Television series

Normal People

Name: Normal People
Genre: Drama, Romance
Released: 2020
Cast: Daisy Edgar-Jones, Paul Mescal, Sarah Greene

Adapted from Sally Rooney's novel, this is a hushed, aching chronicle of one couple's on-off intimacy from Irish secondary school through Trinity College. Shot in close, breath-held two-handers, it prizes silence over dialogue and specificity over sweep. Emotionally raw, sexually candid, deliberately unglamorous — for anyone who wants heartbreak rendered in whispers rather than shouting matches.

TVMaze rating

8.0

If you liked this

Conversations with Friends2022

Same author, same director, same hushed intensity — this time following two women untangling a messy affair. If you loved the patient, ache-heavy pacing, this is its direct sibling.

But Its central romance is colder and harder to root for than Marianne and Connell's, and it can feel like a diminished repeat rather than a companion.

One Day2024

Another slow-build romance told across years, checking in on the same couple annually — funnier, sadder, and just as devoted to the long game of will-they-won't-they.

But The yearly check-in gimmick can feel mechanical rather than organic, and it leans warmer and cosier than Normal People's rawness.

Sex Education2019

British, teenage, unflinching about sex and awkward bodies — but here the tone is comic and generous rather than aching, a lighter cousin that still takes desire seriously.

But The ensemble comedy energy and high-school sitcom trappings are a world away from Normal People's stillness and restraint.

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Brief Encounter1945

Both are studies in what's unsayable: love that survives almost entirely on withheld words, glances and the ache of things not done. Normal People modernises Brief Encounter's central discovery that desire is loudest in silence.

Two people fall for each other despite everything standing in the way, saying almost nothing about how they feel while feeling everything — the original masterclass in romantic restraint and repression.

But It's black-and-white, mannered, and a product of 1940s English propriety — a world away from anything explicit or contemporary.

Call Me by Your Name2017

A summer of first love shot with the same sensory, unhurried attention to skin and silence — one of the great screen romances about desire arriving before language does.

But It's dreamier and more sun-drenched than grounded — less about class and more about pure, golden-hour infatuation.

Brooklyn2015

An Irish emigrant torn between two loves and two lives, told with the same tender specificity of place and quiet interior feeling that makes Normal People sing.

But It's gentler and more classically romantic, without the raw sexual honesty or contemporary messiness.

The End of the F***ing World2017

Two damaged teenagers circling each other with prickly, awkward intimacy — a stranger, funnier cousin that still nails the terror of being truly seen by someone.

But It swaps naturalism for dark comedy and crime-plot absurdity, so the tonal shift might jar if you want pure realism.

Atonement2007

A class-crossed romance derailed by misunderstanding and circumstance, gorgeously shot and devastating in its slow accumulation of loss — for when you want the tragedy dialed all the way up.

But It's more sweeping and operatic, trading intimate naturalism for grand, tragic scale.

Weekend2011

A whole relationship compressed into 48 hours between two men who just met — intense, tender, talky, and just as interested in the vulnerability of being honest with someone new.

But Its low-budget, single-weekend scope means less history and scale than Normal People's years-long arc.

Skins2007

Messy British teenagers, class tension and reckless intimacy — the rowdier ancestor, all party chaos and heartbreak rather than hushed rooms.

But It's broader, trashier and less interested in psychological nuance — comfort food, not the real thing.

56 Up2012

Where Normal People compresses years into gestures and silences, the Up series does the same real-time work with real lives — both are studies in how origin quietly determines destiny.

A real group of British people filmed every seven years from childhood onward — watching class, background and small choices quietly shape a life is the non-fiction version of what Normal People does with two characters.

But It's a slow, decades-spanning documentary with no romance and no plot, built for patience rather than heartbreak.

You2018

Both hinge on the idea that being deeply known by someone can feel like salvation — You simply asks what happens when that knowing turns controlling instead of tender.

An obsessive, watchful man convinced he understands a woman better than she understands herself — the same intoxicating idea of being truly 'seen', curdled into something possessive and frightening.

But It's pulpy, violent and deliberately trashy where Normal People is careful and restrained — a guilty-pleasure thriller, not literary drama.