Normal People (2020)

MIMDB score: 8.8
Current IMDB score: 6.9?

Director: Lenny Abrahamson, Hettie Macdonald

Main Actors you care about: n/a, you haven't heard of these actors yet.  I think the main girl will be in more things that will be good.

Why I liked it: It made me rethink my established thoughts on love.  Movies and TV shows have been few and far between on new thoughts (hence why this is the first blog post in awhile).  It's kind of crazy anytime anything makes me think differently about a subject that I've thought a lot about.

The biggest thought is I was given from this show is whether life is about the pursuit of happiness or just happiness.  I haven't fully figured out if it's better to be in the pursuit of happiness or just soak in the happiness.  My understanding before this show was pursuit of happiness > happiness.  This was because every time I've been happy in life it just leads to a loss of happiness.  Compared to the pursuit of happiness which leads to happiness.  It goes back to my GRE essay question of "can you know true happiness with true sadness".  I argued at the time that you could but nowadays I'd argue you cannot.  I think this show points out that you need both for things to matter.  It seems pretty obvious now really.  I mean I've been quoted as saying "take the good with the bad and learn to be ok with both".  That's basically this show.

I think a lot of effort was put into the shots.  Like a lot of shots will switch to focus on hands or focus on faces will be handled a way that seems correct.  I know other movies and tv shows do this well so it's nothing overly unique but I'd say this show did above average on it.  A lot of times I would say "you better not switch focus onto that other character" and it wouldn't.  This sounds bias so don't know if this is worth saying.

The music was great really.  The music choices really helped me make it past the first two episodes to think that this show had potential and I should keep watching.  It's melancholy which unfortunately is how I see good relationships.  How good it feels to be with someone should be equal to how much it hurts to be a part.  I think this tv show nails the feeling bad part when they are a part.

Thing(s) I would change:
They could maybe put a little more into the good feeling they should have when they are together.  I think the show relies too much on sex compatibility when they are together.  I understand it's 2020 and sex is way more out in the open but relationships are more than just good sex.

I don't know.  I was really turned off by the first two episodes.  I didn't really fully understand why these people where treating each other like they were and it didn't really seem like they had chemistry.  Sadly I think they had to go through that and us as viewers had to go through that same experience of why the hell are they acting like that.  Later in the season the characters basically said the same thing about how they don't know why they did the things they did in the first few episodes.  It's hard to see starting out in a show of why things are happening.  I think by the end it makes sense but it doesn't negate having the first few episodes being hard to get through.

Oh!, less nudity would have helped me to be able to recommend it to others.  Nudity for me has become just a cheap way to make things seem more intense.  Unfortunately, the amount of times I felt like this was porn leads to a 6.9 instead of a 7 or even an 8.  I feel like the only nude scene really needed to be when the main guy asks for a nude picture and she can't stop crying to take it.  I feel like that scene would have been ever more powerful with it being the only nude scene.  Nudity just in the abusive relationship scenes would have been powerful as well.

Favorite Line(s)/Scene:
Nothing really stands out.  I love every scene where when they are a part and that it hurts.

I think I should start eating meals with my fork upside down.  It just seems like a much more interesting way to eat.

Similar Movies/TV Shows:
Like Crazy but Normal People is much better.  A Lot Like Love.  A modern When Harry Met Sally.  Love (tv show).  Modern Love (tv show, mainly episode 5).  Normal People is not a romantic comedy.  It's a romantic drama.  You will not laugh once but you may smile or better yet smirk.

"Side" note:
I've been to Trinity College in Dublin.  It is an amazing main quad which is where he walks into when he first gets there.  I think it helped me start enjoying the show past the first few episodes a bit more.  It is interesting that being to foreign places make things seem so much more real.

The show is based on a book with the same name.