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Conversations With Friends is a new series which, like Normal People, is spawned from a novel by Sally Rooney. I wasn’t a fan of the adaptation of her previous work, but can this one swing it for me?
It centres around two best friends together at college – Nerdy Frances (Alison Oliver) and care-free Bobbi (Sasha Lane – Utopia (2020)). They buy groceries, hang out, but is there more to it than just that? Well, this is BBC Three in 2022, so, probably.
In fact, they’re a former couple, but still get on and perform poetry together at a comedy club. However, events start to take a turn when they meet posh blonde writer Melissa Baines (Jemima Kirke), who’s married to Nick (Joe Alwyn – A Christmas Carol (2019)), but he seems interested in Frances, while Melissa’s attracted to Bobbi. I can’t guess what’ll happen…
Conversations with Friends is all wistfully shot with added lens flare, making you wonder how long before a threesome comes into the mix – so to speak. Or a foursome. All bets are off… along with my TV before too long.
I was just amazed no-one declared their preferred pronouns to each other when they first met…
Oh, hang on… plot development… at one point, Frances goes home to Ireland, spends about five minutes with her Dad, Tommy Tiernan, and then leaves… even though it’s late at night and, thus, dark.
Overall, I watched two epsiodes and that was more than enough. This is First World Problems For Young People, as well as completely ridiculous nonsense.
Conversations with Friends begins on BBC3 on Sunday May 15th. It’s not yet available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD, but you can buy the Sally Rooney novel, as well as Normal People on DVD.
As of Sunday May 16th, the entire series is on the BBC iPlayer.
Series Directors: Leanne Welham, Lenny Abrahamson
Producer: Jeanie Igoe
Screenplay: Alice Birch
Novel: Sally Rooney
Cast:
Bobbi: Sasha Lane
Frances: Alison Oliver
Nick: Joe Alwyn
Melissa: Jemima Kirke
Philip: Alex Murphy
Derek: Tadhg Murphy
Evelyn: Sallay Garnett
Andrew: Emmanuel Okoye
Sunny: Natalie Radmall-Quirke
Dennis: Tommy Tiernan
Paula: Justine Mitchell
Emer: Sarah Jane Seymour
Dr. Simon O’Dowd: Charlie Maher
Laura: Roisin O’Donovan
Waitress: Abril Keinrath
Maggie: Simone Collins
Brendan: Rory Nolan
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.