The series is an Irish romantic psychological drama produced by Element Pictures for BBC Three and Hulu in association with Screen Ireland. It’s based on the 2018 novel by the Irish author Sally Rooney.
Since the first time I read the book, ‘Normal People’, I knew I had to write about it. And when I watched the series, I penned down this piece.
Both the book and the series left a lasting impression on me.
Connell Waldron (Paul Mescal) and Marianne Sheridan (Daisy Edgar Jones)- the two lead characters of the show are real, vulnerable and flawed. They are teenagers dealing with their own set of insecurities and dilemmas. Let me tell you that ‘Normal People’ is not a superficial take on teenage love, but a somewhat realistic one. Yes, it has the familiar trope of the unpopular girl falling in love with the school’s most popular guy as we have seen in countless movies and TV shows, but the treatment here is shorn of any artifice.
Connell is popular, but he suffers from debilitating anxiety at times. In one of the scenes with Marianne, he confesses that a lot of times, he doesn’t know what to say because he is unsure of his feelings. And even though he clearly has feelings for Marianne, he keeps it a secret, as he doesn’t know how his classmates will react if they come to know about their relationship. Connell can be considered a jerk, but the truth is he is just an anxious teenager, who wants to be accepted by his friends.
Marianne is not an unpopular Plain Jane who goes to college and becomes pretty and popular. There is much depth and detail in her character. She has been through emotional and physical abuse which makes her believe that she is not normal and doesn’t deserve to be loved. In one scene, when they are in bed, she asks Connell if he would also hit her the way her father used to beat her mother. Though she suffers from a traumatic childhood and is sensitive, she manages to look strong, stoic and even cold at times.
The meeting of Connell and Marianne sparks a tender chemistry between them. They are two young, thoughtful minds who find solace in each other – sexually, mentally and emotionally.
The relationship between them is real and realistic and often made me feel like a fly on the wall, observing them from close proximity. The tender, romantic moments between them strike a chord. Most of the time, it’s their eyes which speak.
Watching them made me wonder if one can ever get what they have. At times, they remind us of someone whom we have passionately loved and lost. Someone that one could bare your soul to and not just your body.
The story made me think about why two people, who are so much in love cannot communicate better at times, even though they tell each other their deepest thoughts. Is it because both of them have their own issues to deal with. Marianne never gets the love she deserves at home, while Connell’s anxiety seems to get worse as the show progresses. In one of his visits to a therapist, he breaks down for holding so much inside for a long. After letting it out, Connell says, “I am sorry.” The therapist replies, “You do not have to apologise.” This just proves how we are conditioned by society to bottle up our emotions at the cost of expressing them and proving ourselves weak and pathetic.
The main characters are two sensitive people in an apathetic world. Emotions run amok in them leaving them at a loss.
Watching them, I realised that even though people love each other, they need to spend some time away at regular intervals to explore themselves. We are all humans and it’s not possible to handle each other’s emotions continuously. Hence conscious breaks are an opportunity to know ourselves better and be there for the person without really being with them all the time.
At the end of the show, when we expect them to be together, Marianne asks Connell to go to New York while she decides to stay back. Maybe, she wants to explore herself more and not be in a relationship for some time. It remains open-ended. We have no idea what’s going to happen in the future. But, as Marianne says, they have done a lot of good for each other. We agree. In a world where everyone seems to be against you at some point, it’s surreal to find your soulmate.
Marianne and Connell were indeed each other’s soulmates.
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