Normal People (TV series)

Main

• Daisy Edgar-Jones as Marianne Sheridan, an affluent, outspoken student who struggles with social acceptance. She begins a secret relationship in their last year of secondary school with Connell.
• Paul Mescal as Connell Waldron, a popular, high-achieving student and athlete who struggles with anxiety. He begins a secret relationship in their last year of secondary school with Marianne.^[7]
• Sarah Greene as Lorraine Waldron,^[a] Connell's single mother, who is employed as the Sheridans' cleaner. She shares a close relationship with Connell and Marianne.

Recurring

• Aislín McGuckin as Denise Sheridan, Marianne and Alan's single mother who suffered domestic abuse from their father. Denise fails to contain Alan's abuse towards Marianne.
• Éanna Hardwicke as Rob Hegarty, a close friend of Connell's from school.
• Frank Blake as Alan Sheridan, Marianne's abusive brother.
• Eliot Salt as Joanna, a close friend of Marianne's at college.
• India Mullen as Peggy, a wealthy member of Marianne's social circle at college.
• Desmond Eastwood as Niall, Connell's university flatmate who encourages Connell and Marianne's relationship.
• Sebastian de Souza as Gareth, Connell’s outspoken college classmate and Marianne's ex-boyfriend.
• Fionn O'Shea as Jamie, part of Marianne's social circle at Trinity College who goes on to date Marianne.
• Leah McNamara as Rachel Moran, part of Connell's social circle at school and his ex-girlfriend.
• Seán Doyle as Eric, one of Connell's school friends.
• Niamh Lynch as Karen, a friendly school acquaintance of Marianne's.
• Kwaku Fortune as Philip, a friend of Marianne's at college.
• Clinton Liberty as Kiernan.
• Aoife Hinds as Helen Brophy, Connell's girlfriend at college.
• Lancelot Ncube as Lukas, Marianne's abusive boyfriend in Sweden.
• Noma Dumezweni as Gillian, Connell's therapist.

Development and casting

In May 2019, it was announced that BBC Three and Hulu would adapt Rooney's novel into a limited series which will premiere in 2020. Paul Mescal and Daisy Edgar-Jones were also announced to star as Connell and Marianne, respectively.^[8] The remainder of the cast, including Aislín McGuckin and Sarah Greene, was rounded out soon after.^[9] Rooney was hired to adapt her novel alongside Alice Birch and Mark O'Rowe. Lenny Abrahamson and Hettie Macdonald were then confirmed as directors, with the Irish company Element Pictures acting as the series' lead producers.^[10][11]

Filming

Principal photography began on location in County Sligo and Dublin in May 2019.^[12] Tubbercurry primarily made up the fictional town of Carricklea, with Streedagh Point along Wild Atlantic Way used for beach scenes, Knockmore House in Enniskerry for the Sheridans' residence, and a terraced home in Shankill for the Waldrons' residence.

Hartstown Community School in Clonsilla was used to depict the secondary school scenes, which featured real students as extras.^[13] Students from Trinity College Dublin were also used as extras during filming at the university.^[14][15] Scenes at Marianne's Dublin flat were shot on Wellington Road in Ballsbridge.

Although set in Trieste in the novel, filming took place in Central Italy, primarily in and around Sant'Oreste, Stimigliano, and the villa Il Casale on Tenuta di Verzano, in Lazio. Scenes set in Luleå were filmed in February 2020 to ensure adequate snowfall and for the Baltic Sea to be frozen over for a scene depicting Marianne walking.^[11]

Music

• Episode 1 ends with the song "Warped Windows" by Anna Mieke.
• Episode 2 opens with the song "Did It To Myself" by Orla Gartland and ends with the song "Angeles" by Elliott Smith.
• Episode 3 ends with the song "Only You" by Yazoo.
• Episode 4 ends with the song "Undertow" by Lisa Hannigan.
• Episode 5 ends with the song "Make You Feel My Love" covered by Ane Brun.
• Episode 6 opens with the song "Too Much" by Carly Rae Jepsen.
• Episode 7 ends with the song "Metrona" by The Sei.
• Episode 8 ends with the song "Love Will Tear Us Apart" covered by Nerina Pallot.
• Episode 9 opens with the song "Rare" by Selena Gomez and ends with the song "Scene Suspended" by Jon Hopkins.
• Episode 10 ends with the song "Everything I Am Is Yours" by Villagers.
• Episode 11 ends with the song "Strange Weather" by Anna Calvi featuring David Byrne.
• Episode 12 starts with the song "The Subterranean Heart" by Mount Alaska and ends with the song "Sometimes" by Goldmund.^[16]

The series also featured music from The Young Will Eat The Old, the debut album from Irish hip hop duo Tebi Rex.^[17]

Critical response

The series has received universal acclaim. On Rotten Tomatoes, the series has a 91% rating, with an average score of 8.2/10 based on 91 reviews. The site's critical consensus reads, "Anchored by Daisy Edgar-Jones and Paul Mescal's vulnerable performances, Normal People is at once intimate and illuminating, beautifully translating the nuances of its source material."^[25] On Metacritic, the series has a score of 82 out of 100, based on reviews from 25 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".^[26]

In a positive review for Variety, Caroline Framke wrote: "With its trifecta of elegant writing, directing, and acting, Normal People is just as bleak and uncompromising as Rooney's novel, making you both crave and dread knowing—or perhaps more accurately, experiencing—what happens."^[27] NPR's Linda Holmes praised the main cast's performances and their chemistry, writing, "[Mescal and Edgar-Jones] have the vulnerability it takes to maintain confidence. They've both figured out how to put a particular warmth in their eyes when they're able to find those connected moments, like a light that flips on. [Mescal] is a stunning talent for someone who is genuinely just starting out in television — it's a treat to see [the actors] work so well together".^[28]

In a negative review, Jessa Crispin of The Guardian called the series "a gutless soap opera for millennials" and wrote the series is a "dull, tedious reworking of a romance plot as old as time". Crispin also criticized its unrealistic depiction of university freshmen, casting of older actors to play teenagers, and lack of depth, writing, "[Normal People] analyzes itself with offhand comments so you don't have to do any thinking."^[29] In another negative review, Matt Fagerholm of RogerEbert.com compared Normal People to "being stuck on a bad date that refuses to end", criticizing its writing, Mescal's casting, and its "cowardly" and "unforgivable" characters, calling Marianne a "despairing addition to an array of submissive heroines routinely defined by the men in their lives" and concluded that the series is "a frustrating, fractured romance between an inarticulate weakling and a woman who deserves much better".^[30]

The series received controversy for its nudity and sex scenes:^[31] while the work of Ita O'Brien as the show's intimacy coordinator was praised,^[32] some viewers called in to complain on Liveline, arguing the nudity was excessive or inappropriate.^[33] The series also received controversy by excluding overt mentions of The Communist Manifesto and The Golden Notebook: Rooney, who describes herself as a Marxist, included overt mentions of those books in her original novel.^[34]

Viewing figures

Normal People reportedly gave BBC Three its best ever week on iPlayer (26 April to 3 May), receiving over 16.2 million programme requests across the 12 episodes, about 5 million of which were from 16- to 34-year-olds, and bringing BBC Three requests up to 21.8 million, doubling the previous record of 10.8 million from the release of the first series of Killing Eve. Seventy per cent of BBC Three requests that week were for Normal People and a quarter had finished all 12 episodes.^[35][36] It became the most-streamed series of the year on the BBC, with 62.7 million views from April to November 2020.^[37]

The first two episodes were reported to have been watched on RTÉ One by an average of 371,000 viewers with an additional 19,000 on RTÉ One +1 and 301,000 streams on RTÉ Player, becoming the most watched opening of a drama series on RTÉ Player. Thirty per cent of 15- to 34-year-olds watching TV were watching Normal People.^[38] The finale had over 319,000 viewers, 33% of the total RTÉ audience and 20% increase over the previous week. In June 2020, it was reported that Normal People had garnered over 3 million views on RTÉ Player, breaking the previous record for the streaming service of 1.2 million, which was held by the fourth series of Love/Hate.^[39]

Speaking on the series' popularity, Prathyush Parasuraman of Film Companion wrote: "Rarely have I seen the sort of cultural dialogue that I saw [from] the release of Normal People."^[40]

Awards and nominations