Two people, Marianne and Connell, and the years in which they keep finding and losing each other: that is the whole of Normal People, the 2020 drama series adapted from Sally Rooney's best-selling novel.
What is Normal People about?
Marianne and Connell come from the same small town in Ireland, yet their backgrounds could hardly be more different, and that gap shapes how each of them is seen by everyone around them. What starts between the two is private and intense, and it does not follow a straight line. They draw close, pull apart, and drift back toward one another as their circumstances change. Along the way the series looks hard at intimacy, at who holds power in a relationship and when, and at the plain wish to love somebody and be loved back. Neither of them is ever quite finished with the other, and the story keeps returning to the question of what they owe each other.
About the cast
Daisy Edgar-Jones and Paul Mescal are the two leads, and the series rests almost entirely on them. With a story this narrow in focus there is very little for a performer to hide behind: long stretches consist of two people talking, or failing to say what they mean. The pairing of Edgar-Jones and Mescal is the thing most viewers remember about the show.
Context & significance
Normal People is a United Kingdom production in the drama genre, and Sally Rooney, the author of the source novel, is the name credited behind it in the catalogue. Episodes are short, around 30 minutes each, an unusual length for a serious drama. The brevity suits the material. Each instalment tends to settle on one period in the pair's lives, so the series moves forward in compact chapters much as a novel would. The Irish small-town setting matters too, because the difference between the two families is felt most sharply in a place where everybody knows everybody. The series was strongly received on release and remains one of the best-regarded romantic dramas of its year.
Watching Normal People on Ktime
On K-Time, Normal People can be played with a Persian dub or with Persian subtitles. You do not need to sign in to read about the series here, but watching it calls for a K-Time account login. The service is made for the Persian-speaking diaspora and its menus are in Farsi from the first screen onward.