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Conversations with Friends, a 12-episode series on Hulu, is about a young woman who finds herself caught up with an older married man while seeking to understand herself on her own terms, through her relationships with others, and via an identity that has been cultivated over her life so far.
It’s hard to separate a show from its source material. In the case of Hulu’s Conversations with Friends, based on Sally Rooney’s novel, Conversations with Friends, it isn’t necessarily a bad thing. A lot of the dialogue seems ripped straight from the book. However, the show doesn’t view the same as the book reads. Somehow though, it does really capture the feeling you get while reading Rooney’s novel: curious melancholy.
Plot Summary of Conversations with Friends Episode 1
According to Hulu, here is the synopsis for Conversations with Friends Episode 1.
In the summer before their final year at Trinity College, Frances and her best friend Bobbi meet an impressive local writer, Melissa. Bobbi quickly develops a crush on Melissa but Frances is unexpectedly drawn to Melissa’s husband, Nick.
Hulu Press
Discussion
Conversations with Friends, Episode 1, establishes more indirectly than it does outright with characters’ lingering looks and clung to silences to match. Frances Flynn (Alison Oliver), identified as a communist and poet by her friend Bobbi Connolly (Sasha Lane), is just finishing up a semester or quarter, whatever size terms the Irish use in university. Her smiles feel earned or at least worked for by her friend or by the older, married man she takes a curious liking to, Nick (Joe Alwyn), the “trophy husband” of writer Melissa Conway (Jemima Kirke).
Frances is talked about, even while being right there. She stays on the outskirts of conversation, though is identified as the writer behind her and Bobbi’s spoken word performances. She thinks a lot, though doesn’t actively communicate those thoughts to people at the moment.
Performances
Frances’s interest is keenly expressed through actor Alison Oliver’s eyes. The intense looks when others aren’t looking and fleeting eye contact during conversations create an elusive element in filmed media that’s really key to Rooney’s novel. Oliver creates a brooding, introspective, rich inner life that is quintessential to Frances.
Without voiceovers chronicling melodramatic–channeling Nick’s philosophy on melodrama not being a dig–inner monologues, Hulu’s Conversations with Friends, and specifically Allison Oliver, manage to invite the viewer into this story that will begin to unfold while keeping you at a distance. Something that Frances, and a lot of us, are quite adept at doing.
The budding, forbidden romance between Frances and Nick appears quickly, though the pace of the show remains slow. An intensity that takes place in their minds forces jumbled words out of their mouths, leading them to agree to communicate through text messages, as it seems better suited to their methods of expression.
Frances and Nick’s soft-spoken natures are balanced by Bobbi and Nick’s wife Melissa’s constant chatter and seemingly compulsive need for impersonal discourse.
Final Thoughts
I hope these ideas are explored more in the next 11 episodes and would love to hear your thoughts so far. If you’ve read the book, how does it compare with the series for you? How do you relate to Frances, and what sorts of emotions do you feel towards her so far?
Make sure to check back for a review of Episode 2 of Conversations with Friends! They will be releasing regularly so long as Frances is emotionally confused, and spoiler alert, it will be the whole season!
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