AIBU to think ‘Normal People’ is just a bit....shit?

[Returnofangeldelight]

Honestly, everyone has been raving about it, especially during lockdown so last week I thought I’d give it a go.

I’m now watching episode 9 and in all honesty, I’m just sat here bored of Marianne’s sulky, miserable face and bored of all the drama and angst about absolutely nothing?!

I know there’s a few episodes left so I’m really hoping something actually HAPPENS, otherwise it really is 12 episodes of hardly anything happening?

AIBU? What am I missing? (No spoilers please)

Sorry no I bloody loved it!

I just thought the chemistry between the lead characters was so believable and it made me nostalgic about being young. I agree the story line isn't amazing but I loved the 2 lead characters so much I could forgive the lack of plot 😉

I only made it to episode 3. I found it really boring and all the characters seemed really uninteresting. I cannot understand what people found so engaging about it.

I found it boring, didnt really peak anywhere.

Yes, I completely agree, kept waiting for something to happen to understand the love and hype about it. I didn't bother finishing it, let me know if that was a mistake!

I got halfway through the first episode and couldn't watch it anymore as Marianne seemed such a misery..........................

Same OP. I found it boring.

I may or may not agree with you, but of course YANBU for having an opinion on a book/TV program.

Yup and like Fleabag all I could think is lucky you for growing up in a secure home (yes I’m like the Monty Python Yorkshireman). Still waiting to figure out why everyone thought it was so amazing.... plus if I was friends with either of the man characters I’d tell them to bugger off for being so self indulgent and boring, imagine being in that friendship group...

It's dreadful

It’s just all very cliched isn’t it?

If it wasn’t set in Ireland (which is unusual) then I swear it’s pretty much been done to death in some form already. The poor, misunderstood, beautiful ‘intellect’ tortured teenage souls, yawn.

I don’t understand how she gets ‘popular’ when she goes to uni or how she has all these men all over her, falling in love left right and centre. Her face is glum 24/7 and she doesn’t ever speak!

I knew nothing and had never heard of it when i found it on iPlayer. I nearly switched off during episode 1 as it was slow. But for some reason I stuck with it.....then I was hooked and binged watched till 4 in the morning. I thought it was wonderful. (In a i'm 40something and was reliving my youth kind of way....a little bit too much sex...but hay ho).

I’ve literally just finished episode 9; I’m sat here thinking that CAN’T have been an episode, NOTHING has happened?!

The tv series is nothing to write home about. The BOOK however was most definitely the best book I have read all year. I cried all the way through and really felt like I knew them. Please read the book if you haven't already!

have you tried the book?

They both seemed so utterly joyless and intense. No I didn't love it. I also found the "quiet, intelligent but not popular at school, then coming into her own at Uni" versus the "very popular at school but reality kicking in at Uni" very clichéd.

Yanbu to have an opinion, but I didn't find it clichéd or boring, I really wanted to know how the characters were doing.

x-post, but that's two votes for the book!

I loved it and binged on the whole series in 24 hours! I can’t put my finger on what it was about it though because it’s not my usual sort of thing.

It is so boring yanbu OP

I don’t think her angst is unfounded, she has a shitty mum, a shitty brother, dead dad - no real support system until she meets Connell, and later leaves home and builds her own life Etc. And hey, teens are stroppy anyway!

But not everyone will like everything. Sometimes you haven’t missed anything it’s just not your cuppa.

I really liked it and didn't expect to. I do tend to like more gentler plodding programmes though. I'm not really into action, murder and depressing crap, so for me it was different in a good way, but I guess if you like something fast paced with a battle thrown in somewhere, it would have been a bit frustrating.

I think the point of the show is young love being confusing and not communicating with each other, or knowing what you want at that age, so it does get annoying with them being so on and off.

Same OP. I didn’t even bother finishing it. Some of it did make me feel nostalgic and made me wish I was back to my late teens/early twenties again but otherwise I found it very, very dull. Even the lead male character who everyone was raving about, I thought he just seemed to mutter all the time and not really say anything!

Oh thank goodness, I felt exactly the same. It was just so dull. All they do is have made up dramas to disguise the fact they have rather undramatic lives. And all the overthinking over the relationship. I didn't get it all. Connel is pretty hot though!

Nothing happened. The book is even worse. I don't understand the hype.