Normal People on BBC3

[Bouledeneige]

Binge watched it yesterday and loved it. Emotional, passionate and two really great leads. Thoroughly recommend it (so long as you don't mind lots of love scenes). Cried lie and felt bereft when it finished.

Take your point wbeezer, but her alternative choices were (imv) all far worse! (Including connal - Just not right for her).

LOVED this series.

Much preferred it to the book. I felt Marianne was more likeable than in the book.

I'm a little bit obsessed with it tbh. Listened to my very first podcast about it.

And I obviously have a girl crush on Daisy Edgar-Jones 😂

Loved it
Frustrated by their lack of communication at times and wanted to jump in and screech ‘surely you are going to ask him/her what they meant by that? No don’t just say ok and walk away...’

Thought the sex was well portrayed. Totally got the heady excitement at times and the tenderness but also the upsetting use of power play sex to humiliate or undermine herself from Marianne. Sad.

Helped that Connell was incredibly sexy. I also had pangs off wishing I could be young and carefree and list after someone again!

Actually hated the sex scenes between him and Helen because I found her strangely physically unattractive (sorry am being honest) and clearly no deep attraction from him to her which made it mechanical and unsexy. Wasn’t easy to watch that after being captivated by him and M.

I also didn’t get on well with the book so was surprised how much I loved the screen version

I’ve just seen the first Trinity episode, and one of the things that struck me was that whereas in the novel, when Marianne first sees Connell again for the first time at Garret’s party, she gives him a huge, open smile and is visibly thrilled to see him, to the point where he’s taken aback. (Not surprisingly, given their history, it wouldn’t be that surprising if she said ‘You shithead.’) But in the adaptation, she’s much more guarded and polite, but defensive.

Also, in the novel, they almost immediately start to spend a lot of time together, even though they’re both seeing other people — they go to the same parties, he integrates with her friends — but the way the TV version was edited, that wasn’t the case, her friends ask about him, but there’s no sense that they immediately click into close friendship...

Bacon also mildly obsessed and am just about to finish the series tonight (ep12) to go. Have watched loads of YouTube interviews and followed the lead actors on Instagram. I have found it nostalgic, beautiful, poignant, devastating and stunning all at once. I get a bit frustrated with their language and the way they (don’t) communicate at times but this adds to the overall charm and innocence of these quite broken characters.

I've only seen the first episode and quite liked it. I quite liked the book although it did feel a bit cookie cutter (why these people? Why this place?)

It is weird that they chose an actor who looked as old as he does for Connor. Part of me thinks it's plain old sexist double standards - no-one (or rather no man) bats an eyelid at a teenage girl in those kinds of scenes but men might be offended if an (apparently) teenage boy was in them.

Why did the photographer boyfriend switch so quickly from nice to not nice , I I know she asked him to hit her but the bit in the studio was odd

I think he was probably a bit dodgy anyway and she effectively gave him permission to live out a fantasy.

I think they hinted he was Mariannes ‘type’ in the scene at the party when they met and he ‘told’ her she was having a drink with him, or something.

Helped that Connell was incredibly sexy

He looks like an Easter Island statue in profile. I found him deeply unattractive.

A baby faced teen isn't going to be the star scorer of the rugby team. He's got to be pretty hefty.

There are always a few lads who look about 10 years older than the rest, one of DS1s rugby teammates had a full beard in sixth year!

I know it’s been a massive success but I feel like I’ve read way too many identikit interviews with the guy playing Connell banging on about how great the sex scenes were etc. It feels like nearly the whole thing is being marketed through this man’s take on it, being all self congratulatory about how nice his character is to marianne when she loses her virginity (etc). He just seems to be everywhere. I’d have liked to hear more from Marianne and/or Sally Rooney or Alice Birch, who co wrote some episodes.

I know it’s been a massive success but I feel like I’ve read way too many identikit interviews with the guy playing Connell banging on about how great the sex scenes were etc.

I haven't read anything by Alice Birch or Sally Rooney I don't think. But I have read the same amount of interviews with both Connell and Marianne, as well as one with Lenny Abrahamson. Oh and Ita O'Brian too who was the intimacy coach.
So not sure I feel the same way about it all being marketed around him.

I also think if it was, it must come down to how available or how comfortable they are around being in the limelight so suddenly and so massively, Daisy Edgar Jones (Marianne) might not want to be in the spotlight so much.

Though on Instagram there's been plenty of mini interviews with both of them regarding the show.

I haven't read the book but have binged all episodes over the last two days - I loved it - very bittersweet

It mirrors my first real serious love at 18, our 'real' relationship lasted only 3 years until he went off to Uni in another part of the country and long distance in those days (early 90's) just couldn't sustain endless coach journeys and no money.

We're both almost 50 now and the intensity of our relationship has tarnished any future relationship we both have, we're both married to different people and have been for many years and have children but we'll never love those partners like we did each other, we'll never have the same intense relationship with anyone else like we did with each other.

Sadly each time one of us was available, the other wasn't so many 'missed' opportunities. I really resonated with Marianne when she said, its just not the same with anyone else, it isn't and that's so sad - both in the programme and for me in real life, it isn't and never will be.

We have episodes when the reality of missed opportunities spills into real frustration and you can't tell anyone in real life that your heart really belongs with someone else, so you spend an eternity in limbo, its soul destroying. We drift in and out of each other's lives often the frustrations mean we fall out and don't speak for months, often years but we always find each other, he knows me better than anyone else and I miss him terribly.

I cried especially at episode 10 when he is talking to the Counsellor as we both came from similar family dynamics and his realisation of not being able to go back was something I went through too.
As I said, I loved it, it allowed me to go back to a time with fond memories and sadness and indulge in all that wonder that a first proper love will give you.

Popper you’ve set me off again. I think this is why this stunning story has resonated with so many viewers. Funny to think it was aimed at 17-35 age group apparently (maybe this is the demographic of BBC3) but it creates nostalgia at every age.

@Cherrypie32 absolutely, I remember often (TMI) being in the throes of it and me just sobbing, he'd be like "what's wrong, what am i doing wrong?" and I'd be like "Nothing, I just love you so much I can't deal with it"
Bloody stupid now, but at the time I was so overwhelmed with so many strong feelings that I just couldn't process them or understand them all at once.

I would have thought that although the target audience is from 17 (because its relative to their current relationship status) you wont really be able to apply a relative perspective until much later in life?

Either way, like you say its so full of nostalgia it's wonderful. And in my opinion, its sometimes great to go and have the opportunity for a good old sob fest

I've got a box of old letters upstairs that DH and I sent to each other when we apart for various reasons in our youth, can't quite bring myself to read them at the moment, we often resorted to letters because phone calls went wrong and miscommunications needed to be fixed, I suspect the contents would make me cringe...
@Popper56 even if you stay together there is still loss and change to endure, ive been very emotional after watching this because its made me reflect on the intense love and passion of youth changing to something more comfortable and less thrilling with age (our bodies are more comfortable too!).

@Wbeezer yes its the sheer and utter helplessness you feel when you utterly and truly love someone as much as they do, there is no comparison and no reasoning, it is as it is!

I started pining for my Italian boyfriend who I had an intense relationship with. I remember reuniting with him in Rome and walking into a huge apartment that was very dark because of the heat outside and having a passionate reunion. I remember crying with happiness. We were both 17 when we met and lost our virginity to each other.

He was always trying to reunite for years after and even found me an amazing job in Rome. But I turned him down and went to uni in my early 20s and have now been happily married to an American for 23 years. Nothing beat the eroticism and longing of early love but I don't know if we would ever have been able to work it out. I was planning on going back to Italy when I graduated but met DH and moved to the US instead. I hope I made the right decision!

Some reviewers have complained of unoriginality of setting and plot (particular snide review from A Guardian US journo, yesterday) but I think they was a certain alchemy between the writing, performances and the direction and that really moved people. It's not perfect but the scenes that work have me rereading or watching trying to analyse how they did it and why its affecting me so much, a level of engagement that is rare for me these days.
As a Scottish person the small town Irish and Dublin uni setting had more parallels than usual, it was rather familiar.
I seem to be doing my best to to keep this thread going not ready to move on yet... Should be redecorating my utility room not mooning about looking at old photos and watching interviews on YouTube...

@Womanlywiles what a romantic memory, I return to a memory of me weeping on the top deck of a CalMac ferry as DH recedes into the distance the summer he had a job on a Hebridean island. Now I'd be straight in the queue for the famous CalMac Scottish breakfast, then I was probably too sad to eat much for days!

Well that's 6 hours of my life I won't get back.

I watched this as so many of my friends were raving about it saying stuff like "I blubbed all the way through it", "I was an emotional wreck" etc.

I found it a bit like together - sex- misunderstanding - apart repeat endlessly. Very dreary and I couldn't particularly care about either of the main characters.

I can't get upset/emotional about stuff that isn't real. I can when watching the news about people dying or a reunion between families.

Interesting difference of opinion Rara but no real need to make out people are oblivious or unsympathetic of the current situation because they cry at a tv programme that resonates with them.