Normal People: Season 1

"The show is at its best when it allows Marianne to be sexual in these early high school scenes. When she and Connell are alone, there’s a hint of a better show trying to make its way out of a dour shell."

"The first six episodes of the series, which feature the end of school and the first year of college, are easily the strongest part of the show — which is hardly a surprise as that was also the strongest part of Rooney's novel as well..."

"Again and again throughout Normal People — an excellent Hulu miniseries adapted by Sally Rooney and Alice Birch from Rooney’s bestselling novel — director Lenny Abrahamson (Room) simply lingers on those faces. He trusts his actors’ expressions to tell us what we need to know about why Marianne and Connell fall in love — and, almost just as often, out of it."

"Neither Marianne nor Connell are particularly verbose, but their shorthand with each other becomes a language all its own. With every episode, you learn to read their moods and micro-expressions alongside them."

"The BBC’s 12-part adaptation of Normal People, widely dubbed the first great millennial novel, is a poignant coming-of-age drama masquerading as teen romance."

"To judge by the first four episodes, it’s a beautiful, pitch-perfect adaptation that captures all the intensity and longing of the novel and will bring Rooney’s work to the attention of those who don’t know it, all five of them."

"“Normal People” engineers an uncanny dependency — compelling you to keep watching even when you want to savor what’s come before — while its hefty episode count provides an apt sense of significance."