{"id":1096,"date":"2020-05-06T12:54:23","date_gmt":"2020-05-06T02:54:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/?post_type=articles&p=172281"},"modified":"2020-11-12T20:22:30","modified_gmt":"2020-11-12T20:22:30","slug":"normal-people-hulu-stan-tv-show","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/normal-people-hulu-stan-tv-show\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Normal People\u2019 Is Revolutionary In Its Ordinariness"},"content":{"rendered":"

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I watched the Normal People<\/em> adaptation with my boyfriend.\u00a0 It\u2019s not his usual genre (spy \/ political thrillers), but he was game.\u00a0 He paused often as we watched, to comment on the show\u2019s minor characters (\u2018Ok, Lorraine is amazing\u2019; \u2018She needs to get away from Jamie\u2019), urgently recommend it to a friend (\u2018Ok, I\u2019m sorry, Ryan needs to see this\u2019) or comment something along the lines of, \u2018I don\u2019t know why I love this so much.\u00a0 It just feels like watching people\u2019s everyday lives \u2013 but I\u2019m obsessed.\u2019<\/p>\n

Before watching the show, I was worried about the sentiment behind this last comment.\u00a0 Would it be compelling to watch a show that is, as its title suggests, simply about the lives of normal people<\/em>?\u00a0 The book holds such a special place in my heart (the day I read it \u2013 after it was urgently pressed into my hands by a friend \u2013 I canceled brunch, then dinner, plans, and stayed in bed all day reading). \u00a0But screen adaptations don\u2019t always work, and I was particularly concerned that a screen adaptation of this book<\/em>, which is so internal and intimate, so focused on the inner machinations of its characters\u2019 minds, might be stilted or boring or indecipherable when magicked to life.<\/p>\n

Of course, my fears were completely unfounded.\u00a0 The show received the same obsessive, emotive reception as the book \u2013 the people love it.\u00a0 As journalist Pandora Sykes recently tweeted<\/a>, \u2018liking the adaptation of Normal People is about as radical as liking a flat white, but I don’t care, I love ’em both.\u2019<\/p>\n

Ultimately, all the aspects of the book I worried would not be capable of translation to cinematic format (the ordinariness of the characters\u2019 lives, their intimacy, the portrayal of their vulnerability) were what made the show so special.<\/p>\n

The show follows the relationship of Connell Waldron and Marianne Sheridan \u2013 beginning in high school and culminating at the end of their time at university.\u00a0 They first become involved when Connell comes to Marianne\u2019s house to pick up his mother, who works as a housekeeper for Marianne\u2019s family.\u00a0 This is one aspect of their power dynamic \u2013 the class disparity between Marianne, whose family is wealthy, and Connell, whose family is not.\u00a0 But the more prominent power imbalance between them, at least when the story begins, is the fact that Connell is popular at school \u2013 sporty and well-liked \u2013 while Marianne is a social outcast, known for being prickly and odd.\u00a0 Their relationship begins in secret \u2013 when Connell worries about what being involved with Marianne would do to his reputation at school, Marianne assures him that \u2018no one would have to know.\u2019<\/p>\n

Their dynamic is infused with the intensity, the exquisite pain, of teenage love.\u00a0 I mean the kind of compulsive obsession with another person that stops being healthy and normal as an adult \u2013 but which, for a 16-year-old, is as natural as breathing.\u00a0 The feeling that another person is the center of your world \u2013 that everything you do leads back to them.<\/p>\n

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This intensity continues into young adulthood.\u00a0 The characters seem marked by each other \u2013 even in the periods when they\u2019re not dating (their relationship is on-again-off-again), they share a special connection and understanding.<\/p>\n

Through the lens of this relationship, the show plays with social dynamics and power structures in a really interesting and impactful way.\u00a0 When the characters begin university, the things that made Marianne an outcast at school (that she is opinionated and non-conformist), are the source of newfound popularity.\u00a0 Meanwhile, Connell struggles to make friends and find a sense of belonging. \u00a0These different experiences reflect differences in class and privilege \u2013 while Marianne and her university friends feel at home at the prestigious Trinity College, probably because they\u2019re used to inhabiting similarly hallowed spaces, Connell doesn\u2019t feel like he fits.\u00a0 At one point, the dreaded Jamie asks Marianne, \u2018but is he smart?\u2019\u00a0 What he\u2019s really saying is, \u2018he doesn\u2019t look or dress or talk like a refined person\u2019 \u2013 someone who\u2019s had opportunities like private education and exposure to art and culture heaped on them from birth.<\/p>\n

Love is also a form of social capital.\u00a0 While Marianne is privileged, in one sense, to come from a wealthy family, who provide her with an apartment in Dublin and a summer home in Italy, her family dynamic is dysfunctional and abusive.\u00a0 Meanwhile, Connell is privileged to come from a loving home, with a supportive and kind mother, with whom he has a close relationship.\u00a0 This is something Marianne so painfully lacks.\u00a0 In one beautiful scene, Marianne spends Christmas with Connell\u2019s family, and he finds her alone in his room, taking a breath.\u00a0 He asks her if his family is too much; smiling through tears, she replies, \u2018no \u2013 it\u2019s lovely.\u2019<\/p>\n

The thread that runs through Connell and Marianne\u2019s relationship \u2013 the thing that keeps pulling them apart \u2013 is their persistent failure to communicate effectively.\u00a0 While it\u2019s clear that they love each other so much<\/em>, they just keep missing each other.\u00a0 Each seems to think the other is able to interpret what they\u2019re feeling.\u00a0 One scene, toward the end of the series, showcases this problem.\u00a0 \u2018I think it\u2019s pretty obvious that I don\u2019t want you to leave,\u2019 Connell says to Marianne, as she prepares to walk out of his childhood bedroom. Her reply \u2013 \u2018I don\u2019t find it obvious what you want\u2019 \u2013 gives voice to the thorn in their relationship\u2019s side.<\/p>\n

We are so used to seeing epic love stories.\u00a0 As Sophie Gilbert write<\/a>s for the Atlantic, \u2018stories about love, typically, are epic and unreachable in scale, from Orpheus and Eurydice to The Notebook.\u2019\u00a0 So it feels rare to watch a love story that is so ordinary, it feels universal.\u00a0 One whose challenges \u2013 poor communication, insecurity \u2013 are things we have likely all faced, in one way or another, in our own relationships.\u00a0 In Gilbert\u2019s piece for the Atlantic, Sally Rooney is quoted about her drive to do this: \u2018Certainly something that I\u2019m trying to accomplish in my work, in my two novels and in the show and the novel I\u2019m writing now, is to try and situate love and romance in all its overwhelming power\u2014and all the pleasure and desire that comes with that\u2014in the difficult complexity of ordinary life\u2026 To take the mundane, unglamorous difficulty that we all have just being alive, and to allow romance to infiltrate that, and not be dishonest to either aspect.\u2019\u00a0 Normal People<\/em> is not an epic love story; it\u2019s an everyday story, that deals with everyday issues with sensitivity and compassion and intelligence.<\/p>\n

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Similarly, teen\/university dramas tend to have highly stylized, sound-bitey premises (recent examples include Sex Education, The Politician <\/em>and Dear White People<\/em>).\u00a0 When this is what we expect, it\u2019s surprising and refreshing to watch something whose foundation is nothing more than the relationship between two ordinary people \u2013 but which addresses big issues, like mental health, sexual violence and privilege.\u00a0 There seems to be more demand for this.\u00a0 The premise of recent runaway success Fleabag<\/em> is also largely ordinary (the show follows the daily happenings of one woman and her middle-class London family), but the show unpacks the processing of trauma and grief with sensitivity and humor.\u00a0 These shows are so powerful because they represent ordinary lives, and the human issues that plague them.\u00a0 When there is an element of unreality to so many love stories, it\u2019s moving and captivating to see something that speaks to our humanity closely and directly.<\/p>\n

Finally, Normal People\u2019s<\/em> portrayal of sex is so perfect.\u00a0 Sex is a huge part of the show, with the sexual chemistry between Connell and Marianne something like an ever-present third protagonist.\u00a0 Often, the sex scenes are very <\/em>long \u2013 as Rachel Handler writes<\/a> for Vulture, \u2018there\u2019s a sex scene in the second episode of Normal People that lasts nine minutes and 24 seconds \u2014 or, put another way, a third of the entire episode.\u2019<\/p>\n

This mimics sex in real life \u2013 where it isn\u2019t a suggestion, something flashy and cinematic, alluded to for a second before cutting to a new scene \u2013 it\u2019s something we live, which is sometimes awkward and tender and sincere, sometimes fun, sometimes heartbreakingly intimate, sometimes funny.\u00a0 The show gives us all of this \u2013 it\u2019s a roller coaster of very real human emotion.\u00a0 When so much on-screen sex appears to be devoid of real sentiment (Sophie Gilbert\u2019s Atlantic piece posits that, \u2018stories about sex\u2026 tend to be almost defiantly detached from emotion, as if the two can\u2019t coexist\u2019), this is a breath of fresh air.<\/p>\n

In a way, the show\u2019s spot-on depiction of sex isn\u2019t surprising \u2013 intimacy coordinator Ita O’Brien was hired to coordinate sex scenes, ensuring that sex was portrayed authentically and sensitively, and was filmed with the actors\u2019 comfort being top of mind.\u00a0 Maybe it was this expertise that allowed the very sensitive issue of consent to be portrayed in such a brilliant way (prompting calls<\/a> for the scene where Marianne and Connell first sleep together to be made compulsory viewing in schools and universities).<\/p>\n

There is something compelling about watching the dailiness of people\u2019s lives.\u00a0 When we are used to epic romances, and sex that is either too cinematic or emotionally watered down, it feels powerful to get deep into the crevices of a small, simple love story. \u00a0In real life, love is intimate, sincere, awkward, painful, knotty. \u00a0Its ability to capture this \u2013 to make so many people feel this \u2013 is what makes Normal People<\/em> so revolutionary and so, so lovely.<\/p>\n

WATCH THE TRAILER HERE:<\/strong><\/p>\n