To be completely fair, if one were to measure it by any non-Rooney-specific yardstick, the series would register as a resounding success. So now that the long-awaited series is finally here, what is the verdict? Does Conversations with Friends live up to the lofty expectations set by both the book and the Normal People miniseries? And every new update-from casting announcements to trailer drops to the release of a new Phoebe Bridgers song written especially for the show-has only sent fans further into a frenzy. So when the news broke that Abrahamson, Birch, and Normal People production company Element Pictures were re-teaming for a miniseries adaptation of Conversations with Friends, the internet just about lost its mind.

When the series adaptation of Rooney’s second novel, Normal People, debuted on Hulu in 2020, Rooneymania blew up from literary phenomenon to full-blown cultural obsession-thanks in no small part to Lenny Abrahamson and Hettie Macdonald’s masterful direction, an elegant script by Rooney and Alice Birch, and star-making performances from Daisy Edgar-Jones and Paul Mescal as star-crossed lovers Marianne and Connell. Bobbi has a crush on Melissa, but Frances is inexorably drawn to Nick-a fascination that quickly gives way to an all-consuming affair. The book follows Frances and Bobbi, two college-aged best friends and ex-girlfriends, as they become intertwined in the marriage of an older couple named Nick and Melissa. A sort of literary touchstone for millennials (never mind the fact that the book’s protagonist is technically Gen Z), Irish author Sally Rooney’s debut novel overwhelmingly resonated with young women who have ever felt displaced, caught between chapters of their lives, overwhelmed by ill-advised love affairs, and alienated from their own bodies. Suffice it to say that Conversations with Friends-the 2017 book on which the new series is based-captured the imaginations of readers everywhere.

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