Conversations with Friends FAQ: What to expect from the new Sally Rooney series
Alison Oliver as Frances in Conversations with Friends, launching on RTÉ on Wednesday, May 18.
Conversation with Friends will be broadcast on RTÉ One on Wednesday, May 18, at 9.35pm. It will also be available to watch on the RTÉ Player.
If you want a marathon viewing session here, you’ll have to wait a few weeks. While Conversations With Friends was released in its entirety in the UK through BBC’s iPlayer, RTÉ will air the series over six weeks. Two episodes will be broadcast each Wednesday night, from this week, on RTÉ One and the RTÉ Player.
Each episode is around 30 minutes long, so if you have impressive self-restraint and save them all for later viewing, you could easily do it over an evening at home.
Where Normal People focused on two main characters, Conversations With Friends has four leads. However, Cork star Alison Oliver is a scene-stealer in her on-screen debut as Frances. Joining her is British actor Joe Alwyn, who is in a relationship with Taylor Swift, as love interest Nick. Alwyn also had roles in The Favourite, Harriet and Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk.
The foursome is completed by Sasha Lane as Bobbi and Melissa is played by British-American actor Jemima Kirke, who will be familiar to viewers thanks to her role in Girls.
That’s not all though: the supporting cast is made up of a host of familiar faces too. Comedian Tommy Tiernan and Smother actress Justine Mitchell play Frances' parents, while Young Offenders star Alex Murphy appears as one of Frances and Bobbi’s close friends.
Yes and no. It has the same director as Normal People had – Lenny Abrahamson – and, of course, it’s based on a book by Sally Rooney so you very much feel like you’re in the same Cinematic Rooniverse. Even the characters, a mix of intellectual students and worldly characters, seem familiar; you could picture them attending lectures with Connell or sharing a student flat with Marianne.
However, there is a lot less ‘action’ in Conversations With Friends, which was expected. The novel it’s based on is much more insightful than Normal People, with much of it taken up with internal dialogue and emotional processing. As Kirke, who plays Melissa in the TV adaptation, puts it: “Aside from an affair, nothing really happens.” It will be interesting to see how Rooney’s celebrated minimalist writing style will translate on screen.
As the series was released in its entirety last week in the UK, reviewers have had plenty of opportunities to share their feelings. The critics haven’t been as wowed by Conversations With Friends as they were by Normal People, though it is likely they are expecting 'Normal People 2' from a completely different story.
The Guardian’s review was unimpressed, giving the adaptation a middle-of-the-road three stars out of five. They enjoy Oliver’s performance as Frances but say they would prefer to see her “cast her in a play where something happens. Or at least where something’s said.”
The UK Independent too was disappointed by the lack of chemistry – and Irish accents. Their reviewer says Cork star Oliver carries the show. “The story is Frances’s, and Alison Oliver – all anxious lip-biting and nervy dry swallows – more than carries the piece. She is a lone Celtic presence in a production that feels conspicuously de-Irished: Bobbi is now American and Melissa English.”
