A friendly reminder, Sally Rooney’s ‘Normal People’ hits Australian screens today

Here’s where to watch it. 

If you’re among the millions of Marianne and Connell diehards who consumed Sally Rooney’s second novel, Normal People, in a matter of days – it’s time to fire up your Stan account. 

The BBC/Hulu television series has been in the works since early 2019, and finally, our Irish reverie has been brought to life in 12 30-minute episodes.

The series has already been given five stars by The Guardian UK, and tells the story of two Rooney’s much-beloved Irish classmates, Marianne and Connell, who share a year’s long, coming-of-age, first-love rollercoaster. 

In true BBC style, the melancholic Irish town of Carricklea is brought to life as perfectly gray and rainy; the Irish accents are (dare I say) so sexy that they’re borderline distracting, and I’m fully convinced that lead co-stars Daisy Edgar-Jones and Paul Mescal might be the two best things to come out of 2020 so far.

If you don’t remember, a then-27-year-old Sally Rooney effectively went viral back in 2018, with the novel’s minimal cover becoming a much Instagrammed millennial symbol, circulated by the likes of Lena Dunham, Sarah Jessica Parker, Emily Ratajkowski, and even T-Swift. 

The story is actually anything but corny – it’s sentimental, strangely relatable (though dark), and deals with themes like intimacy, love, violence, belonging, and family, with a fair bit of sadness and secrecy, too. 

Rooney’s since come to be revered as a sort of 21st-century Salinger. The NY Times called her “the first great millennial novelist,” with the 266-page story both longlisted for the Man Booker prize, and named Waterstones’ 2018 ‘Book of the Year.’ 

I’m only two episodes deep (when I should be working) and I’m once again reminded of how lucky our generation is to have Sally Rooney. 

stan.com