware that underneath there is something far more powerful tearing itself apart.
But when this struggle gives way and Connell (Mescal) and Marianne (Edgar-Jones) end up entwined in each other's arms, the show can convert and compress all that erupting energy into the most precious of jewels. Lenny Abrahamson and Hettie Macdonald's (who each direct half of the series) depiction of sex is devoid of the fetishization that plagues lesser shows. Even the show's exploration of BDSM, which is perhaps one of the few occasions the show encourages obvious conclusions, does justify the conclusions it makes and does so with integrity.
None of this means that the show isn't sexy: there is a clear wholesomeness but there is also exhilaration and breathless want. It is a story soaked in desire, in which the two young people before us, who struggle so much to find the right words, achieve pure communication through the physical.
Nevertheless, Normal People is not entirely about love. It is also an extremely thorough investigation of class privilege, consent, depression, and identity in the Twenty-First Century. Watching it again just under six months after the UK First went into lockdown – and being on the precipice of new restrictions put in place – I became more attuned to how the show is also a painstakingly acute exploration of loneliness and isolation. Be it Connell's inability to fit in at university or Marianne's self-exile in Scandinavia, or even the loneliness of a mind trapped by its inability to articulate itself – all captured with the show's expert direction, beautiful visual and sound production, that emphasises every touch and caress – are lent an extra sombreness by the current crisis. A crisis where so many people are separated from the person they love or have, in more heart-breaking instances, had that one person who knows them so well pass away.
I am very lucky. In my life, I have only ever been in love with one person and, thankfully, she loves me back – even when I forget to do the washing up (which I do a regular basis). I am also incredibly fortunate that during this incredibly difficult time I have remained healthy and have been able to live with that one person who I love and loves me back.
Normal People tells us a truth that we all know but often forget: that when we find someone we love do not let them go, because we can never be fully content when we are alone and we can never be fully ourselves without that person. It is a simple truth, but a truth more evident now than ever before.
Dir: Lenny Abrahmson & Hettie Macdonald
Cast: Daisy Edgar-Jones, Paul Mescal, Desmond Eastwood, Sarah Greene, Fionn O'Shea & more.
Scr: Alison Birch, Sally Rooney
Year: 2020
Country: UK/USA
Number of Episodes: 12
Normal People is available on DVD from November 2nd. The DVD features never-before-seen exclusive extras that include Deleted Scenes as well as Edgar-Jones' and Mescal's Audition Tape.
