Television series

Conversations with Friends

Name: Conversations with Friends
Genre: Drama, Romance
Released: 2022
Cast: Alison Oliver, Sasha Lane, Joe Alwyn, Jemima Kirke

Adapted from Sally Rooney's novel, this quietly intense two-hander unfolds over half-hour episodes as college student Frances is drawn into an affair with a married actor while her best friend Bobbi orbits his wife. It's hushed, interior, more about what's left unsaid than what's said — a slow, aching study of desire, class and self-erasure. For anyone who found Normal People too polite and wants more mess.

TVMaze rating

4.9

If you liked this

Normal People2020

Same author, same aching restraint - the story that made Sally Rooney's slow-burn heartbreak a phenomenon, following two Irish teenagers whose connection outlasts every wrong decision they make.

But If you've already devoured this, there's nothing new here - it's the obvious first stop, not a discovery.

Fleabag2016

Scabrously funny and then suddenly devastating, this confessional comedy shares Frances's talent for self-sabotage and the exact ache of wanting the wrong person anyway.

But It's broader and funnier than anything in Conversations with Friends - if you wanted more hush, this might feel too loud.

One Day2024

David Nicholls' will-they-won't-they miniseries has that same quietly slow accumulation of missed chances and unspoken want, stretched across decades instead of just one Dublin summer.

But It's warmer and more sentimental - far less interested in cruelty and power than in nostalgia.

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Y Tu Mamá También2001

Same triangle - two young people pulled toward a married adult - but Alfonso Cuarón plays it as raucous coming-of-age instead of hushed literary drama, proving how universal that specific shape of desire really is.

Two teenagers and an older, unhappily married woman set off on a road trip that turns into a heady mix of sex, class anger and grief - sun-blasted where Frances's Dublin is grey.

But It's far more explicit, political and physical - a very different temperature to Rooney's chilly restraint.

Girls2012

Lena Dunham's messy twentysomethings navigate ambition, sex and friendship with the same unflinching interest in how young women actually behave badly and justify it to themselves.

But Broader, more overtly comic, and very New York rather than Dublin - the tone is spikier and less controlled.

The Affair2014

Told from dueling perspectives, this slow-burn infidelity drama shares the same fascination with how desire rewrites the story people tell about themselves and each other.

But Five seasons is a big ask, and its later years wander far from the marriage that started it all.

Call Me by Your Name2017

A gorgeous, aching film about a summer affair that reshapes someone completely - the same sense that desire can be both liberating and quietly destructive.

But It's sun-drenched and romantic where Conversations with Friends is colder and more clinical about heartbreak.

Marriage Story2019

A forensic, humane look at a marriage coming apart, sharing the same interest in how love curdles into something else without anyone becoming a villain.

But It's about divorce, not an affair - a different, sadder shape of unraveling than the one you just watched.

Big Little Lies2017

Glossy and starrily cast, it shares the fascination with the quiet damage inside seemingly enviable marriages, and the women drawn toward or away from them.

But Much more plot-driven and soapy - a mystery engine where Conversations with Friends deliberately has none.

The Souvenir2019

A hushed, autobiographical film about a young woman absorbed into an older, unstable man's orbit - the same interest in how desire can erase you quietly.

But Deliberately opaque and slow; it withholds even more than Frances does, which will frustrate some viewers.

Brief Encounter1945

The same ache of loving someone you're not supposed to, and the same interest in what politeness costs a person - Frances's clipped interiority has a direct ancestor here, decades before therapy-speak existed.

David Lean's classic about a suburban housewife's chaste, devastating affair with a married doctor, told almost entirely in what's left unsaid at railway station platforms.

But Its restraint is Old Testament by today's standards - if you want any of Rooney's frankness about sex, this won't give it.

Unfaithful2002

Same engine - an ordinary woman quietly undone by wanting someone she shouldn't - but where Conversations with Friends whispers, this one turns the volume all the way up.

Diane Lane drifts into an affair that spirals into something far more consuming and dangerous than she intended - the same shape of desire, filmed as glossy Hollywood erotic thriller.

But It's much pulpier and more melodramatic, chasing consequence and thrills rather than Rooney's interior stillness.