Another show lifted from the Guardian's Best of 2020 list was "Normal People", a show I'd seen hyped quite a lot, but evidently missed when it aired. I'm glad I took a little bit of time to watch the show slowly over the Christmas break, as, despite not being as salacious as I thought it might be, it has some truly wonderful performances.
In a small town in Ireland, two students, Marianne (Daisy Edgar-Jones) and Connell (Paul Mescal) begin a relationship, which they keep secret from their school friends. The connection seems to end though when both regret Connell's decision to take a different girl to the debs ball. Months later, the pair reconnect as both attend Trinity college, in Dublin. Though the dynamics of their relationship has changed, their connection remains tangible.
What I liked is that I felt both Marianne and Connell were well rounded characters that didn't fall into stereotypes. Connell is the school star Gaelic footballer, but he isn't a "jock" cliché - in that he's bright, bashful and soft spoken. Though it is a stretch to see Marianne as the "ugly duckling" at any point, she's spiky and damaged but that mostly comes from her family, rather than her schoolmates. I knew nothing about the story going in, so was really pleased when we got to the secret relationship coming to a head in the first few episodes. The show then resets, jumping forward to them both at University for a few months and the ability that gave for the characters to reinvent themselves.
I don't want to raise one to knock the other, as Daisy Edgar-Jones is excellent too, but I've seen her in other things. Paul Mescal is revelatory. So vulnerable and open to showing that Connell is as broken as Marianne, even if he has been able to mask it more.
That it pierced the heart of this wretched old soul speaks volumes to the quality of the series. I'll have to come to the next Sally Rooney adaptation a bit sooner.
