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.

Wbeezer I think your experience in your friendship group matches mine! A significant proportion of our friends have been together since sixth form or uni - some did the uni together thing, others didn’t. Lots of travelling/gap years/postgrad/moving away to train etc but always seem to gravitate back to each other and we have virtually all returned to broadly the same geographic region.

@guineapig1, you'd think it was rare but it isn't really.

God I thought it was dire. I didn’t watch the lot tbf but god it was boring and felt quite gratuitous.
Not sure who is the chosen demographic.

@guineapig1 @Wbeezer
That’s lovely. I do know a few who are still together though which is really lovely. It's so special of that love holds and grows to experience so much of life together.

I guess it's whether you continue to grow together or grow apart. I think a lot of us became different people as we grew up. In my peer group none of us moved back home everyone ended up in London or abroad (we are all now in our mid/late 30s now)

It seems like there is more emphasis on making our own independent lives. When I was growing up the emphasis was on career over any relationship. Not saying that is right or wrong.

I'm liking it so far, loved the book but found it so stressful how they could never just say how they felt, and that comes across well in the programme.

Also slightly depressed at how young and beautiful they both are

Watched first 4 episodes really didn't want to stop but it's getting late.

Made me think so much of that deep intense teenage/university love - had me in tears thinking of the one I let go - teenage angst! Amazing how those feelings still exist deep inside me all brought out my this programme and probably lockdown too!

Have watched 5 eps so far. Dh and I are enjoying it but it would be far too cringe to watch those sex scenes with my teens. No way!
Looking forward to seeing how it pans out.

Just finished episode 3. Absolutely loving it. Took me right back to being 16 and my first love. My parents were very controlling and made my teen years very difficult and I have always had very negative memories around those times but this reminded me of how much in love I was with my first boyfriend and he was actually kind and it was all lovely. That got swallowed up in the negativity at home.

Oh my, I am absolutely loving every minute of this. It reminds me so much of my own adolescence and young adulthood. I grew up in a remote and rural place and a bunch of us left for uni. It reminds me of those intense friendships and first sexual experiences. It’s brought all sorts of memories back that I’d thought I’d forgotten.

I’ve been Marianne and I’ve been Connel. I’ve met Jamies and Gareths. So wistful.

Just watching e1 - loving it

Will read thread when caught up

Ok. Sex scene. Yes nice he asked her consent and checked she was ok

But the fact he didn’t want anyone to know they had sex was a no for me

Not sure it’s a love story but only on e2

She seems desperate for love

Would she as a Rich virgin who has never been kissed keep asking to take clothes off

He is the poor boy who Is popular but peer pressure so no one knew had sex

I've got two eps to go still but rtft anyway.

Can't believe I spotted only one pp comment on how lacking in fun their relationships were. I don't feel nostalgia or envy about the relationship, it looks so serious and angsty and depressing (apart from the sex). I feel like they don't actually seem to know each other well at all.

Instead what I've taken from it so far aren't connected to the relationship side. It reminded me of how I lacked a backbone in school. It reminded me of moving away after and not feeling a connection to people and how I couldn't fully relax in new people's company like others could.

I also thought that Marianne was an unrealistic school pariah. She was ballsy, pretty and you wouldn't want to get on the wrong side of her, I can't imagine her having literally NO friends.

I'm not sure why Peggy has turned on Marianne yet. She actually seemed like a loyal friend just a bit wild. Maybe she just took Jamie's side in the fallout but he was such a cunt I don't know how you could.

@Blondeshavemorefun give it a chance. There are 12 episodes which show their relationship over 4 years so the characters go through a lot of development.

@pinkpinecone I’m enjoying. Still watching :)

@Anotherthink theres a passage in the book where Connel reflects on the amazing conversations he and Marianne have where all their thoughts and ideas go back and forth and dance around each other in a way that Connel finds exhilarating and deeply satisfying, does that sound like fun? Its not really depicted in the show as it's inner monologue, but they definitely have an intellectual connection as well as a physical one.
Marianne is an outlier in several ways and doesn't modify her behaviour in a phoney way to fit in, thats enough to get you scorned at high school from what i remember and DS2 certainly experienced it more recently, despite being good looking.

I've just finished episode 9. I love so many things about this programme. @Wbeezer would it be worth me reading the book? Are there a lot of things not depicted in the tv adaptation.

Been struggling watching this and I may simply be too old for level of the angst and seriousness being portrayed to appeal. Agree with pp who said there doesn't seem to be fun in the relationship and haven't seen much affection between the leads. Apart from the sex what's pulling them together? I don't find the dynamics of their relationship holds my interest for long either, but maybe I'm not the right audience for this? Am enjoying the shots of Dublin and the countryside though. Normally want to read the book that the series has come from, if there is one, but not this time.

@Rookie93 I concur with all you have said

@MissEliza i enjoyed reading the book after watching the series (and then watching the series again☺️) I really immersed myself and got a bit obsessed. The interior monologues of the characters make their motivations clearer, especially the extent of Connels anxiety and insecurity early on and why Marianne submits. You still want to shout at them to sort things out but it seems a bit more understandable when they go wrong. Difficult to explain without writing a (very poor) essay!

I got the book cheaply on my phone.

I found it all a bit dreary and angst-ridden. I never had that intense first love scenario so maybe I couldn't relate to it like others did.

I'll give it a go Wbeezer.

Dh likes this, but it just seems a bit dreary so far. I've only seen two so far.
If Marianne is meant to be geeky etc they have managed to find a really beautiful actress to play her and apart from sex what else do they do together?
The scenery and her house are both lovely though.

Yes, I’d like to know about Peggy too. I haven’t read the book but read somewhere that she’s a frenemy. But that didn’t really come across so much in the tv series - there was just that scene with her and Connell in the pub. Is there more to it?

Peggy was a cow, sorry. She never had Mariannes back like Joanna did. She was goady and sly. From the tv series anyway.