Normal People

The urge to read a novel or watch something or play something is at its peak when examinations are just around the corner. I have been suffering from it since my teenage years. I am not exactly sure the urge to watch a show was higher or the urge to write a blog on it. Nevertheless, its a futile attempt to try and surrender to the coursing creativity at times. Read on: NO SPOILERS ahead. I am attracted towards simplicity. The beauty of simple things requires a complex explanation. Simply sitting under the sun on a cold winter morning brings me so much joy as does the simple act of strolling along the road on a windy evening. Normal People(2020) is a simple story about two childhood friends turned lovers as they navigate through all the confusion of being young-adults and the choices they make. Immersed with clichés of two people gravitating towards each other again and again. The realization that they can be truly themselves only with each other. It's so simple yet magnetic. It's seldom a show portrays loneliness and depression as Normal People does. Its replete with raw vulnerability and tears. The show is quiet. The silence conveys so much more than the words are capable of. The silence isn't of the deafening kind. The show makes use of the quietness really well. Those moments let you absorb the rawness of it. The romanticizing of the silence is my favorite part of the show. If you can be silent with another person and not get bored, the silence no longer exists. Words are no longer needed to converse. The silences do. Reminds me of Sound of Silence. "And in the naked light I saw Ten thousand people, maybe more People talking without speaking People hearing without listening People writing songs that voices never share No one dared Disturb the sound of silence" Simon & Garfunkel (1964) The lead actors have done a marvelous job. Both their eyes turn different when they're with each other. A lot has been said and written about eyes. The show has made use of it very wisely to show the differences. Eyes paired with silence had resulted into this breathtaking show. You can't help but smile when they are together and cry when they drift apart and then smile ever wider when they find each other again. They share a lot of silent moments. And they're hauntingly beautiful. Marianne and Connell discover themselves individually and alongside each other throughout the show. The plot of the show isn't unguessable but watching them as they confront their choices and shed tears of regret, you're confronted with your own regrets. So you realize, its normal to feel the pangs of regrets and gradually forgive yourself. The simplicity of the show to depict complex, vulnerable and depressive arcs as normal episodes in people's lives is absolutely fascinating. The show doesn't romanticize and exaggerate the confusion, the realization and pain of not being in touch with your reality or accepting that we're not ourselves. It keeps it real and makes it as normal as possible. Connell even questions if its normal to feel what they feel with each other. And isn't that a very normal thing to do?!