Can Conversations with Friends live up to the expectations of 2020’s sleeper hit Normal People? Niamh O’Reilly finds out.

In some ways it feels as though the adaptation of Sally Rooney’s first novel Conversations with Friends had the deck stacked against it from the off. The author's first book, but second screen adaptation, had an impossible act to follow - 2020’s runaway hit and now cultural phenomenon, Normal People. Making superstars out of both Paul Mescal and Daisy Edgar-Jones, the show caught a primed and hungry Covid lockdown audience and struck gold.

Whispers of Conversations with Friends being the ‘difficult second album’ were always going to be in the mix, however, while the show shares so much of its DNA with its predecessor, it’s more of a distant relation, rather than close family member.

The show sticks fairly faithfully to the source material and centres on the lives of four main characters. Frances (Alison Oliver) is in her early 20s and attends Trinity College with her best friend and ex-lover Bobbi (Sasha Lane), who’s originally from New York. The pair had a relationship in school and remain close friends. Things start to shift however, when they befriend an older, successful married couple, writer Melissa (Jemima Kirke), and her actor husband Nick (Joe Alwyn). As you likely guessed, things get very complicated when Bobbi and Melissa share a kiss and Frances and Nick begin an intense affair.

Nothing is ever simple in the world of Sally Rooney and as with Normal People, Conversations with Friends is all about what’s not being said. The story is carried in the looks and gestures. Everything is deeply internalised, which without the device of words on a page can be hard to convey to an audience and relies heavily on the actors to pull it off, which they do for the most part and Alison Oliver is superb in her acting debut.

Once again, it’s produced by Element Pictures and has that unmistakable Lenny Abrahamson feel all over it. The story starts out slowly, with a lot of focus on the seemingly mundane. Abramson manages to make Dublin, even the grimmer parts, look modern and beautiful. The city feels like a main character. Scenes of the DART chuffing by the leafy suburbs of Dublin and the calm waters of Seapoint as Frances, Bobbi and Melissa take a dip are dreamy.

Each of the four protagonists have their own issues going on. The chemistry between Frances and Nick does lack some of the magic of Edger-Jones and Mescal, but that was lightning in a bottle. Things start to ramp up by episode three and there’s some payoff for the slow build.

The portrayal of Frances’ struggle with Endometriosis should be commended. In one scene, she is doubled over in pain in the bathroom, and we see her underwear covered in blood, which leads everyone to think she’s having a miscarriage and accurately reflects the agony of repeated misdiagnoses and dismissal of the condition.

Ultimately Conversations with Friends doesn’t reach the heights of its TV predecessor, but it’s still a beautiful, thoughtful adaptation of the source material, best enjoyed as a separate entity.

Conversations with Friends is currently running on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player

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