It’s not quite ‘Normal,’ but very steamy
A bold, yet sensitive, study of Irish Millennials coming of age, “Normal People” was one of the streaming era’s crowning achievements. Now that show’s creators have adapted another Sally Rooney novel, “Conversations With Friends.”
It’s almost as good. Producer-director Lenny Abrahamson and scriptwriter Alice Birch infuse “Conversations” with many of “Normal’s” virtues: smart young women in confusing romantic predicaments, precise insights into aching personal flaws and complicated relationships, languid holidays under the southern European sun (Croatia in this case), some political consciousness, and the steamiest Irish sex you’re ever likely to see. There’s also that naturalistic atmosphere that makes the smooth, professional control of the material by Abrahamson (and Leanne Welham, who directed five of the series’ 12 episodes on Hulu) feel alive.
If the new show’s characters, their issues and misadventures aren’t as imaginative as those of its predecessor, well, it makes sense because “Conversations” was Rooney’s first novel. But this effort, which is absorbing, persuasive and sometimes terribly moving, is enough to satisfy.
The point-ofview character is played by Alison
Oliver, a young
Irish actor making her screen debut. She brings some of that mousy/adventurous tension Daisy Edgar-Jones worked so well, but seems slightly, gratifyingly tougher. She can play a victim of love and a victimizer, portraying many shades of selfishness with redeeming hints of dawning self-awareness.
Oliver plays Trinity College English major Frances. She writes good spokenword poetry, which she performs with her best friend and former lover, Bobbi, an American classmate played by Sasha Lane (“Loki,” “American Honey”). They meet famous essayist Melissa (“Sex Education’s” Jemima Kirke) at a slam; she’s impressed by Frances’ writing, and Bobbi’s smitten at first sight.
But bisexual Frances is more intrigued by Melissa’s husband, the gorgeous, depression-prone actor Nick (“The Favourite’s” Joe Alwyn, longtime boyfriend of Taylor Swift). She’s a goner the moment he presses a cool beer bottle
against her flushed cheek, yet doesn’t want to be a homewrecker, she’ll have him know.
“My marriage has survived several affairs already, I just haven’t been a party to them,” Nick replies, and that’s all Frances needs to hear. The killer come-on line is true, actually; Nick is a sincere, if conflicted, guy, more in love than predatory when it comes to Frances. She greatly enjoys her first relationship with a man despite all the messy feelings it stirs up, and the show’s central drama orbits around how the hot affair impacts not only these two but also the other, occasionally understanding women in their lives.
A refreshing critique of open communication — or at least the interpersonal tyranny it can generate — runs throughout “Conversations.” Neither Frances nor Nick is particularly forthcoming with feelings, and Oliver and Alwyn are quite good at putting up public masks, then cracking them with subtle expressions of anguish. This adds a layer of dramatic anticipation, so when they do dredge down deep, it’s extra impactful, as during a masterfully composed pub exchange at the start of episode 11.
Frances’ withholding drives oversharer Bobbi nuts; she’s always demanding apologies for slights Frances often isn’t aware she made. Kudos to Lane for not coming off as childish during these instances (Bobbi’s polemic sarcasm at other times fills that bill). Besides, she’s often witheringly right about Frances. Funny about it, too, “Conversations” has welcome bits of the wicked humor evident in Rooney’s books but absent from the earlier series.
This may not be the author’s most mature work, yet it shares with “Normal People” and her recent “Beautiful World, Where Are You” a keen capacity for judging characters while maintaining empathy to the point of love. This TV adaptation is a soap opera at heart, but its emotional intelligence elevates the show into something really worth talking about.