Conversations with Friends

Plus, a bunch of big-network finales, new anime from Netflix, an emotional reality series, and more.

As the Cold War rages, Army sergeant Harry Palmer (Joe Cole) finds himself jailed for eight years, his prospects abruptly torn away. The cast of this ’60s-set British espionage thriller includes Lucy Boynton and Tom Hollander. The story follows a boss in a trillion-dollar industry who discovers a shocking truth and creates a black ops conspiracy to hide the evidence. Halo (Paramount+, Thursday, 3:01 a.m.) As Nick and Frances’ relationship blooms (and ebbs and flows), Conversations With Friends offers glimmers of a fascinating proposition. Directed by Ryoutarou Makihara and produced by Tetsuya Nakatake, this anime is set in a world where humans and vampires once co-existed peacefully. Emmy Rossum follows up her long Shameless run with a starring role in her dream project, Angelyne. An unrecognizable Rossum plays the titular Angelyne, who was famous for being famous in 1980s Los Angeles, when more than 200 billboards featuring her likeness popped up across town. The Time Traveler’s Wife follows Henry DeTamble (Theo James), whose ability to fall through time (while always naked!) impacts his relationship with his wife Clare (Rose Leslie). But the show is less a complex sci-fi romance and more unwittingly corny and creepy. The show centers on the quiet Frances (Alison Oliver) and her outgoing BFF Bobbi (Sasha Lane). They befriend novelist Melissa (Jemima Kirke), with Bobbi instantly developing a crush on her, while Frances falls for Melissa’s husband, Nick (Joe Alwyn). What follows are messy triangles that threaten to ruin multiple lives. The Doctor Who writer and showrunner brings Audrey Niffenegger’s novel to life in six new episodes. “The novel is better” feels like such a tired line but there is something to be said about the expansive interiority prose allows and the way a TV adaptation can reduce rather than distill such a sensibility. All times are Eastern. [Note: The weekend edition of What’s On drops on Fridays.]

Sally Rooney's second TV adaptation is an aggressively uneventful affair stuffed with meaningful looks and strained silences. Why doesn't anyone speak?

The debuting Oliver probably won’t be catapulted to fame like Paul Mescal – this series is unlikely to capture the public imagination in the same way – but her ability to make ordinariness interesting and watchfulness intriguing bodes well for her career. Gone is the sense of the shifting sands of personal identity, the passion that can be poured into friendship, the time and energy expended on trivia that powered the book. Normal People kept the unselfconscious hyper-articulacy and self-analysis of the book’s characters, which made them grating at times but also made them real. They are taken into the adult world of glamorous writer Melissa (Jemima Kirke) and thereby introduced to her handsome husband, Nick (Joe Alwyn). Bobbi and Melissa are entranced by each other’s fabulousness, while their more introverted partners inevitably (to anyone over the age of, say, 28?) begin a quiet affair. I like a mood piece as much as the next person, but to stretch one out across a dozen episodes is to test the boundaries of even the most willing soul. Rooney’s adaptation, with Alice Birch, of her novel Normal People was a lockdown hit in 2020 for its rich, warm and well-observed tale of young love, sensitively directed by Lenny Abrahamson and Hettie Macdonald. Now Birch, writing alone this time, and Abrahamson (directing seven episodes, and Leanne Welham the other five) have reunited.

Read on for the 11 key changes between Sally Rooney's bestselling novel and the brand-new Hulu limited series starring Alison Oliver, Joe Alwyn, Sasha Lane, ...

In the book, Bobbi shows up at the apartment and Bobbi says, "That was a weird email, but I love you too." Like the changes in communications between Nick and Frances, the long apology that Frances writes to Bobbi after she faints does not take the form of a rushed email. The two do have a confrontational-esque phone call in the books, after Frances discovers Melissa has sent Bobbi her story and Melissa says to Frances, "Why did you fuck my husband?" In the show, Bobbi calls Frances to tell her, "That was a pretty sold email...it was good. One of the pivotal moments in Conversations with Friends (the novel) is a long email Melissa sends Frances after she learns of the affair. In that conversation, Melissa says much of what is written in the email. In the book, Melissa is a magazine writer working on a story about Frances and Bobbi's spoken-word poetry. Quietly and with a tiny mouth I sad said: 'no.'" The difference between "I doubt it" and "no" are miles apart. Therefore, later on, in episode eight, Melissa's book launch is an entire scene—in Rooney's novel, Bobbi and Frances merely go to a reading that an essay of Melissa's appears in. The dialogue begins similarly, with Bobbi saying, "Frances has a secret boyfriend," but then it completely goes in a different direction. Throughout the rest of the story, Frances thinks about the New Testament and often references biblical characters, but this doesn't factor into the show at all. The biggest change in characters from Sally Rooney's novel to the TV show is that Bobbi became a Black American woman.

We're back to the Sally Rooney Cinematic Universe, this time investigating the inner lives of four friends/lovers. A recap of episode one of Hulu's ...

Bobbi wants to know if Nick feels “conflicted” about playing a gay character in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and Nick counters that Brick could be bisexual, to which Bobbi responds by outing Frances. Rude! Also, I feel like our show is doing Frances no favors — she’s supposed to be the more reserved of the pair, but in the book she gets a clever reply in here (“I’m kind of an omnivore”), whereas in the show she is awfully … blank. Nick arrives late but makes it in time for most of Bobbi and Frances’s performance of a poem called “Diamonds,” which makes exactly the points about engagement rings that you might expect (capitalist, sexist, bad) and afterward, Melissa tells them it’s brilliant. By the next day, Bobbi is already making grand proclamations and cutting insights based on her one (1) interaction with Nick and Melissa as a couple. A very chic and just-so-older woman is by the bar after the performance, someone Bobbi and Frances immediately clock as “that writer.” Her name is Melissa (she’s played by Jemima Kirke); with her red lipstick and silky top and hair bleached blonde to the roots, she scans as sooo much more sophisticated and mature than Bobbi and Frances. She compliments the girls by calling their performance “sweet but ruthless.” Bobbi does the introductions: Frances is “the writer,” and she, Bobbi, is “the muse.” She also blurts out that she and Frances used to have sex but don’t anymore. Melissa and Bobbi escape for a cigarette so that Nick and Frances can do the Sally Rooney special: awkward conversation between people who hate talking and would prefer to skip to the part where all their communication happens via text. I assume this is a sort of save-the-cat situation to endear us to Bobbi, but the episode has not really set us up to think she’s a very good friend, no? Bobbi and Frances have the easy intimacy of people who are used to falling asleep on each other’s couches and in each other’s arms. As Melissa and Bobbi disappear to shower (separately) (… for now?!), Nick gets home. I cannot tell yet if this story is a period piece set in 2017 or if Frances is using wired headphones in a “wired headphones are actually back now” kind of way … if you see any clues to suggest either one, please leave them in the comments. Frances and Bobbi’s friendship goes back to secondary school, where the “radiantly attractive” Bobbi, who had a penchant for performative acts of progressivism (piercing her nose, writing “fuck the patriarchy” on the school wall) was the show-off whose relationship with Frances brought Frances out of her shell and into her own. (Rooney was 26.) As Vulture’s Chief Sally Rooney Content Correspondent — I recapped Normal People — I am very excited to return to the book that designated Rooney as the voice of a generation (or a voice of a … you know). I’ve read it, but I promise no spoilers for those who have not. Actually, in the novel, everybody is Irish, and now in the show, only Frances and Nick, who we’ll meet shortly, still are; Melissa, Nick’s wife, is British.

In Sally Rooney's second Hulu adaptation, four flawed individuals grapple with marriage, monogamy and modern relationships.

The audience is made privy to the ways in which Frances’ father’s alcoholism impacts both of their lives and that she’s not exactly living a life of economic comfort by comparison to that of Melissa and Nick. Yet, a significant part of what makes Frances a sympathetic character—at least, for me—is her resentment of anyone rich—including Nick, at times. Sure, Bobbi outs Frances as a “communist” during an early exchange in the series with Melissa and Nick, but the admission rings hollow when there’s exactly zero evidence to support it. Like Frances, he too is someone worthy of rooting for somehow despite his shortcomings, like the fact that he refuses to leave his wife despite fucking a 21-year-old behind her back for months on end. You know a leading man is gifted when one finds themselves prioritizing Nick’s happiness over his wife’s upon her discovery of his affair with Frances. Even Melissa wants to hang around in their headscratcher of a marriage—somehow making Frances’ early musings about the need for conditions in relationships all the more pertinent. Oliver, a relative newcomer with the same promise as Normal People’s Daisy Edgar-Jones, expertly embodies Frances’ youthful vacillation between dismal self-esteem and complete narcissism. Unfortunately (and unfairly) for Bobbi—who, of the foursome, is arguably the most adept at managing both her own feelings and those of everyone around her—she ends up doing the heft of the emotional labor. It was easy to write to Nick, but also competitive and thrilling, like a game of table tennis. Join or host a group call of up to 50 people with Messenger Rooms. Given she’s the narrator, Frances’ perceptions of Bobbi—whether accurate or not—take precedence while the audience is mostly left to infer what kind of person and friend Bobbi truly is. It’s a notion she’ll spend the entire 12-episode series grappling with in some way or another—as will a very vexed audience. One being ex-girlfriend—now best friend and roommate—Bobbi (Sasha Lane), and another with new friends, Nick (Joe Alwyn) and Melissa (Jemima Kirke)—a married couple whose union has somehow endured despite Melissa’s affairs and Nick’s looming depression. Intrigued by the pair, Frances for her prowess with the pen and Bobbi for her self-possession, Melissa quickly introduces them to her B-list actor husband — and things get markedly messy.

Conversations with Friends is the new Sally Rooney adaptation for Hulu, plus the new Downton Abbey movie, Young Sheldon's finale, and Emmy Rossum as ...

As for movies, there are several light-hearted summer films to kick off the season, starting with Netflix's A Perfect Pairing starring Adam Demos and Victoria Justice. Love, wine, and Australia— what more do you need? We also have the premiere of Angelyne on Peacock this week, and all I can say is wow. Aside from a handful of broadcast shows bidding adieu for the summer (or forever), this week is all about the premieres of buzzy new series and movies.

The series tells the story of Frances (Alison Oliver) and Bobbi (Sasha Lane), two exes whose relationship is already complicated when they meet married couple ...

Obviously, you hopefully feel invested in everything, but it's a different feeling being a part of something that you pop into maybe just for three weeks or two weeks or even a week, as opposed to actually sitting in something for that length of time and feeling really grounded and embedded in it. But because it was lockdown, we were all stuck on the old Zoom. So it wasn't until a few months later that I met her for the first time and I met Lenny for the first time in Belfast. The three of us spent a few nights in a hotel there in the middle of lockdown and just chatted through episode by episode. It's nice to have that length, A, knowing what you're working on, and B, spending time with the same group of people and the same character and having space for that. You're often just spending time with people in a room and it's quite quiet in that way. So I think that separation gives it a nice breathing space, which helps. But I like that about the characters that [Rooney] writes, that as much of it is about what's unsaid as is what's said. I think lots of actors or people in that industry are maybe more on the introverted side. And so it was nice to feel embedded in it from the beginning. And so it's interesting when they are left alone together, they provide a space for the other one to grow and heal and, for him, to come back to life a bit, find a bit of happiness again. When you meet him, he's at a place of recovery and he's been through a bit of a storm, but we don't know that until a while later. I was a big fan of [Sally Rooney's] writing and just thought she was and is brilliant. And then when I saw Normal People, which I really loved, I remember thinking, "I would love to be a part of a show like this."

Conversations With Friends is the latest Sally Rooney novel to be adapted for the small screen, following in the footsteps of Hulu's Normal People.

While Frances and Nick embark on a serious affair, Bobbi and Melissa openly flirt in front of everybody. If you are feeling up to it, you can binge-watch the entire series in one go or alternatively, watch at your leisure. The 12-part series tells the story of 21-year-old college student Frances as she navigates romantic relationships and friendships. Alex Murphy plays the role of Alex Murphy in Conversations With Friends, Frances's close friend at university and colleague. Sasha Lane plays the role of Bobbi in Conversations With Friends, Frances' best friend and ex-girlfriend. After years of waiting, Conversations With Friends is finally available to stream and download via Hulu in the U.S. and the BBC iPlayer in the U.K. now.

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The first episode of Conversations with Friends will air on 15 May on BBC Three at 10pm. OX, a Michelin-star restaurant in the Northern Irish capital, also appears in the series as the setting of a dinner date between Nick and Frances. Much like Normal People, Conversations with Friends features Trinity College in Dublin as a backdrop to events and a meeting point for several of the main characters.

We also have the premiere of angelyne on Peacock this week, and all I can say is wow. Emmy Rossum is mesmerizing as Angelyne, the 80s and 90s billboard queen ...

Downton Abbey: A New Era (Main Features) : Meet at a theater for the premiere of the second Downton Abbey movie, released today. The valet (Hulu): Samara Weaving stars as a world-famous movie star whose career looks threatened when she is photographed with her married lover, played by Max Greenfield. To cover up the incident, she pretends to be dating Antonio (CODA‘s Eugenio Derberz), who works for the valet company covering the event in which all this drama unfolds. Coupledom with Idris and Sabrina Elba (Audio Podcast): The second season asks the question, “Can finding the perfect partner, whether in friendship, business, love, creativity, or family, help us achieve our full potential? It’s kind of a Parisian odyssey as we follow Van through a day in the life of a strange new world she has created for herself. United States of Al (SCS): TBEN recently decided not to bring back United States of Al for a third season, so tonight’s second-season finale will be its final episode. angelyne (Peacock): Emmy Rossum transforms, then some to play ’80s billboard icon Angelyne, who rose to fame just for wanting to be famous and the mystery she created as a result. 8 p.m. ET/PT, 7 p.m. CT and available to stream on Paramount+. Aside from a handful of broadcast shows bidding farewell for the summer (or forever), this week is all about the premieres of hot new series and movies. The show ends with a special nod to the mothership, The Big Bang Theoryand also some fun guest stars. As for movies, there are several light summer movies to kick off the season, starting with Netflix A perfect match with Adam Demos and Victoria Justice. Love, wine and Australia, what more could you ask for? We also have the premiere of angelyne on Peacock this week, and all I can say is wow. Check out the full list below, and I’ll see you next week to It’s usseries finale.

Conversations with Friends, which premieres May 15, fails to recapture the magic of Hulu's previous Sally Rooney adaptation, 2020's Normal People.

In that sense, Conversations with Friends is largely successful as a stylistic exercise, and in the rare moments when it does expand its scope beyond Nick and Frances’ relationship, the series often manages to reach the same confrontational, complex emotional intensity that elevated Normal People into greatness. For devoted fans of Rooney’s work, those brief flashes of greatness may be enough to make Conversations with Friends feel like a worthwhile investment of their time. What’s worse is that Frances’ affair with Nick, which is what Conversations with Friends spends most of its time exploring, is the least interesting aspect of her story. In the end, his blandness leads to his and Frances’ affair losing its romantic tension somewhere around Conversations with Friends‘ midpoint. The series’ limited scope leads to many of its biggest issues — namely, its bloated structure and lethargic pace — and Frances’ story ultimately doesn’t feel substantial enough to warrant dedicating 12 episodes to it. It’s very obvious what the makers of Conversations with Friends are hoping will happen with it.

First, we have Rooney readers. They are joined by the audience of the TV show Girls, brought in by Jemima Kirke. Plus Swifties by way of Joe Alwyn, a respected ...

They are joined by the audience of the TV show Girls, brought in by Jemima Kirke. Plus Swifties by way of Joe Alwyn, a respected and talented actor who, nevertheless, must be identified first and foremost as Taylor Swift’s Boyfriend. (This article hereby adopts the position that objectifying Taylor Swift’s boyfriend is an act of radical gender equality.) Conversation risks bringing together a horny, armchair-philosopher illuminati, three powerful fandoms united in the desire to fuck in oversized knits. Such are the essential themes of Conversation With Friends, a Hulu/BBC miniseries out now.

During the pandemic, actress Alison Oliver read a book her roommate said was a must. Little did she know she'd be starring in the television adaptation very ...

“So much about the show is about behavior and how we respond to certain situations and the consequences of our behavior,” Oliver says. “When something kind of comes back to the core root of human needs, I think people naturally just connect to that.” Rooney, Alwyn says, explores the idea of happiness and love outside the constructs of traditional relationships. “You have to do so much talking with your spouse about what’s OK and what’s not OK,” Kirke says. “I had such a strong kind of imagination of who these four characters were.” “When I did find out, I was completely shocked.

Jemima Kirke, Alison Oliver, Joe Alwyn and Sasha Lane star in this adaptation of Sally Rooney's novel.

It seems like most of the season will consist of the ways Frances and Nick will connect, mixed in with some Bobbi and Melissa goings-on, and what the fallout will be for the original relationships. So instead of developing this friendship through introducing us to the lives of the quartet’s members and then letting things grow from there, we dive right into everyone being attracted to someone in the opposite pair. Oliver plays Frances as someone who seems to have convictions but she knows inside that those convictions are squishy at best. The school year is over, and Frances’ roommate is about to leave for the summer, but she spends all her time with Bobbi, anyway. They read the poems Frances has written at a local pub. They think because it’s a novel that the series adaptation can go for six, ten, maybe even twelve episodes.

A conversation with Alison Oliver, who plays the lead in Hulu's steamy adaptation of Sally Rooney's blockbuster novel.

I feel really lucky that I got to do it.” “I’d actually read the book before I’d auditioned or anything, so I had a previous relationship to that character, in a sense,” Oliver says. “We just lived out of each other’s pockets for those six months,” Oliver says. “I try not to think about it too much,” she concludes. “In terms of the difficulty of it, it’s probably always the initial stuff of the embarrassment in the beginning of, like, ‘Oh, god. But there was more than Bobbi. Oliver had to form a complex relationship with Alwyn as Nick, which is far different from the one she shares with her ex/now best friend. “Sally tends to write characters that often really struggle with communication and finding a language to describe what they actually feel,” Oliver tells The Daily Beast. “It’s a really big thing for her characters, for their relationships. Oliver says we have the first days of production to thank for those deeply intimate scenes. “She’s so easy to imagine,” she says. As a recent college graduate, she explains that she relates to Frances’ “universal” coming-of-age struggles. “They’re just as important as dialogue scenes.” The Conversations With Friends star is a fierce advocate for intimate scenes—which is important, because her new adaptation of Sally Rooney’s debut novel has so many.

'Maybe if Sally wrote sequels, we'd love to be part of it,' says exec producer Ed Guiney of a possible second season, 'but they're her characters and her ...

And I like that being just a sort of open space.” The likelihood of seeing more within that fictional universe isn’t entirely likely though as Guiney adds, “You’re always in dialogue with the novel as you move through the creation of these shows. “That was my experience in the book. But in the finale’s final moments, Nick accidentally calls Frances, and the two chat about how things ended between them. Melissa, in turn, introduces the women to her husband, actor Nick (Alwyn). Upon meeting, Nick and Frances have an instant spark that ignites into a passionate affair. The relationship doesn’t stay secret forever, but when Melissa surprisingly doesn’t stop Nick and Frances from following through with their relationship, more drama ensues.

Well, we know at least why Nick's so keen to have Frances around in particular, as the two awkward halves of the couples unite in their discomfort towards all ...

But this is a telling point for the best friends, as now is the perfect time for Frances to tell Bobbi that she kissed Nick, and for them to laugh and make a joke of it. “We’re not going home, by the way!” is Bobbi’s excellent way of getting Frances to head to a club in one of the only displays of 20-something fun the duo have got into so far. A bit of forced small talk later (“Sorry if this is awkward,” Frances tells Nick, only making things even more awkward), Frances says they should probably talk about the kiss. Presumably covertly Googling “Taylor Swift Boyfriend Tuxedo”, she shows a picture of him, to which her mum says: “Christ, he’s handsome,” which is obviously the correct response. Frances can only look on like a wallflower – she’s clearly been privy to the Bobbi show many times before – so goes for a little poke around the house. Bobbi holds her own at the literati party, quipping to a former stand-up comedian who left the profession to get married and have kids: “because after that, nothing was funny?” Melissa looks on approvingly.

Bobbi is too self-absorbed to realize Frances has a crush of her own. A recap of episode two of Hulu's miniseries “Conversations with Friends.

At the event, the girls learn that Melissa is going to London, leaving Nick home alone with the dog, an opportunity that Frances and Nick cannot squander. Frances wants to be seen even though she also seems to get off on the power of her apparent invisibility. I think part of her is annoyed that Bobbi can’t tell what’s going on, even though part of her does not want to be caught, because her ability to not get caught is based on Bobbi’s assumptions about the kind of person Frances is — someone who would never, could never, etc. It’s a great kiss, but do we buy that these two would be up to this at this juncture in the story? A small dog bursts in and is evicted by Nick, just to give him an excuse to close the door, a fact he announces, along with the fact that he’s very stoned. Bobbi is too self-absorbed and caught up in her own nascent crush to realize that Frances is obviously smitten with someone as well, given how much she futzes with her hair before heading to Melissa’s birthday party.

Sasha Lane and Alison Oliver in Conversations with Friends. Abrahamson cast American actress Lane as Bobbi because “there aren't a lot of people who are ...

Oliver looks like a star in the making, and Lenny Abrahamson’s marmite directing style – is it auteurist or just depressing? The truth is that, adjusting to the pacing and getting past Alwyn’s dead-eyed performance, Conversations with Friends isn’t nearly as average as those reviews suggest. She and Nick kiss in part two. Judged on its own merits, Conversation With Friends has plenty to recommend it. Bobbi and Melissa are soon flirting like pros. No less inevitably, we get dialogue such as “what happens if I have a s*** morning?

Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton are back! Make sure you know how to stream every episode of Conversations with Friends free online without Hulu.

Make sure you know how to watch a Conversations with Friends live stream from where you are. For Conversations with Friends, you may wish to choose 'UK' for BBC iPlayer. Follow our guide to watch a free Conversations with Friends live stream from abroad with a VPN. If you like the idea of a millennial, Normal People-style take on Jane Austen's Emma, helmed by an Oscar-nominated director, Conversations with Friends is for you. You can use it to watch on your mobile, tablet, laptop, TV, games console and more. Conversations with Friends is free to watch on BBC iPlayer in the UK. Away from UK this week?

Explore all of the filming locations used for Sally Rooney's latest small-screen adaptation, 'Conversations with Friends,' from Ireland to Croatia.

In preparation for what will surely be one of the year’s biggest shows, here’s our guide to the locations you’ll see. The last time Sally Rooney’s work was adapted for television, it broke records and became the breakout hit of lockdown 2020. There’s also a similar scene shift abroad, again forcing the story’s relationships out into the light.

The second adaptation of a Sally Rooney novel starts from a similar place as 'Normal People,' but soon veers in a different direction—one that is an ...

It’s Normal People that was the exception; Conversations With Friends is a reversion to the norm. The show drifts from one tense exchange to the next, with a whole that ends up less than the sum of its often intriguing parts. His Nick is a man surprised at the depths of his own sensitivity, implicitly bonding with Frances over being the less extroverted half of their respective couples. That leaves a lot of gaps for the performance to fill in, a blank slate some cast members take more advantage of than others. For actors, the relatively sparse nature of Rooney’s prose—heavy on dialogue and action, light on internal explication—presents both a challenge and an opportunity. Scenes frequently end on the rather undramatic note of a character receiving a text message or downloading an app. True to Rooney’s reputation as the ultimate millennial author, virtual communication forms the backbone of the story. One night, they attract the notice of older writer Melissa (Jemima Kirke), who introduces them to her husband Nick (Joe Alwyn), a journeyman actor. Like Marianne and Connell of the latter, Frances (Alison Oliver) and Bobbi (Sasha Lane) are students at Trinity College in Dublin—Rooney’s alma mater—whose bond walks the line between romance and friendship. Shy and withdrawn, Frances describes a skewed power dynamic with the outgoing, gregarious Bobbi. “I wasn’t popular, but she chose me anyway,” she explains. The two productions do have significant overlap in their creative teams, ensuring at least a baseline of commonality. Normal People’s protagonists fit this bill, but they also followed a familiar boy-meets-girl archetype, a straightforward vehicle for a complex pair of personalities.

Led by Joe Alwyn, Alison Oliver, Sasha Lane, and Jemima Kirke, Hulu's Sally Rooney adaptation Conversations with Friends doesn't land the TV show the way ...

This adaptation mostly mimics the tone of Normal People and its torrid and frustrating affair between two lifelong friends. The purpose, in turn, of adaptation is to change and morph the form or the structure, or realign the characters: to take something once two-dimensional and make it three-dimensional. In the book, it’s a series of flirtations, quick and direct, a sense of danger and escape from both of their all-too-normal lives. At one point in the text conversation between Frances and Bobbi, Frances highlights the word “feelings.” She doesn’t tap through; rather she simply analyzes it, as if selecting it will provide some insight. Here, they sit around tables awkwardly, dialogue stilted, struggling to reach a point of conclusion before they can be released back in the wild to mope. Lane — so surprising in American Honey — plays Bobbi bitter and biting, with none of the unpredictable spark she carries in the novel. The point of adaptation is not direct transposition, of course. The thrill of the novel was the betrayal of two passive characters, selfishly acting out against their active and unpredictable other halves. It’s a shame, then, that the BBC and Hulu adaptation of Conversations with Friends has been woefully dumbed down and ironed out, full of awkward silences and unearned longing. In the novel, the reason for the affair is multifold: It’s an examination of perceived power and sexual curiosity (on the part of Frances, who has only previously been with women) as well as biting portrayal of the selfishness of young people. In the last episode of Succession’s second season, Shiv Roy — in the midst of an argument with her husband Tom — is clutching a copy of Sally Rooney’s Conversations with Friends, which she brought with her to read out on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. Indeed, for a show set in approximately 2018 or 2019, this would be the book to have on the beach. The dialogue is engaging and smart, the characters talking of Slavoj Žižek and Patricia Lockwood, their words often hiding underlying power struggles and emotional tensions between them.