The Normal People team are no doubt still celebrating after receiving four nominations for the 2020 Primetime Emmys.
It's always great when Irish productions get recognition across the pond, even if there are some out there that
inevitably tried to claim Paul Mescal as British. The Kildare man was nominated in the category of Lead Actor Limited/Movie alongside the likes of Hugh Jackman and Mark Ruffalo.
Mescal has already
shared his delight at getting the nod but he's just a small cog in a large Normal People wheel. The show has also been nominated for Outstanding Directing in a Limited Series, Movie or Dramatic Special (Lenny Abrahamson), Outstanding Writing for a Limited Series, Movie or Dramatic Special (Sally Rooney and Alice Birch) and Outstanding Casting for a Limited Series.
While two of Normal People's four nominations reflect the series as a whole, the directing and writing nods are focused on specific episodes. Here are the Normal People episodes that secured the Emmy nominations for Abrahamson, Rooney and Birch...
Outstanding Writing for a Limited Series, Movie or Dramatic Special - Normal People Episode 3
This one aired in Ireland on May 5 and has led to Emmy nominations for Sally Rooney, the author of the novel on which Normal People is based, and screenwriter Alice Birch.
This is the episode in which Marianne is harassed in a nightclub, Connell doesn't invite her to the Debs and his mother Lorraine tells him in no uncertain terms how much of a gobshite he's being.
It's possible that this is the first TV episode featuring a Debs plot to be nominated for an Emmy but we're open to correction on that one.
Outstanding Directing in a Limited Series, Movie or Dramatic Special - Normal People Episode 5
Lenny Abrahamson is in the director's chair for the first six episodes of Normal People and it's his work on episode five that has secured his Emmy nomination. In it, Connell becomes part of Marianne's clique at Trinity College but doesn't exactly fit in. He apologises for how he has previously treated her in a scene where both Mescal and Daisy Edgar-Jones are at the top of their acting game and it's all tied together beautifully by Abrahamson.
https://twitter.com/lennyabrahamson/status/1288192863495430144
Whatever happens, the whole of Ireland will be right behind the Normal People team when the Emmys take place on September 20.
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