Get Ready for 'Normal People' to Ruin You in a Matter of Hours
Sally Rooney's breathtakingly tender coming-of-age novel, Normal People, is getting the TV show it deserves. Hulu and the BBC announced in May 2019 that the award-winning book will be adapted into 12 half-hour episodes available to stream this spring. And almost a year later, it's finally here.
Like Rooney's original, the Normal People series follows the complicated relationship between two small-town Ireland classmates—Marianne, a wealthy loner, and Connell, a popular boy whose mother works for Marianne's family—as they explore themselves, each other, and how to move through the world as "normal people."
Here's what you need to know about the upcoming show.
It premieres April 29.
All 12 episodes of Normal People will arrive on Hulu on Wednesday, April 29. While you wait, watch the full trailer above or the first-look teaser below. Like most new releases on Hulu, expect the series to go live at around midnight EST / 9 p.m. PST.
There's still time to subscribe to Hulu before the show premieres. Get a one-month free trial before signing up for a membership with ads ($6 a month) or without ads ($12 a month).
Two up-and-comers will star.
Rising star Daisy Edgar-Jones and newcomer Paul Mescal will portray Marianne and Connell, respectively. Edgar-Jones has appeared in HBO's Gentleman Jack, Epix's War of the Worlds, and BBC's Silent Witness.
Normal People marks Mescal's first TV role. His credits include stage productions in London and Dublin, including A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and A Midsummer Night's Dream.
Sarah Greene and Aislín McGuckin also star in undisclosed roles, according to the BBC. The show also cast Trinity College students as extras for the show, per Ireland's University Times. The Dublin university plays a significant role in the book's plot.
Hulu tapped the directors of Room and Howards End.
Oscar-nominated Room director Lenny Abrahamson is helming the first six episodes, and the Howards End series director, Hettie Macdonald, is taking on the final six. Rooney and Abrahamson are also executive producers, with Rooney signing on to write the show alongside Alice Birch and Mark O’Rowe.
In a 2019 statement to Hulu, Rooney said, “As a longtime admirer of Lenny Abrahamson’s work, it’s a special privilege for me to be working alongside him on the adaptation of Normal People. I couldn’t be happier with the cast and team we’ve put together, and I’m very excited to watch them bringing new life to the story on screen."
Filming began last spring.
On May 30, 2019, BBC also announced the beginning of filming on Instagram with a photo of the clapboard from the set. According to Mescal's Instagram Stories, the show's first block of filming ended on July 30.
As you await the arrival of Normal People on Hulu, you can read Rooney's equally addictive first novel, Conversations with Friends.
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