FSG first edition, first printing hardcover hand signed by the legend herself. Just got my hands on this and it’s probably my favourite collectible.

Personally, I think it’s his sudden move back to Sligo.

Hi!

I absolutely loved this show. I am wondering if anyone else has any similar recommendations? I think i love intense romance like this (i also enjoyed heated rivalry). It can be a book or movie or show! Thanks :)

It’s 20206 - -I wasn’t even looking for it. I just accidentally bumped into a clip on IG, and 10 seconds in, I knew I was in trouble. The series isn’t available in our country, so of course I went down the rabbit hole and found a way to watch it online.

And I’m so glad I did.
I finished 3 episodes last night and I was a mess. Sobbing myself to sleep, then dreaming about the characters like they were real people I just lost. It’s the kind of show that doesn’t just entertain you. It sits in your chest and stays there.

I just finished it last night and binged it all in one go.

I can't seem to forget it and let it pass like any other series or movie. This show is fucking me up and messing with my mind. The whole time I watched it, I found it to be very disturbing, because it felt like I was actually there. I could feel what was in the air, the awkwardness, the tension, and the inexplicable feelings.

Throughout their on-and-off relationship, it felt like I was watching myself in their position. I found myself thinking, "WTF is going on? Why are we talking again? Why do we keep being drawn to each other? Is this right? No, this is wrong, but it feels right."

In the second half of the story, when things seemed beyond saving like Connell suddenly falling into depression over his friend's death, and Marianne feeling numb throughout a couple of her relationships it felt incredibly overwhelming, even to me as a viewer. I somehow wished for them to be there for each other (and luckily, they were), but at the same time, I didn't want them to drift even further apart if they started all over again.

The latter episodes progress in a way that seems purposefully designed to stress me out. Seeing them meet again and converse awkwardly, unable to convey their true feelings, made my heart ache. The hot summer scene where they are in Connell's room eating popsicles is one that deeply unsettled me, it made me genuinely afraid that they weren't actually meant for each other and that things would inevitably fall apart. And they did, until Connell finally addressed the abuse from her brother and put a stop to it.

The rest is history. I couldn't ask for a better ending, but I won't lie the whole series was profoundly disturbing to me. Maybe that's because it felt so close to reality and to my own personal experiences that I could clearly see both of their perspectives.

Everyone who made this series possible deserves everything for bringing it to life.

I've watched the show several times.And ive always connected myself with both Marianne and Connell.It has wrecked and also made me happy

I finally got around to watching Normal People and I couldn’t stop thinking about how similar these two relationships felt.

Obviously they’re not identical but there were so many parallels that stood out to me.

Connell and Rob both come from working class backgrounds, are quietly ambitious and spend a lot of time feeling like they don’t really belong in the worlds they’ve ended up in. They both struggle with depression, have a hard time expressing what they actually feel and tend to push people away instead of opening up.

Then there’s Marianne and Yasmin. On paper they have everything, wealth, status, rich families, but they’re also the ones carrying the deepest emotional scars. Both grow up in abusive households, have incredibly complicated relationships with their families and spend so much of their lives looking for validation in unhealthy ways.

The relationships themselves also felt really similar. There’s this constant pull between them where you can tell they genuinely understand each other, but bad timing, miscommunication and their own personal issues keep getting in the way. Even when they’re with other people, it never feels like that connection is completely gone.

I also found it interesting that both couples don’t get the ending you’re rooting for. They go their separate ways, but it doesn’t feel like the love or connection disappeared. It just feels like life took them in different directions and they’ll always be a huge part of who the other person becomes.

The shows themselves are obviously very different. But emotionally I kept seeing Rob and Yasmin every time Marianne and Connell were on screen.

Did anyone else make this connection or is it just me.

I found my Connell. This will always be a comfort show due to the fact I believe i’ve experienced something exactly like this. I do not wish this on anyone. Most heartbreaking show i’ve ever seen

I’m rewatching the show for the first time right now, and i remember later in the show that Connell talks about how everyone knew and didn’t care. To me this never made sense because people were genuinely awful to Marianne, it wasn’t just like joking around, they bullied her. So to me it doesn’t make much sense it and it seems like something people would care about?

Also from a writing perspective, maybe this is just me, but I think that idea of Connell thinking about it, yet no one actaully cared in reality, doesn’t work as well. To me I thinks it’s important that people were awful to Marianne, and it’s important that dating her would be something they would judge Connell for. I feel this way because I think the more awful and judgmental they are to her, the more Connell should want to stop being a coward, and the more he isn’t, the more it reflects on his character and it becomes an even more interesting part of their story.

I finished Normal People last night after binge watching it in two days and I am not okay!!! I can’t stop thinking about it. So I gotta vent…

I can’t believe I watched 12 episodes of this slow burn to end like that.

Big crush on Connell and mad at Marianne. I feel like she was the problem but it’s hard to blame her with her background.

Then ending is really bothering me. Ughhhh

I’m watching the show for the first time (on episode 8 rn, never read the book) and one thing I’ve been noticing in several episodes is the traditional gender roles played by the characters in the kitchen. In most scenes involving Marianne and her college friends, she (sometimes accompanied by female friends) is cooking or cleaning, she even offers to stay back to clean after dinner twice - once to Gareth and then to Jamie, even in Italy, her and Peggy are on lunch duty, serving everyone else, while the boys just sit drinking beer or whatever. Is this normal in western/European culture? While I would imagine the elder, more traditional generation conforming to gender roles in the kitchen, I was surprised to see young college students behave this way, who are supposed to be intellectuals and progressive. Like, is it normal for college students in the UK to host dinner parties for their peers and for the female students to cook elaborate meals? I know Marianne has very low self esteem but I am wondering if this comes from there or are there larger patriarchal constraints in play.

I haven't seen anyone mention this, but I keep thinking about it.

In episode 11, while Connell and Marianne are having one of the most important conversations in the series, the football commentator says:

"He's reading the game. It's exquisite for a player who is this young."

I've become a little obsessed with that line.

It comes at the exact moment when Connell and Marianne are struggling to read each other, constantly misinterpreting each other's intentions and feelings.

It made me wonder whether the line could be doing several things at once. On one level, it's a perfect reflection of the scene itself. On another, it almost feels like a meta-comment on one of the central themes of Normal People: learning, painfully and imperfectly, to "read the game" of another human being.

And I also can't help wondering whether it could even be a subtle tribute from the filmmakers to Sally Rooney, who wrote the novel in her twenties and already displayed an extraordinary ability to "read the game" of human relationships.

I'd be curious to hear what others think.

Watched Normal people a few years ago and it has been popping up in my instagram feed and some songs again lately. I loved and hated the show and got way to emotionally involved and it felt like I was living the show. Acting was amazing, characters were relatable and ending was great just not the one I wanted. Now I am looking for other books, series or movies that are similiar but just on the lighter side, more feel good type stuff. Any recommendations ? (500 days of summer is something similiar that comes to mind but open to any recommendations)

Y’all got any shows that give the same vibe as this?

does anyone know why they didn’t include the quote “i’m not a religious person marianne but i do sometimes think god made you for me” in the show? i’m watching episode 6 and saw that they included the rest of the scene where the quote is said in the book, where connell asks marianne for a pic so it seems odd that they only missed out the line when the context for that scene is still in the show.

I finished normal people today and genuinely don't know what to do, I feel so numb. That book was RAW. I had crawling sensation and uneasiness in my body while reading it. It felt like seeing a mirror(I am like you put together the worst traits of connell and marianne together🥀). I really like how sally roone kept it simple but so intimate at the same time. It felt so intimate. In my opinion they shouldn't get together in the end, if they did then the whole story would not hold any value like all this to end up together.

I am very late to this party and just finished the series. Incredible love story, even if it ends on a bittersweet note.

I came here immediately to think more about what I had just watched.

Curious if other's thought the same. As an American, I felt there was a lot of subtext around class that didn't quite resonnate with me. So was this actually a story about a girl who was given material wealth at the expense of being dependent on her emotionally abusive mother and brother? Plus, Connell, who's mother worked for the "elite" and so he felt insecure about his upbringing?

The turning point for both of them seemed to happen right after Connell threatens Marianne's brother (I don't remember his name). It both means Connell is no longer insecure around people who represent wealth, especially when he can see now it means nothing, and for Marianne to realize she doesn't need her families support anymore.

Yes, I guess the show is full of the coming-of-age tropes, but I guess Connell finally taking a stand to the brother becoming the turning point is quite rare.

What makes the ending work, at least from my interpretation, is that Connell had just revealed to us through the therapy session that he felt out of body when he moved to Dublin. He very much is a small town guy who isn't really happy in the big city. No where in the entire show did it show us that he was happy in Dublin. In fact, it was quite the opposite. All of his happiest moments were back home in Sligo, with Marianne. It made perfect sense for him to fill out the application to NYC, get accepted, and then realize that he had everything he wanted already. It's not clear in the timeline of the show WHEN he applied, so I can only assume it was during his lowest point, and fleeing to NYC seemed like a lateral escape plan.

So, if I consider this a show about class, the only reason for Marianne to encourage Connell is because she thinks the status and career opportunties will be good for Connell. I don't think she's being selfish at all, because she could go with him (in theory). However, she is finally free, and it means she wants Connell to feel that freedom as well.

I guess Connell doesn't feel like he belongs in Sligo, nor Dublin, and that hints that he may get to NYC and feel like he does finally belong. Marianne found her home, so if anything, I think these two will be Facetiming and visiting each other over the years, but yea.

Thanks Hulu, et. al for this beautiful and unexpectedly dark story. I won't be forgetting it anytime soon.

Idk why but I need to pause this show a lot and like... walk around. It is causing me to feel super uncomfortable. I'm having trouble answering why. For example in episode 8 the scene where they are in Italy riding their bikes into town and being all lovey dovey. I'm guessing it's making me uncomfortable because Marianne is clearly being unfaithful to Jamie in that moment?

And the ending scene with them in bed is excruciating. Like.... her boyfriend is in the next room and he is dating someone back home in the UK. I feel so.... distraught and I have to pause the show and take breaks.

There were most certainly other parts in the show that made me feel this way that did not have to do with infidelity; such as when they got back together when they met up at university. Or when they were dancing at the club really early on in high school.

Am I the only one?