“Normal People”: Lose yourself to Connell and Marianne

where to watch: Hulu

when to watch: when you’re ready for an intense love story, when you have time to binge

you should note: The second half of the season was directed by Hettie Macdonald, the season was co-written by Sally Rooney and Alice Birch. Sarah Greene as Lorraine, Connell’s mother, is outstanding! This is the second show I’ve written about with a female cinematographer!

tl;dr: The story of two Irish teens as they come of age, both together and separately.

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This is the kind of show that makes me want to write poetry.

Based on the critically acclaimed novel of the same name, Normal People is the story of Connell and Marianne. These two young Irish teens first begin seeing each other secretly in their last year of secondary school. A year later, they run into each other again at Trinity College. As time goes by, they stray from each other but always seem to be pulled back into each other’s orbits. Even when they are not together, they cannot be apart. 

I will put it bluntly. I fell head-over-heels in love for this show and could watch it over and over again. Scenes from the series have been floating in my head for nearly a week. In fact, I’ve already started rewatching it, and I’m not the only one.

It’s difficult to enumerate what makes Normal People so enthralling, but I think it’s the way it makes you feel. Even if there are some flaws in the narrative, it’s so easy to get lost in Connell and Marianne and the lush landscapes of Ireland. 

the cinematography

Rarely does the cinematography of a TV show have such a profound and visible effect that I feel I have to dedicate an entire section to it, but so much of the mood that Normal People creates is through its careful cinematography. The majority of the show uses a cool color palette, with very few brightly lit scenes. There is an overall sense of gray. 

The show also features an abundance of extreme close-ups that move in and out of focus. The camera is often so close to the faces, necks, and heads of our leads, it can feel disorienting—in the best way possible. The prevalence of close-ups makes the wider shots feel more striking and meaningful. Every shot in this show is beautiful, but one that particularly sticks out is a shot from Connell’s perspective of swimming towards Marianne in a swimming pool. 

The cinematography echoes everything else about this show—it’s intense, quiet, personal. 

the leads

The heart and soul of this show are Daisy Edgar-Jones as Marianne and Paul Mescal as Connell. Their chemistry is uncanny. I found them to be simply breathtaking. 

This show uses silence extremely effectively—for every line of dialogue, something is left unsaid. And with so many extreme close-ups, every tiny eye movement, every flicker, every glance is vital, and not every actor could pull it off. Edgar-Jones and Mescal are more than up to the task. They’re positively magnetic. Paul Mescal conveys such gentleness as Connell, while Edgar-Jones gives a masterclass in the “I’m vulnerable, but I don’t want to show it” expression.

The two of them have an outstanding ability to make you feel as if you are intruding on Connell and Marianne’s most private moments. Yet, you cannot bear to take your eyes away even for a second.

Together with the careful direction and cinematography which utilizes an abundance of extreme close-ups, you will be pulled into Connell and Marianne’s relationship in an intense and immersive viewing experience. 

the sex

The sex scenes in this show have started quite the conversation, and it would be remiss of me not to mention them. They’re probably the best sex scenes to have ever been on TV. They feel decidedly un-Hollywood-ified, and each scene furthers the narrative. The scenes are never cheap; in fact, they feel artistic in their honesty. The show’s use of an intimacy coordinator has been extensively covered, and I encourage you to read more about it. Normal People is a testament to the importance and power of these intimacy coordinators. 

in conclusion

Many of the tweets about this show have compared it to a drug, and I cannot disagree. It’s overwhelming. You get swept up in the emotions, it’s impossible not to. The locations—the Irish countryside, Dublin, Stockholm, a stunning Italian villa. The music. The writing. Normal People stunningly illustrates the power of the simple love story.