It was the series that made its leads household names, and now the hit BBC adaptation of Sally Rooney's bestselling novel, Normal People, is finally available to stream on Netflix — and it's unsurprisingly already proving to be a success story for the streamer.
The widely acclaimed adaptation of Sally Rooney’s bestselling novel of the same name made waves when it first debuted in the grips of the pandemic in 2020 on BBC Three – leaving a trail of broken hearts in its wake, and garnering a legion of loyal fans for its lead stars, Daisy Edgar-Jones and Paul Mescal.
The BBC adaptation of Rooney's bestselling 2018 novel follows Connell (Mescal, who single-handedly made chain necklaces a cultural phenomenon) and Marianne (Edgar-Jones, luminous and devastating in equal measure) as they navigate the world's most complex on-off relationship from their final year of secondary school in County Sligo, Ireland, through their university years at Trinity College Dublin.
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The story goes as follows: Connell is popular but working-class, while Marianne is wealthy but a social pariah. They begin a secret affair that he's too cowardly to acknowledge publicly, setting the tone for years of emotional whiplash that left pandemic viewers of the series shouting at their television screens, and will no doubt leave Netflix watchers feeling much the same. What follows is a masterclass in miscommunication, missed opportunities, and the particular agony of loving someone you can't quite reach.
The series tackles class dynamics, mental health, and sexual intimacy with unflinching honesty, while Mescal and Edgar-Jones deliver performances so raw they feel invasive to watch.
Don't believe us? Take it from the series' rating on Rotten Tomatoes, which, at the time of writing, sits at an above-par 92%.
Normal People is available to stream on Netflix now.
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Naomi May is a seasoned culture journalist and editor with over ten years’ worth of experience in shaping stories and building digital communities. After graduating with a First Class Honours from City University's prestigious Journalism course, Naomi joined the Evening Standard, where she worked across both the newspaper and website. She is now the Digital Editor at ELLE Magazine and has written features for the likes of The Guardian, Vogue, Vice and Refinery29, among many others. Naomi is also the host of the ELLE Collective book club.
