An early look at the adaptation of Normal People, with commentary from my Irish colleagues.
Earlier this year, the BBC began filming a limited series adaptation of Sally Rooney’s Normal People, which stars Daisy Edgar-Jones as Marianne and Paul Mescal as Connell. Now, Vanity Fair has graced us with the first few photographs from the show, which will be airing in the US on Hulu.
Luckily for me, there are some real Irish people in the Literary Hub office, who could provide commentary on the first snippets.
“They look too warm in these pictures.”
“Yeah, it should be raining in all of these pictures.”
“We’re going to have to watch closely for about 50% rain over the limited series.”
“Everyone should be much uglier, too.”
“They’re both supposed to be attractive in the book, I guess.”
“The shitty red pub is fine.”
“That’s what we all had to wear in school, unfortunately. Very scratchy sweaters, v-neck with a tie, and then a gray or white shirt.”
“But she should be wearing a heavy pleated skirt. Maybe navy, maybe an ugly green, something like that.”
“That looks pretty Sunday morning accurate.”
“I think that’s the arts block library in Trinity. Again, too handsome, but whatever.”
“Should be more shitty tinsel on that tree.”
“That’s just a picture of her again.”
“Way too much sunlight coming in there. We did have cars—they’re still at school there so they’re down the country, so it’s more likely they’ll have cars. Shitty public transit systems in rural Ireland.”