Connell and Marianne are two high school students in
Ireland. They fall in love in high school and this series follows them into Trinity
College and several path crossings over the next several years. That is the
basic plot of Normal People a 12-episode series on Hulu television. When it first came out it was accompanied by
a lot of hype about the intensity of their relationship. I decided to give it a while and consider it at
a later date. But then I realized I was
watching one of the costars Daisy Edgar-Jones in two different series – War
of the Worlds and Under the Banner of Heaven. At that point I decided to start Normal
People. Connell is played by Paul
Mescal.
I hope to give my impressions of why this is such a good
story without getting into a play-by-play of the plot, but I am sure there will
be inevitable spoilers. A summary of each episode
is available on Wikipedia. I also don’t
plan to belabor any points about psychiatric diagnosis or treatment because
unless a film is explicitly about psychiatry that kind of analysis does not
strike me as being very realistic.
The series begins introducing us to the lives of Marianne
and Connell in high school and their home lives. We learn that Marianne’s
family is fairly wealthy and that Connell’s mother works for them as a
housekeeper. Marianne’s mother is a barrister. Her older brother Alan also lives at home.
There is tension due to a distant relation with her mother and an openly hostile
relationship with her brother who is overtly abusive. In two scenes Alan
physically assaults Marianne. At school,
Marianne is irritable and sarcastic. She argues with teachers and
criticizes them in front the class to the point that she is disciplined. When
her peers react with criticism, she is critical of them and does not hesitate
to point out that none of them are equal to her academically. She is very bright, and is aware of the fact
that Connell is her only real academic competition. She isolated without an obvious peer group.
Connell is successful athletically as well as
academically. He has a peer group that
is supportive of his athletics, but intrusive and critical of his private life. As he and Marianne have some initial awkward
exchanges it becomes obvious that they are attracted to one another. Marianne
initiates the sexual aspect of their relationship – even though she has no
prior experience. She agrees to tell nobody about their relationship at
Connell’s request, because of his concern that it would be awkward with his
peer group. Throughout this period of time, Marianne observes his activity at
school where he is popular but gives no indication that they have a relationship. The first break in their relationship occurs
when Connell fails to ask her to a large social event and asks a girl who is
more acceptable to his peer group.
One of the key early points in the film that distinguished
this drama from a more typical young adult love story was Connell’s mother confronting him about the way he was treating Marianne. She expressed extreme
disappointment that he was having a sexual relationship with her and hiding their general relationship from his peers at school. He protested and asked her if she should not take his
side and her reply was not one that I have seen in any previous movies – there
were some things in life that you should feel badly about and this was one of
them. Eventually – the discord in the relationship amplified by his peer group –
some speculate that they are having a relationship. After
their first break up, they will have 2,
3, 4 and even 5 more times to makes things right. During some of those times, they date other
people and we see them trying to relate to those new partners and realize that
it is not close to what they had with one another. That often led to conflicts with the new
partners when they directly observed Marianne and Connell interacting in social
settings and their continued attraction and concern for one another was
obvious.
Marianne and Connell’s personalities are similar in many
ways. Both seem to be prone to anxiety
and depression and Connell seems to be more aware of this. He openly talks with
her about having severe panic attacks just walking down the street in Dublin
and how that might affect his decision to travel to New York for an MFA program
in creative writing. After the death of one of his friends from suicide he has
an episode of severe depression and is supported by Marianne via
telecommunication while she is studying in Sweden. There are many situations where the couple’s
tendency toward self-criticism and self-loathing is clear. For Marianne that
includes either acquiescing or explicit requests to be treated badly by her
partners. In one critical scene she requests that Connell do the same and we
learn it is something that he cannot do.
This series highlights the importance of emotion and does a
good job of portraying high levels of emotional intensity early in the relationship
with some moderation over time. There are scenes where the emotion is overwhelming
and the causes are not explicit.
Throughout many of their breakups – an emotional event occurred but the
specific cause was never addressed or addressed in a much later episode. These emotional events also occurred with
other people and the viewer gets potential explanatory bits of information
along the way. As an example, over time
we learn that Marianne’s father who is deceased had a history of being abusive
toward his family. We see how she is treated by an emotionally distant mother
and her abusive resentful brother. Over a Christmas holiday an open rift with
her family occurs and she moves in with Connell’s family. She is with them when
she encounters her mother walking toward them in town. Her mother glares at her
but walks by without speaking. As they
drive away Marianne asks Connell’s mother about what the people in town think
of her mother and the reply is ”she is a bit odd.” More than enough information there to speculate
about how Marianne might have been impacted by the family environment.
One of the dimensions that comes up in a film like this is
the intersubjective state with the audience that is created by the actors. The themes in this film are so realistic and
compelling that it would be a rare person who does not experience associations
to what has happened in their life. How
can you find an ideal partner at many levels and never seem to develop a
lasting relationship? How do you
recognize aspects of your own experience and personality that consistently get
in the way? How do you give yourself enough credit in life and realize that you
will make it? Can you realistically
assess what happened in your family of origin and how it might affect you in
the present day? And at an even more basic level – have I had relationships
like this in my life? Do I wish things had gone differently? Would my life have
been different if that relationship had succeeded? That is just a short list of questions that could
occur while watching this series.
I imagine that any review of this series discusses the nudity and implied sexual activity. Viewers should expect much more nudity than is seen on typical American network television or in most movies. It is one of the warnings. I have seen the series referred to as “pornographic” in some social media sites. That really diminishes the importance of this drama. It is easy to lose the importance of a complicated relationship in the context of sexual activity and this story is definitely about much more than sex. The sexual activity is critical in developing the story of these individuals and their relationship as a couple.
These are just a few areas that came up in Normal People
and also explain the title. Both Marianne and Connell consider themselves to be
defective in several ways. They also realize that their love for one another
has allowed them to accomplish more through mutual support than they might have
accomplished on their own. Despite many scenes of tension, anxiety, depression,
and anger most observers will realize that they are just a couple of normal
people with real life problems and a lot of those problems come down to how
they negotiate this relationship that on one hand is passionate. loving, and
supportive and on the other is complicated by life circumstances and frequent
misunderstandings. I was pulling for them for all 12 episodes. I won’t tell you
how it ends – but I was pleased with the ending. I know there is a lot of fan
support for a season 2 – but I have also read that the author and screenwriter
said that the original intent was to just produce one season.
The best single sentence characterization about this series
is that it is about a young couple who function much better together than they
do apart – but they have not figured out how to stay together. This was a compelling story – and I looked
forward to every episode.
George Dawson, MD, DFAPA