Common Sense Media Review
By Joyce Slaton
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Nudity, drinking, language in mature book-based series.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 15+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Watch
Videos and Photos
Conversations with Friends
What's the Story?
Based on the book of the same name by Sally Rooney, CONVERSATIONS WITH FRIENDS introduces us to Frances (Alison Oliver) and Bobbi (Sasha Lane), two students at Trinity College in Dublin who were romantically involved in college but now are friends who perform spoken word poetry together. At one performance, they're approached by Melissa (Jemima Kirke), an author who's noted in Dublin's literary scene, and she invites Frances and Bobbi to visit her and her actor husband, Nick (Joe Alwyn), at home. As the quartet's lives become increasingly entangled, their dynamics shift in ways both joyful and painful.
Is It Any Good?
With erotic and interpersonal tension that builds slowly over time, this languorous and quite sexy drama moves at a deliberate pace that some viewers will find glacial, others, naturalistic. There's no rush in Conversations with Friends; we watch as characters travel back and forth on trains, perform minor household chores, text each other. The viewer gradually gets to know these characters as the relationships build between them: brash, insecure Bobbi; cynically amused Melissa; dreamy, drifting Nick; most of all, bashful yet luminous Frances, the beating heart of this series. This is the first credit for Alison Oliver, and she's a discovery, emotion beaming from her huge eyes even while her lines range on the spare side. No matter, she's our lens into this world, and we feel her mingled terror and excitement as her world opens up to include the possibilities of sex, romantic love, and heartbreak.
Author Sally Rooney is not as well known in America as she is in her native Ireland, where she's something of a polarizing figure, with readers who adore her sensitive novels about 20-somethings looking for love as well as critics who complain that she writes books about lonely, horny Irish people. Fans of Normal People, the 2020 series based on Rooney's second novel of the same name that aired on Hulu in the United States, will definitely be able to see the connective tissue between that show and Conversations with Friends, both of which are character-driven and shot through with romantic and sexual longing, and unfold at a true-to-life speed. If that's the kind of thing you like, you'll probably like this one too.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about how sex tends to be portrayed in the media. Do you think many real people are as sexually active as many movie and TV show characters? What are the consequences of sexual habits like the ones portrayed on Conversations with Friends?
How does Conversations with Friends communicate how Nick and Melissa feel about their marriage and how Bobbi and Frances feel about their relationship? What information does the show give you besides what the characters literally say to each other? How is the inner life of characters revealed without it being literally said aloud?
This series is set in Dublin, Ireland. In what way does the show communicate its setting? Does it appear to be shot in Dublin? What differences, if any, do you notice in this city as opposed to any big-city setting?
TV Details
- Premiere date : May 15, 2022
- Cast : Jemima Kirke , Joe Alwyn , Sasha Lane , Alison Oliver
- Network : Hulu
- Genre : Drama
- TV rating :
- Last updated : May 21, 2025
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