The main characters of the TV series Frances (attractive high society girl Alison Oliver) and Bobbie (Sasha Lane) are students living in Dublin. They are 21 years old, they were a couple in the past and are now friends, and despite the gray exterior of the Irish capital, life shines brightly for them.
At one of the parties, they meet a married couple: a slightly extravagant writer Melissa (star of “Girls” Jemima Kirk) and her “award husband” Nick (star of “Favorite” Joe Alvin) – a constantly self-confident failing actor. reflex. While Bobby wonders why marriage is needed in the 21st century and why freedom-loving Melissa and Nick need it, Melissa and Nick embark on a lustful and painful relationship with Frances.
Frame from the series “Conversations with Friends” (2022)
Element Pictures
So the four heroes find themselves in a strange and often awkward love affair: Francis and Bobby were in love before, Francis and Nick are now in love, but Nick hasn’t stopped loving Melissa, who also loves him, but the opportunity to kiss Bobby at first finds. And if this plot in another writer’s performance is to betray tabloid vulgarity, it works well in the world of Sally Rooney (who, incidentally, isn’t called modern Salinger).
The complex nature of the external relations of the characters reflects their inner turmoil. For example, Francis seeks himself and often uses others as mirrors for this. Handsome and popular with women, Nick is unhappy in his relationship with his wife, but continues to love her. Escaping from a broken marriage to a new relationship does not even allow her conscience, it is rather a natural passivity. For this, Melissa often scolds her, who also loves her husband, who in the past does not prevent him from cheating on her with her best friend.
Frame from the series “Conversations with Friends” (2022)
Element Pictures
In this whole story, Bobby is the only one who understands that it is better to stay away from the heroes who have fallen over time. Big ambitions are alien to him, he looks at the world with an honest view, free from prejudice, and when Francis tries once again to create a “great future” for him, he cuts it off mid-sentence:
“You’re doing it again! Again, you’re somehow plotting a kind of non-existent future for which I’m particularly important. Don’t! I’m an ordinary person and somehow I can deal with my ordinary life, no need to think about anything.
This thought and self-view are foreign to the other characters in the series. Despite the tangible difference in age (Nick is almost 10 years older than Francis), their emotional intelligence is almost equally poorly developed. Speech devices are also dysfunctional: It is critically difficult for them to talk about the emotions that greatly fuel the ridiculous and painful situations in which they are driven.
So were the characters in the book and TV series Normal People, a story that became a huge international hit. Both projects have a lot in common: the series consists of 12 short episodes, the first episodes in both were directed by director Leonard Abrahamson, the second episode was replaced by a female director (notably Francis when Abrahamson was filming). More Nick stands out as he takes over to direct the center of the story and Leanne Welham) and the supporting “character” still remains the bed.
Sex is an important participant in events with heroes. It’s sultry at times (the conversations also have absolutely beautiful candid scenes, devoid of vulgarity) and serve as a conduit for genuine intimacy between the characters. And sometimes it’s purely functional, just like an experienced wife. But it’s always a chance to not only feel each other physically, but also to talk to their bodies that speech can’t handle.
Frame from the series “Conversations with Friends” (2022)
Element Pictures
An important question all Normal People fans will ask themselves is: How similar is Conversations with Friends to the big brother (actually, Conversations is Rooney’s debut novel)? Despite the similarity of both projects, it often lacks boldness and clarity of form, as in its debut.
In “Normal People,” there was more drama, anguish, and shrapnel wounds in the souls of the characters, who were either inevitably drawn to one another or pulled in different directions. Chats with Friends doesn’t have that deafening pain, which deprives the story itself of the expected depth and sharpness. These guys generally don’t have the usual, glorious tortures, aside from the teen’s ridiculous attempts to figure out who is sleeping with whom and for what reason.
Therefore, the second miracle does not happen in “Conversations”, which does not deny a number of other advantages: behind the scenes, the same well-structured soundtrack, in the frame – the beautiful streets and suburbs of Dublin, and the words and faces of the characters – true intimacy. They are still trying to love backwards, to seek love everywhere and through it. But let “Conversations with Friends” consist entirely of dialogues, the main thing here is pronounced in the pauses between them, because these growing feelings cannot be put into familiar words.
Frame from the series “Conversations with Friends” (2022)
Element Pictures
Initially, the series requires only one thing from the viewer – patience. Even though the story starts pretty fast, it will take time to taste it. But sometimes it seems like nothing is happening in the show, but it is impossible to tear yourself away from it. This is an absolute guilty pleasure that disarms even the most desperate cynics from the very first minutes.
Chats With Friends is a good but not an outstanding show. In doing so, he captures an important thought that Bobby formulates so clearly but that the other characters fail to realize: Being an ordinary person is not scary. We are not all geniuses, talented artists, natural warriors of light.
It is important to calm down and accept that your life is not extraordinary, but it is yours and is valued by your personal feelings, not through the prism of other people’s opinions. You just have to be a normal person.
Source: Gazeta
Barbara Dickson is a seasoned writer for “Social Bites”. She keeps readers informed on the latest news and trends, providing in-depth coverage and analysis on a variety of topics.