Caroline Framke Chief TV CriticOn the most basic level, it makes sense that Hulu’s “Conversations With Friends” would try to echo what made its “Normal People” adaptation so successful.
Once again enlisting director Lenny Abrahamson and writer Alice Birch, and once again starring a female actor (Alison Oliver) who resembles author Sally Rooney and a male one specifically poised to become a breakout thirst object (Joe Alwyn), “Conversations With Friends” follows the “Normal People” pattern so closely that it often feels more like a faded impression rather than its own series.
In trying to replicate what made the “Normal People” adaptation work, with the same creative team to boot, this version of “Conversations With Friends” becomes strangely bland, as if leeched of all its flavor.
Rooney’s “Conversations With Friends” — her great first novel, about a college student whose relationship with a married man becomes all-consuming — bears similarities to her second (“Normal People”).
Read more on variety.com