It is a dramatic series embodies the story of Marianne and Connell from the end of their school days in a small town in western Ireland to college years at Trinity College. During this period, the duo were living in constant communication while there was an indelible growth and strange contact among adolescents. They both seem determined to hide this strange relationship.
The beauty of the novel is that so much between its protagonists is left unsaid, but perhaps it might have been better if the BBC had left the literary version of Normal People to speak for itself.
"Normal People" could be the first work in Rooney's "Before" trilogy, another epic and intimate romance built around an undeniable, impractical spark. After all, it may have been done before, but it hasn't been told like this.
Occasionally, their inability to simply express themselves frustrated me, but Edgar-Jones and Mescal do such a good job of communicating the tortured feelings bouncing around in their characters' skull that you recognize the misery they're going through.
The show finds emotional power in its finely modulated lead performances, which have ample room to unfold. The effects are sneaky, cumulative, dependent on your willingness to agonize with the characters across four years and a series of sloppy partings.
The 12-episode adaptation... is so faithful to the letter of the novel (Rooney co-wrote the first six scripts) that it winds up being different in spirit-swoonier, not that swoony is a bad thing.
