https://www.theringer.com/2020/5/14/21259568/what-does-hbo-max-mean-for-hbo-plus-paul-mescal-of-normal-people

Well, I blasted through 5 episodes since yesterday. Wow. This show is incredibly well done. TCTTS, totally agree the leads are amazing. The show just feels completely real. Also, great music. Discovered a new song called "Hey Now" by London Grammer. It has 78M listens on Spotify so apparently I'm out of the loop but always love finding new songs in shows I love.

Anyways, more updates once I complete it. I get why it wouldn't be for everyone but I'm just really impressed with this show. Would never have heard of it without the Entertainment board.

Yes, sir. Great to hear.

And yeah, it's an awesome soundtrack show. I've discovered a bunch of stuff from it as well.

going to watch

TCTTS said:

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First things first, this show isn't for everyone.

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I certainly thought very highly of the acting, but the character's choices eventually became too frustrating for me to enjoy this story. I don't believe for a second that Connell had the guts to actually go to New York. That's utter bs.

Making us wait years for another season would be a real a**hole thing to do.

I'm pretty sure these two are actually having sex

Starting this now as TCTTS rarely let's me down but off the top I'm mad at Hulu for not putting this front and center in the recommended for you section...I had to ****ing use the hulu search bar and first I came back to this thread to confirm that it was actually on hulu...probably the kids using my profile to watch their crap throwing off the algorithm

Hulu's interface suuuuucks, and is never not glitchy on my Apple TV. I honestly don't understand how a company as big as they are - one now owned by Disney, at that - hasn't upgraded their app yet, especially in the midst of the streaming arms race.

Sex Panther said:

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I'm pretty sure these two are actually having sex

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2 episodes in...awesome and unique. Texags delivers again. Too bad hulu/disney can't read my mind and put this front and center when I login. How many teen romances and obscure Felicity Jones movies do I need to watch

After binging Succession and this show back to back in like a week and a half... I'm gonna have to switch to a CW show next. How's the newest season of Riverdale?

So this is definitely going to be a show that stays with me for a while. So simple yet incredibly complex. I do agree that the character choices could be incredibly frustrating at times, although I know that was kind of the whole point. Relationships aren't easy, and even though these two are clearly madly in love with each other... for this generation - "it's complicated" is almost the default setting.


I don't know how they'd do a season 2, and even though I really want to see more Connell and Marianne, I don't think I could take another 12 episodes of this kind of back and forth... I mean this was incredibly emotionally draining. I think a good compromise would be a movie? Honestly, I just want to see that they ended up together and happy dammit.

These two actors were absolutely phenomenal. I mean, give them both all the awards. Connell for a long time I thought he was just a somewhat manipulative *****... but then the scene with the therapist... Jesus. That was incredible and felt like a punch to the gut. And Marianne had some equally tough scenes that she completely nailed. Gut wrenching, yet a beautiful performance... Just a complete triumph of acting (and writing). Amazing music too.


The more I think about it, the more I love it... great suggestion

If anyone has any insight into the motivations and dynamics of Marianne's family, I'd love to hear them... I didn't quite understand what exactly was going on there...

Why her brother hated her so much. Why her mom seemed completely detached, and then she just completely abandons her at the end? I feel like I'm missing some details... And did they ever say anything about her father?

Maybe I should read the book

Sex Panther said:

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So this is definitely going to be a show that stays with me for a while. So simple yet incredibly complex. I do agree that the character choices could be incredibly frustrating at times, although I know that was kind of the whole point. Relationships aren't easy, and even though these two are clearly madly in love with each other... for this generation - "it's complicated" is almost the default setting.


I don't know how they'd do a season 2, and even though I really want to see more Connell and Marianne, I don't think I could take another 12 episodes of this kind of back and forth... I mean this was incredibly emotionally draining. I think a good compromise would be a movie? Honestly, I just want to see that they ended up together and happy dammit.

These two actors were absolutely phenomenal. I mean, give them both all the awards. Connell for a long time I thought he was just a somewhat manipulative *****... but then the scene with the therapist... Jesus. That was incredible and felt like a punch to the gut. And Marianne had some equally tough scenes that she completely nailed. Gut wrenching, yet a beautiful performance... Just a complete triumph of acting (and writing). Amazing music too.


The more I think about it, the more I love it... great suggestion

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That's awesome to hear, and very well said. It's for sure a show that lingers with you for quite some time.

As for a second season, I'm warming up more and more to the idea that Lenny Abrahamson, the director of the first six episodes, floated, and that's waiting ten years or so to revisit these characters. Treat it almost like the Before Sunrise trilogy, have their lives be completely different, and then thrust them together again in completely different circumstances.

Sex Panther said:

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If anyone has any insight into the motivations and dynamics of Marianne's family, I'd love to hear them... I didn't quite understand what exactly was going on there...

Why her brother hated her so much. Why her mom seemed completely detached, and then she just completely abandons her at the end? I feel like I'm missing some details... And did they ever say anything about her father?

Maybe I should read the book

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If this show has one weakness, it's definitely Marianne's family, her brother in particular. I not only hated him as character in the way that we were supposed to, I hated how much of a one note caricature he was as well. He was just so over-the-top sinister, for no real reason in particular, that it never made much sense.

That said, I *think* he simply hated how much praise was heaped upon Marianne for her smarts, while he (apparently) didn't attend college and instead went straight to work for who I assume was his uncle. In the book, from what I understand, Marianne was also apparently more of a nerd/outcast in high school, so I think he was pretty embarrassed by her as well. But the casting of someone as poised and attractive as Daisy Edgar-Jones didn't really do that aspect justice. So, with the TV version of the character, it's a little harder to understand why her brother - or anyone at school - treated her as badly as they did.

As for the mom, I got the impression that she had an okay relationship with Marianne, but she thought that if she sided with her when it came to her son and the way he treated Marianne, the mom feared losing/angering/alienating her son, on top of the grief her son felt for losing his father? As if she was petrified of choosing one kid over the other in the absence of their father (who died from cancer, I think I remember being alluded to offhandedly at one point?).

That was my impression, at least, but yeah, it was all SUPER vague, and I wish they would have spent even just a few more minutes clarifying all of that a bit.

Great stuff, and I think you're spot on with that assessment... A little more insight into it would've been nice as I felt that was instrumental into understanding her psychology and reasoning for her perception of her own self worth, but they still got it across pretty effectively.

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Marianne was also apparently more of a nerd/outcast in high school, so I think he was pretty embarrassed by her as well. But the casting of someone as poised and attractive as Daisy Edgar-Jones didn't really do that aspect justice. So, with the TV version of the character, it's a little harder to understand why her brother - or anyone at school - treated her as badly as they did.

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I did kind of chuckle to myself when I realized she was supposed to be a total outcast. It was a little like a more serious She's All That, when they try to downplay the obviously smoking hot girl who we're supposed to buy as this ugly nerd that everyone makes fun of. I always loved how Not Another Teen Movie spoofed that

Hahaha, exactly.

VERY good insight. Totally forgot about that.

Ha, that's awesome.

When I was 18, I actually stayed at Trinity for a couple of nights when my family visited Dublin as part of a big European trip that summer. My grandparents planned the trip, and for some reason thought it would be fun (and obviously way cheaper) to stay in dorms for that stop. The campus was amazing, but the dorms themselves were complete sh*t, with no AC, terrible showers, etc, and I remember being so pissed. Looking back now, though, because of this show, I'm glad we did it.

As for Jamie, yeah, he obviously sucked too. I hated him, but hated him less simply because he was actually relatively well-written, as opposed to the brother.

TCTTS said:

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Hulu's interface suuuuucks, and is never not glitchy on my Apple TV. I honestly don't understand how a company as big as they are - one now owned by Disney, at that - hasn't upgraded their app yet, especially in the midst of the streaming arms race.

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Speak of the devil...

Now comes the way less cool part... I had lugged everyone's luggage up three flights of stairs, was sweating my ass off, had been around my immediate and extended family for like 10 days at that point, and just had to get away. So, at 18, I told my family I was wondering Dublin alone for the day, my parents surprisingly didn't seem to care, and I did just that. The only problem was this was summer '99, before cell phones or the internet as we know it today, and I had absolutely no plan or idea what I was doing. So I literally just walked around for hours, ended up coming across a movie theater... and watched The Phantom Menace for like the fourth time that summer, hoping against hope it would somehow be better in Dublin. I could have done a million other things in one of the coolest cities in the world, but no, that's what I chose to do for the afternoon.

Sounds like you did it way better than I did, even in your limited time there.

Rick Dalton said:

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Sex Panther said:

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If anyone has any insight into the motivations and dynamics of Marianne's family, I'd love to hear them... I didn't quite understand what exactly was going on there...

Why her brother hated her so much. Why her mom seemed completely detached, and then she just completely abandons her at the end? I feel like I'm missing some details... And did they ever say anything about her father?

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In the second episode Marianne asked Connell if he would ever hit a woman, explaining that her father used to hit her mother. When he asks her if her father ever hit her she bursts into tears and says he didn't, but I got the sense that he probably did. My theory is that Marianne's mom more than likely lived for years with battered woman syndrome and was still struggling with the lasting emotional damage long after his death. Her brother grew up watching this abuse and took after his dad, which explained why his mom always deferred to him. If Marianne's father also hit her it could explain her low self-esteem, choice of d-bag boyfriends and maybe her experimentation with BDSM.

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Fantastic insight... thanks so much

TCTTS said:

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So I literally just walked around for hours, ended up coming across a movie theater... and watched The Phantom Menace for like the fourth time that summer, hoping against hope it would somehow be better in Dublin. I could have done a million other things in one of the coolest cities in the world, but no, that's what I chose to do for the afternoon.

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Sounds like you were full of midichlorians back then.

Just finished and agree with whats already been said - amazing show. The two leads couldnt have been cast any better. Both had pretty much perfect performances. Definitely one of the best shows i've seen - excellent recommendation.

Great to hear.