To say I had high expectations for this is putting it lightly. Normal People is one of the best miniseries ever created, and with the same creative team adapting yet another Sally Rooney novel, I perhaps unfairly expected a show of equal quality. Though I should mention before saying anything else I’m coming from the perspective of having not read the book, so I’m basing the series purely on what was put to screen.
Technically the show is really impressive, though this isn’t a surprise as it’s the same creative team as Normal People, and clearly the visual language that was developed in that show was brought over to this one, and unsurprisingly it works to incredible effects. The cinematography is stunning and does a lot of the heavy lifting when it comes to conveying the isolation and introverted nature of the characters. The colour grading really helps do this too. Just overall, you can’t fault the visuals of the show.
Much the same can be said about the acting too. Not a single person in this doesn’t fully deliver with their performance, it’s just a masterclass in acting. Alison Oliver does a great job with the writing that she’s given, trying to let people into the character of Frances, despite her being painfully unlikable. Joe Alwyn also does a brilliant job saying the 10 words he’s given per episode. In all seriousness though, his performance is exquisite, as it really felt like someone who was struggling to get out of the pit of depression.
However, and this is something I really didn’t expect from this series, but the writing and dialogue are borderline awful. The show makes the decision, much like the book, to follow Frances navigating her rocky relationship issues and it is framed from her point of view. This isn’t a bad thing, however when your main character is so introverted that in some scenes you can’t even infer what they’re feeling it becomes an issue. In a way it makes sense to me why Nick is so shut off from people, as the show does the work to explain this to the viewer, Frances however just can’t communicate with anyone. This isn’t the igenious decision used in Normal People, to have the crux of Connell and Marianne’s relationship be miscommunication, it’s just bad storytelling.
Over the course of the series I don’t know what Frances’ development is, taking this even further I don’t quite understand why she gets into the situation she does cause it’s never really displayed on screen that her and Nick are deeply in love, all we see that pertains to this is them having sex. I get that there’s clearly stuff going on inside her head, and this obviously lends itself well to the medium of writing, but as a TV show, it just doesn’t work. This becomes exceedingly apparant with the ending, which genuinely left me confused and was out of nowhere.
What’s more is that Frances is surrounded by really interesting characters who we essentially never get to learn anything about that’s more than skin deep. This really applies to Melissa, who might be the most intruiging character in the show, but instead is just played off to be a bitch. It’s sad cause when there’s clearly interesting things going on in the world but instead you’re left to watch Frances mope and after a while it just gets so boring. Such a missed opportunity, would’ve been better if any of the characters actually had conversations with friends.
★★1/2
