A television series that was adapted from a book by Normal People author Sally Rooney is now streaming on Netflix.
Just a few months before Normal People hit screens in 2020, the small screen adaptation of her first novel Conversation with Friends was commissioned.
Released in 2017, the debut from the Irish author follows Trinity College students Frances and her best friend and ex-girlfriend Bobbi, who are noticed by Melissa, an essayist and photographer in her late thirties, when they are performing spoken-word poetry.
The synopsis teases: ‘Bobbi and Frances start to spend time with Melissa and her husband, Nick, a handsome but reserved actor. While Melissa and Bobbi flirt with each other openly, Nick and Frances embark on an intense, secret affair that is surprising to them both.’
In the series the main characters are played by Alison Oliver – who most recently featured in Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights – as well as Sasha Lane, Jemima Kirke and Joe Alwyn.
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The 12 episodes initially aired in the UK on BBC in May 2022; however, this week were also all added to Netflix.
At the time of its release, Conversations with Friends received mixed reviews, with many critics comparing it to its predecessor.
‘An utter joy to watch, as well as an audacious conversation-starter,’ The Daily Telegraph wrote.
‘While the six hours can get bumpy in plotting, Conversations with Friends paints a sophisticated psychological portrait of when youthful ambitions and adult realities come to a head,’ Indie Wire shared.
‘An absorbing exploration of commitment, friendship, and romantic love,’ Vulture added.
However, Rolling Stone concluded: ‘Conversations with Friends is not without its moments – many of them generated by the same stylistic approach that worked so well on Normal People – but the story feels much thinner, and not capable of supporting a dozen half-hour episodes.’
‘In the end, Conversations with Friends, like its characters, doesn’t have much to say, but takes its sweet time saying it,’ The Independent said.
‘It’s still a notch or two above your average romantic drama and offers some smart emotional insight along the way, but in the end, it’s a fleeting dalliance that fades too quickly,’ TV Line added.
Metro’s review of the series also explained: ‘If you’re looking for a love story to leave you warm and fuzzy, as well as broken-hearted all at once, then you’ve got it in spades right here.
‘The comparisons to Normal People will be inevitable with director Lenny Abrahamson also at the helm again, but this undoubtedly deserves its own chance at success as part of the Sally Rooney multiverse.’
Sharing their thoughts, some viewers said they felt the series ‘meandered a little too much at times’, while others believed the series ‘really elevated the book’.
In an interview with Elle at the time of the show’s release, Alison spoke about how her perspective on her character Frances had shifted since she first read the book.
‘Frances, in the book, has this kind of aloofness, this almost detachment, so that when I would think about her in my head, she [seemed] this really able person,’ she shared.
‘It was only in coming to play her that I realised how out of her depth she is, how young she is, how she really doesn’t know how to handle this [affair].
‘The affair completely consumes her. It’s all she thinks about. It keeps her up at night.’
Speaking about the themes contained in the novel and series, she also called it a ‘really complicated story’.
‘There are so many things that people can get from it. It’s a coming-of-age story. It’s also a story about an affair. It’s also a story about female friendship. I found that – whether it’s one person, two people, three people – love is always going to be complicated. And there’s always going to be sacrifices made.’
Conversations with Friends is streaming on BBC iPlayer and Netflix.
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