The A to Z of Normal People
The TV adaptation of Sally Rooney’s book, which wrapped up last week, was the unexpected global pandemic hit. To give it a proper send-off, No 1 fan Emer McLysaght has compiled the definitive list of the show’s highlights
A is for... ARGOS CHIC Searches 56pc on the for Argos men’s website, necklaces according jumped to an inevitable press release from the store, after Connell’s Chain became the surprise breakout star of Normal People. The chain is referred to as “Argos chic” in Sally Rooney’s book, and in the show becomes an absolute constant for both Marianne and Connell as everything else around them changes. I demand a Golden Globe for Normal People costume designer Lorna Marie Mugan based on her accessories work alone. B is for... BEHIND THE SCENES A Tourism Ireland video exploring the Normal People locations has been viewed hundreds of thousands of times on YouTube. Sligo’s Streedagh Beach, TCD’s cobbled campus and Shane Ross’s old family home in Wicklow (naturally) all feature, while the Tubbercurry AIB and Tamangos nightclub in Portmarnock have finally had their moments in the sun. Cis
for... CONNELL’S CAR
Sure, Normal People is an exploration of the enduring power of attraction and love, but we can’t ignore the enduring power of Connell’s little silvery-blue runaround, can we? He bops around town giving everyone lifts, it never gives him a whiff of trouble and it’s the location for some of the most important scenes in the show. What a little rocket! Dis
for... DEBS DISASTER Connell doesn’t ask Marianne to their school debs, a decision that haunts the pair of them (although it’s almost worth it for the apology scene the following year). Instead he takes the popular Rachel, and I’m starting a petition for ‘Connell Taking Rachel to the Debs’ to be the new lingo for any kind of monumental balls-up. As in, “I’m after doing a Connell Taking Rachel to the Debs on my mam’s birthday present. She already has three foot spas and I bought her two of them!”. Eis
for... ENDING
As people turbo-binged their way through the 12 half-hour episodes that dropped on the BBC iPlayer and the US streaming platform Hulu, it became clear that many of them were unfamiliar with the ending of Sally Rooney’s novel. The book leaves us guessing as to the fate of Connell and Marianne, a detail which saw me crying on a grim Ryanair flight (remember those?) on the way home from a ginsoaked holiday, Kindle in hand. “When is season two?” the viewers clamoured, not realising that the ending we’ve been given is likely the ending we will have to live with, with a second season extremely unlikely. Sob. Fis
for... FRINGE
Who among us has not stood in front of the mirror during this coronavirus lockdown and considered giving ourselves a Marianne fringe with the blunt nail scissors? Friends, my hair is wavy and blonde, and even I was delusional enough to think that a quick snip might transform me into a brunette beauty like Daisy Edgar-Jones. Thankfully a friend told me to “cop on” and “put down the wine”. Gis
for... GRINDS
Marianne teases Connell with a suggestive “maybe you should give me grinds” when they engage in lickarsey yet somehow still sexy banter about who got the better results in their mocks. “Grinds”, “mocks”, “the debs”, “shifting”, “the ride” are just some examples of the Irish lingo that viewers in the UK and US have had to get their heads round while watching Normal People. I’m excited to see “shit buzz, pal” popping up in London and LA. His
for... HORNY
I’ll be writing a strongly worded letter to the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland questioning the responsibility of
broadcasting such a sexually charged programme during a global pandemic. Totally unfair on the locked-down singletons to trigger such a collective, nationwide massive horn. #AubergineEmoji Iis
for... INTERRAILING
Connell achieves ‘schol’ status at Trinity, meaning he earns free tuition and board for the duration of his time there. This frees him up to engage in the rite of passage that is interrailing around Europe (handily dropping into Marianne’s Italian villa to show off his bronzed thighs in his teeny GAA knickers). I can’t be the only one worried about the smell of his runners after weeks of sweating on trains? Jis
for... JOE DUFFY
Joe ‘washyourhands’ Duffy was so defeated by the fornication police on Liveline
that a studio webcam image of him with his head in his hands became a meme. And who could blame him? Sure, there’s sex in Normal People, but more importantly there’s the brilliant portrayal of the near-universal delight and devastation of first love. That doesn’t set Liveline
alight quite as effectively as TEENAGERS RIDING, though. Kis
for... KISS
The chemistry and stunning sex scenes between Connell and Marianne have been roundly praised, and Paul Mescal and Daisy Edgar-Jones’s work with intimacy coordinator Ita O’Brien has been credited with getting it just right. However, Edgar-Jones has revealed that her first solo audition tape for Normal People saw her pretending to shift Connell mid-air, mimicking that first kiss they share in her fancy front room. My knees are cringing. Lis
for... LECTURES
Normal People does relatable very well, but perhaps the most unrealistic scene in the show is when Connell goes to Trinity and his lecture hall is absolutely heaving with students. Later, however, he is shown to be one of only a handful in attendance, the others having obviously discovered The Pav and four cans of Bavaria for five quid. Mis
for... MAMS
There’s a stark contrast between the mams in Normal People. Marianne’s is portrayed as cold and ineffectual in intervening in the emotional and physical
abuse doled out by older brother Alan. Connell’s mam Lorraine, meanwhile, is a loving, modern and no-nonsense presence, and actress Sarah Greene produces one of the most memorable scenes when she absolutely reefs Connell out of it after he pulls a literal Connell Taking Rachel to the Debs. Nis
for... NOTIONS
Marianne has pals with an outdoor swimming pool. In Ireland! She gets to stay in a casually massive family-owned D4 apartment while attending college. She and her friends summer at another family home in Italy. These are upper echelon levels of notions. Where I grew up, a second car meant you had obviously won the Lotto, and you only went to Italy to beg the Pope to cure your gout. Ois
for... O’NEILL’S
Connell’s GAA prowess in the show is mirrored by Paul Mescal’s real-life star-turn as a junior player in Kildare, and man alive, has he figured out the cost-per-wear on his white Maynooth GAA kit! He’s basically been acting as a walking free advertisement for O’Neill’s since Normal People aired, as he parades The Shorts around his London neighbourhood. Between this and Matt Damon’s SuperValu bag, the Irish brands are having quite the summer. Hon the parish! Pis
for... PSYCHOTHERAPY
In episode ten, Connell’s sound roommate Niall is the one who convinces him that he should go and talk to someone after the death of his school pal Rob. In therapy, Connell reveals the layers of despair he’s been feeling, not only about Rob’s suicide but also about how he’s struggling in Trinity and not living the “different life” he thought he would when he got there. Qis
for... QUOTES
I know they only give out Academy Awards for movies, but I firmly believe Paul Mescal should receive an honorary Oscar for his delivery of the line “it was class” after Marianne asks Connell if their sexy session was “a good one”. “Yeah, it was class,” he exhales, with a big, delighted Irish head on him. Ris
for... ROCKET
In episode 11 Connell asks Marianne if she’d like an ice cream from the van and then Rocket. unfathomably No offence to comes the humble back Rocket, with a but you’d if better you offer be coming someone with an ice a large cream, 99 and Can’t have say paid I blame extra her for for strawberry abandoning sauce. the Rocket about the (although mess it I must do worry have to made this day on the carpet). Sis
for... STICKY CARPETS Truly some of the most evocative scenes in Normal People were the ones in which you could practically feel that troubling tension as the sole of your shoe struggles for a moment before lifting from the sticky, Jagerbomb-soaked carpet of a local nightclub. You could almost smell it. Harrowing. Tis for... TRAUMA
On its surface Normal People is a show about young love, but lurking underneath are concurrent plots involving trauma and how it can impact a person’s life. For Marianne there’s complex developmental trauma sustained during an abusive childhood, and for Connell there’s intense anxiety, exacerbated by the suicide of a friend. Add in issues around consent, bullying and abandonment, and you’ve got yourself an emotional roller-coaster. Uis for... UNSUNG HEROES While Marianne and Connell seem to go out of their way to surround themselves with shitehawks, they each encounter a friend in college who provides compassion and sense and warmth. For Connell it’s Niall, his super-sound roommate, and for Marianne it’s her pal Joanna. Both are dead-on, would always stand their round and would make excellent subjects for a spin-off show. Vis for... VINO
In another instance of suspect authenticity, none of the Normal People characters seem to involuntarily wince when they suck down one of the many, many glasses of wine consumed throughout the series. When I was in college, the only wine we deigned to spend money on would strip the enamel off your teeth. In contrast, Marianne and Co do a lot of quaffing on what seems to be a constant supply of extremely palatable reds and whites. Wis for... WHERE’S THE CREAM?
One of the most menacing lines ever
delivered, by one of the most repellent characters to ever grace our screens: Marianne’s baffling boyfriend Jamie. His scenes of cruelty and frustration in Italy are excruciating to watch. It’s a testament to the acting ability of Fionn O’Shea that he’s managed to shake off the shroud of Jamie and portray such a likeable character in David Freyne’s new movie Dating Amber. Xis
for... XMAS
The heartbreaking final episode of Normal People features moments of pure joy too. Estranged from her family, Marianne is invited by Connell to spend the festive period with his family. She laughs with him in the car as they make the trip home to Sligo on Christmas Eve. She’s embraced with such warmth by Lorraine and gets to celebrate in a way she’s never experienced but deserves so much. A “proper Christmas”. Yis
for... YAZOO
The wide-ranging Normal People soundtrack takes in contemporary Irish hip-hop and folk, the angsty drama of Imogen Heap, Stephen Rennicks’s beautiful score, and in the final, heartbreaking scene of the debs episode (remember, Connell made a catastrophic mistake and took Rachel?), the distinctive opening chords of Yazoo’s Only You ring out. Now, when I say I nearly had to be put on a drip, such was the emotion… Zis
for... ZOOM
Paul Mescal has admitted that there has been a silver lining to the release of his first TV role coinciding with an unprecedented global pandemic: he hasn’t had to leave his sitting room. Mescal and Daisy Edgar-Jones have been the darlings of the Covid-19 chat-show scene, appearing via Zoom with James Corden, Graham Norton and our own Tubs. Mescal has said that appearing remotely has taken a lot of the nerves out of such appearances. And look, he probably got to wear his Maynooth GAA shorts for all of them. We’ll never know!
HONOURABLE MENTIONS...
ACCENT
Daisy Edgar-Jones may have an Irish mam, but her usual accent is English through and through. Not that you’d know from her pitch-Irish lilt.
DIRECTORS
Lenny Abrahamson directed the first six episodes, then Hettie McDonald took over. They managed to achieve the perfect balance of their own individual styles and a beautifully cohesive work of art. A Golden Globe, a Bafta and an Emmy each please!
HELEN
Poor, poor Helen. Connell’s college girlfriend was always going to be on the back foot as long as Marianne was in the picture. Be nice to yourself, Helen. Straight onto Tinder, girl.
UNIFORMS
The grey uniforms featured in the opening episodes are particularly haunting for anyone who attended an Irish secondary school. The scratch of the jumper against the skirt, the smell of a too-tight shirt on a muggy day, the never-ending quest for a clean pair of tights. Marianne ditches the uniform after she removes herself from school before the end of term and shows up to sit her exams in her civvies, setting her even further apart from her peers. You wouldn’t have gotten away with a leather jacket in St Mary’s College, Naas, I’ll tell you that much.
WRIST TATTOO
Just when we thought we couldn’t love Connell’s mam Lorraine any more after the bollocking she gives him over Taking Rachel to The Debs, a tiny detail later in episode three sent fans over the edge when it was spotted. Lorraine has ‘Connell’ tattooed on her inner wrist, revealed when she reaches up to bid him a fond farewell as he leaves to collect Rachel. Not Marianne. Rachel. Still not over it, as you can see.
Emer McLysaght is a writer and the co-author of the Oh My God What A Complete Aisling series of books