The series follows the relationship between Marianne Sheridan Daisy Edgar-Jones and Connell Waldron Paul Mescal , as they navigate adulthood from their final days in secondary school to their undergraduate years in Trinity College. In the United States, the series was released in its entirety on Hulu on 29 April The series has received critical acclaim, with praise for the performances, directing, writing, aesthetics, and its portrayal of mature content. The series follows Marianne Sheridan and Connell Waldron through their time at secondary school in County Sligo on Ireland's Atlantic coast, and later as undergraduate students at Trinity College Dublin.
The focus is mainly Connell's and Marianne's complex relationship. Among her peers at secondary school, Marianne is regarded as an oddball, but she denies caring about her social standing. Despite her academic achievements, her home life is complicated by her dismissive mother, Denise, and her resentful brother, Alan. Her father is deceased and is later revealed to have been domestically abusive, though her family avoids mentioning him.
Connell is an athletic, high-achieving student living with his single mother, Lorraine, who is employed by Denise as a house cleaner. He is popular in school, though he remains silent while Marianne is constantly bullied. This creates complexity and points of contention as their relationship develops. In addition to that, both characters struggle to articulate their feelings and misread each other's intentions. Principal photography began on location in County Sligo and Dublin in May Tubbercurry primarily made up the fictional town of Carricklea, with Streedagh Point along Ireland's Wild Atlantic Way used for beach scenes, Knockmore House in Enniskerry , County Wicklow for the Sheridans' residence, a terraced home in Shankill, Dublin for the Waldrons' residence, and Hartstown Community School in Clonsilla , Fingal , County Dublin for the secondary school scenes featuring real-life students in the background.
The first look pictures came out on 1 November The series has received critical acclaim. The site's critic consensus states, "Anchored by Daisy Edgar-Jones and Paul Mescal's vulnerable performances, Normal People is at once intimate and illuminating, beautifully translating the nuances of its source material. Caroline Framke of Variety magazine wrote: "With its trifecta of elegant writing, directing, and acting, Hulu's Normal People is just as bleak and uncompromising as Rooney's novelβa feat, and one that takes several episodes to fully absorb.
In fact, it took me until about halfway through to understand just how much it was affecting me. As Marianne and Connell's relationship grows deeper, Normal People becomes as immersive as the book that inspired it, making you both crave and dread knowingβor perhaps more accurately, experiencingβwhat happens next. The production has received particular praise for its realistic portrayal of intimate content [ 26 ] and the work of Ita O'Brien as the show's intimacy coordinator.
