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.

@Deux , I see that Connellschain has 93k followers so we are not alone!

I've binged watched it over the last couple of days.

The episodes at school are weird for numerous reason but once they'd start uni it does get better.

I hope there's a second season

Connell's chain would have been a working class signifier in my hometown.

It is. Along with the fact that he always wears the same few garments, and only has a single pair of runners, that he wears to the gym as well as everywhere else. I mean, it's only mentioned once in the novel -- I think when Marianne remembers Peggy referring to Connell's look as 'Argos chic'. It's Normal People TV fans who've fetishized it.

All those people who find it angsty and miserable obviously had more friends than me, but then I was the kind of teen who attempted to write poetry, wore a lot of black and ended up at art school. Not to mention listening to the Smiths and reading pretentious books...
I found the S&M a bit unconvincing too, I think drugs or an eating disorder would have been a more convincing method of self abnegation for Marianne to take, maybe Sally Rooney was trying to be more original, it was a bit jarring but maybe that was the effect SR was looking for.

Here you go, a link to the original short story where Connel and Marianne first appear, aged 23:www.thewhitereview.org/fiction/at-the-clinic/

I saw a post up thread that said about Paul's interviews being all about the sex scenes and how he kept banging on about them. As I've become quite obsessed with both the show and Paul Mescal, I've also read and watched a lot of interviews he's given. He does say that the whole process of filming the intimate scenes was first the directors telling them what they wanted the film to show, what bits of body and emotion they wanted, then they would go through the process with the intimacy coach to make sure they didn't feel uncomfortable with themselves and what was being asked.

They would then do the scene fully clothed to map it out and then for real. I got the impression that going on what people's reactions have been (ie. hugely supportive), he was immensely proud to have overcome his nervousness and to have delivered the emotion he felt in the book to the audience onscreen. Also, in pretty much every interview, that's all they ask him about, I'm pretty sure he's just as sick of talking about it!

And good on him, hes being praised for his performance as an actor in his first TV role - as I've said before, I absolutely loved every second, I've watched 3 times and I've never read the book, its now on my kindle and I'm going to enjoy the story all over again!

Also, in pretty much every interview, that's all they ask him about, I'm pretty sure he's just as sick of talking about it!

That and the chain. 😅

My thoughts exactly!

I loved the first six episodes and the last two - the sexual tension in episode 11 was so well done- thought in between lost its way a bit and missed hearing the characters voices as you do in the book. The emails between them when she's in Sweden in the book were more effective than the Skype on screen- maybe they could have had him reading them aloud or something instead of Skype calls ?
I loved it overall though and have a wildly inappropriate crush on Paul Mescal Googling whether he's single etc as that is clearly the one thing standing in the way of him falling in love with a mid 40s married mum of 3

Haven't read the thread because I don't want spoilers...... just got the book but don't know whether to read or watch first (reading will take a while because 4 kids in lockdown so not much spare time!) keep hearing people say each order would work but what do people on here recommend?

Thanks for posting that link Wbeezer, I couldn't resist reading, although I think I'm too much of a romantic sap- as at the end of the tv eps, that strength of feeling C had sometimes acknowledged was finally reciprocated by M whereas that short bit of prose had little of that for me. I think I read in the RT that the short bit appeared before the backstory which became the book so maybe SR made alterations, or perhaps in the writer's mind there was never supposed to be any ambiguity over whether or not this couple could end up happily together? I am aware that in real life that's not always the case anyway

Yes, i think Sally Rooney is ever so slightly moving towards a more positive outlook, moving through the first short story, then the book, then the series. Or maybe not a more positive Outlook but i think Connel becomes a little nicer by the third version of the character?

There’s a very interesting London Review Bookshop talk/interview with Sally Rooney on youtube. It’s quite long, about an hour. I listened to it today. It was from before the tv series.

Yeah, Connell from the series was flawed, troubled, infuriating at times but I absolutely believed he was a good person who cared deeply for Marianne. Ok, a short story is only a small window but that Connell wasn't remotely appealing. At best I might have said he did care about her but was in denial.
But still really interesting to learn more about the evolution of the character, so thanks for the link.
Mercifully, Connell is not actually a real person so we can choose which one to hold onto!

Thanks also Deux for your link. That looks interesting too.

SR says towards the end that there was a short story before the White Review one that didn’t get published.

OMG just watched it all today. Loved it. Am off to read thread!

On e8. They really are a bit stupid

Why didn’t he ask her to stay

Why didn’t it occur to her that he was skint and going home as poor As no summer job

Why didn’t they talk properly

Why did she stay with Jamie for so long

Low self confidence ?

Also didn’t reliese how rich her family was -

huge house at home

A House near trinity that her mum and Aunty stayed in

Summer house and pool in Italy

It jars with me that they had all that lovely property so properly rich and yet Marianne went to the local comp rather than be privately educated.

Are there any private schools in or near Sligo?

The only one in Sligo is Church of Ireland

Honestly, I don’t think it is unusual that Marianne didn’t go to private school. There are very few private schools outside of Dublin or Cork.

Certainly, it is not something that I have even heard discussed when we go back, even with those people who would have the money.

I didn't know that about private schools in Ireland so I am showing my ignorance! I have googled Sligo on the map so have a better idea of where they live in comparison to Cork and Dublin and it's quite a distance.

(I live in a new build estate and there's quite a few kids (not mine) who get the bus and train to private schools that must be about an hour away so I was going along those lines)

The part of Scotland I’m from has no private schools either. The nearest would be about 240 miles away.

Dentist, solicitor, carpenter, plumber, bin man; all kids went to the same (only) school.

I have to say I've finished it with so many unanswered questions- the biggest ones being why did Marianne's brother treat her so badly and why did her mother behave the way she did.

I thought that was really not that tricky. Her mum and dad had an abusive relationship-Marianne said he hit her mum but not her. I think her brother copied this behaviour/took after the dad. Her mum was afraid of the brother and the pattern of behaviour and relationships continued. Her brother was jealous of her academic achievement. Her mum was jealous of her breaking out of the pattern and that Marianne found a bloke who would defend her and treat her well.