Normal People

Just like almost every other human in the English-speaking world who carries two X chromosomes, I have just finished bingewatching Normal People (on BBC Player with a VPN). Oh god, it’s good. It’s just so, so good. Trigger warning: it can and will bring up any and all feelings of young adult anguish that you may have successfully repressed – just with a lovely saturated Instagram filter.

The show centres around Connell and Marianne who have a clandestine affair in high school in their bleak, Irish county town where they’re both misfits in their own way. The ripples of their relationship follow them onto university in Dublin – and it ain’t all roses. In fact, it almost never is. And it’s glorious. Normal People has been carefully adapted to screen from the novel of the same name. You become so invested in this relationship – whether you want to or not! It’s wonderfully painful and human. And it’s just so beautiful to watch. I can’t stop thinking about it. (But be prepared to have your heart ripped out of your chest. Just sayin’…)

Kate Marsden