I haven’t watched Normal People yet (I wanted to read the book first, and by the time I did, my To Watch list was too long), so I haven’t yet experienced how a Sally Rooney book adapts onto the screen. I did just read Conversations With Friends a couple months ago, though. There’s a certain remove to her writing style, a particular distance, that for me makes it hard to connect with the characters as more than just People I Am Temporarily Observing — which I imagine is a rewarding challenge for an actor, because there is plenty of room on the canvas for them to pick their own paint. And it’ll be the second Rooney adaptation where the two leads are largely (professionally) unknown to us, and so we don’t have preconceived notions of their work. I’m interested, is what I’m trying to say, even though I also know that I REALLY need to get to season 2 of The Great, and through seasons 2 and 3 of Succession, and all of Dickinson, and For All Mankind, and remember that time I wanted to go through all of Halt and Catch Fire? Apparently I barely do because I haven’t done it yet.
