NORMAL PEOPLE

This is just a short post with my reactions to the the series Normal People currently running on RTÉ with eight episodes already broadcast. I caught the first six on the player and watched the last two live.

I didn't know much about it in advance but had heard an interview with Lenny Abrahamson on Arena on RTÉ radio. So I knew there were sex scenes and that there had been an intimacy coordinator on the set.

Then I saw it in a link to the RTÉ player in Twitter and thought I'd have a look.

I was totally captivated by these two young people, Connell and Marianne.

Connell had a lot of resonances for me. I don't, and didn't, play sports and I never noticed women swooning over me. But I identified with his emotional reticence.

Marianne, apart from being a looker, initially appeared to be a loner with an assertive streak. But this was subsequently revealed as covering up a serious vulnerability which led her into a relationship, if that's what it's called, with a totally obnoxious and exploitative partner.

I don't know how this is going to end. It would be nice if the pair got back together and recaptured the innocence and intensity of their original relationship.

Not everyone shares my enthusiasm for this series.

It has been suggested to me that it is too drawn out relative to the actual content. I could sympathise with this view from someone who had watched the series over the weeks and was not as emotionally involved as I was. But I don't agree with it.

There appeared to be some criticism out there also of the sexual content. My initial reaction was to not understand this as I thought this aspect had been most sensitively handled. But on reflection maybe I can see where some people are coming from.

What struck me, thinking back on it, was the absence of guilt. I saw the relationship as natural and positive.

But it did contrast starkly with the environment in which I grew up, dominated by a negative, sex and power obsessed Roman Catholic Church.

To people, still influenced by some of the lorry load of baggage I picked up along the way, the sex must have seemed crude, irresponsible and even pornographic. One contributor to a phone-in did use that term. However she demurred when pressed to explain herself further.

So Full marks to all who had anything to do with this work. It dragged me through a whole range of emotions, and it's not over yet.