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TWO SOULS (NORMAL PEOPLE)


It's very tempting to just write a one word review of 'Normal People'.

If I were to write it, that word would be: wow.

However Lenny Abrahamson and Hettie MacDonald's 12 episode drama for Hulu and BBC3 deserves much more than that.

An adaptation of Sally Rooney's award winning 2018 novel about two young people struggling with an intense love for each other, Abrahamson and MacDonald have constructed a subtle, heartbreaking, beautifully assembled television series that may tower over everything else we will see on the small screen this year.


Daisy Edgar-Jones' Marianne Sheridan and Paul Mescal's Connell Waldron hail from the opposite ends of the tracks in their Co Sligo town.

Marianne is from an affluent background, with an angry, distant widowed mum and an even angrier brother.

She is fiercely intelligent, studious, not afraid to challenge her teachers and regarded by the rest of the pupils as a bit of an oddball.

Connell has a more modest upbringing.

His single mum, Sarah Greene's Lorraine works for the Sheridans as a cleaner and is very loving.


He is popular in school, excellent at English and the star player on the Gaelic Football team.

Both are fascinated with each other and that fascination develops into a clandestine affair at school.

However, before the year is out Connell betrays Marianne and they head separately to university licking their wounds, only to reconnect at Trinity College Dublin.

Connell, the popular boy at school at first struggles to adjust to life outside of Sligo.

Marianne thrives.


As the series progresses, Rooney and her fellow screenwriters Alice Birch and Mark O'Rowe plunge deeper and deeper into the psyche of these two damaged souls.

They occasionally click, only to destroy the relationship they have.

Even though Marianne and Connell make an awful lot of mistakes, you root for them.

Even though you will find yourself getting hugely frustrated at them, you nevertheless feel very protective.

And that is a huge testament to the quality of the writing, acting and directing in this sublime series.


What could be a slight tale of young love reveals itself to be something much more disturbing and profound.

The erotically charged love story is a study of two young people struggling to maintain a deep connection, haunted by their mistakes and caught in a cycle of remorse, guilt and self-punishment.

At the centre of Abrahamson and MacDonald's drama are two extraordinary performances from two exciting young actors.

Edgar-Jones is brilliantly brittle as Marianne - defiantly intelligent, tailor made for university life, yet plagued by doubts about her own self-worth.

Mescal is excellent as Connell - a young man of few words with a gift for writing and who somehow struggles to vocalise how he is feeling.


Abrahamson and MacDonald elicit strong performances all round.

Sarah Greene is warm and understanding as Connell's mum, Lorraine.

By way of contrast, Aislin McGuckin is cold and distant as Marianne's mum Denise, while Frank Blake burns with incessant aggression as Alan, her emotionally stunted brother.

The roles handed to other members of the supporting characters are equally challenging.

Leah McNamara is perfect as Rachel, the bitchy popular girl in school who latches onto Connell.

Sean Doyle and Eanna Hardwicke hit every mark as Connell's insensitive and immature loudmouth school friends, Eric and Rob.


Hardwicke is particularly effective in a sequence where Rob goes for a pint with Connell in their hometown on his return from university - revealing him to be another lost soul trapped in Sligo, desperately trying to live vicariously through his friend.

Among the Trinity set, Fionn O'Shea brings an upper middle class malevolence to the role of Jamie, while India Mullen has a shallowness as Peggy.

Sebastian de Souza, Aoife Hinds and Kwaku Fortune impress as Gareth, Helen and Philip, while Eliot Salt and Desmond Eastwood bring much needed warmth to the roles of Joanna and Niall.

Cinematographers Suzie Lavelle and Kate McCullough rise to the challenge set by their directors as the story hops between Sligo, Dublin, Italy and Sweden.

Under the guidance of Abrahamson and MacDonald, their camera subtly captures every critical moment and their images leave their mark.


A lot has been made of the explicit sexuality in Abrahamson and MacDonald's adaptation - although it is difficult to see how you could not be that frank.

But their, Rooney, Birch and O'Rowe's greatest achievement in this series is the way they honestly tackle the perils and pitfalls of young adulthood - the mistakes people make, the failure of even the most erudite to properly communicate who they are and how they feel.

It is refreshing to see a drama tackle head on peer pressure, family dysfunction and the impact on mental health.

'Normal People' also subtly draws out the issue of class in Irish society and that alone is an extraordinary achievement.


The perfect distraction in these days of lockdown, this 12 part adaptation confirms Abrahamson as Ireland's foremost film and television director, building on a stunning feature film back catalogue of 'Adam and Paul', 'Garage', 'What Richard Did', 'Frank'  'Room' and 'The Little Stranger' and the RTE TV drama 'Prosperity'.

It makes a compelling case too for MacDonald, who directed the wonderful 1996 movie 'Beautiful Thing', to return to the big screen after her work on TV drama series like 'Casualty', 'Wallander', 'Dr Who', 'Law and Order UK', 'Fortitude' and 'Howard's End'.

You will be hard pressed to find a TV drama this year that is as affecting as 'Normal People'.

Nor is it likely there will be a series that is as absorbing.

'Normal People' is a tale fashioned out of a terrible beauty.

If there is any justice, it should turn Daisy Edgar-Jones and Paul Mescal into huge, huge stars.

('Normal People' aired on BBC3 on the iPlayer from April 26, 2020 and on Hulu from April 29, 2020)

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