Summers. They are the months that change everything. They make you feel alive, as if you’re invincible. They give you a time to dream, to live life as if there are no responsibilities. Nothing but freedom.
Summers and chance meetings can change everything in your life, if you just open yourself to possibilities. It’s all about what you let in.
And in the first episode of Conversations with Friends, one part of Bobbi and Frances life is ending, but another is beginning.
It’s the end of the school year, the summer before their senior year and the two are set. They used to be together, but now they are friends. They are friends that you can see the connection between them. But the two are comfortable with the way things are.
Frances seems somewhat awkward and out of her element, but completely dedicated to her education. Bobbi seems like a free spirit who is desperate to be seen and loved. But maybe it’s the fact that they are so different that makes them so natural together.
Exams are over and they’re both moving on with their summer. They are performing poetry together, and I have to say that the way that they seem to connect with their eyes, we have to applaud the way that they’ve naturally moved on to friendship.
We see this charismatic blonde in the crowd, smiling and watching them. She’s beautiful and sophisticated. And when the performance is over, the two head to the bar for a drink, where Bobbi catches the blondes eye.
The blonde is Melissa, a writer. She compliments the two on their performance, and Bobbi just seems to know what to say. She’s flawless in her confidence. She seems to give no fucks about people opinions and that’s a beautiful thing. She says that Frances is the writer and she’s the muse, and clarifies that she’s not committed to being one persons muse.
Melissa is from London. Bobbi is from New York. The two things make sense with their personalities. A few lines exchanged and Melissa, well she wants to continue the conversation later, so Bobbi gives her phone and tells her to put her number in.
The way that Sasha Lane portrays Bobbi has you rooting for her from the beginning. She’s the confident person that anyone would want to be.
And the confidence that Bobbi has radiates. It brings something out of Frances. Two opposites that balance each other out.
Bobbi is a fan of Melissa’s but Frances has never read her books. But there is something that intrigues Frances and she looks up what she can find on the internet. She’s naturally drawn to a picture she sees in an article of Melissa’s husband.
Nick Conway.
Look, we’re just gonna be honest here, Joe Alwyn is a draw to this series. That and it’s a Sally Rooney book. So we understand why Frances would be drawn to his face and also why she would call him a “trophy husband.”
Not sure what transpired to get the girls to take a trip to Melissa’s home and go swimming in the sea. They all have an amazing time, and the connection between Bobbi and Melissa is obvious.
When we are finally introduced to Nick, as he walks into the kitchen, where Frances is standing awkwardly, there is automatically a connection between the two. Both shy, introverts who don’t know how to communicated. But they try.
It seems as though Melissa and Bobbi barely recognize the other two, both drawn in to their sexual attraction to each other, but Melissa does try. She tries to pull things out of Frances, but Frances is Frances. And she doesn’t know how to do these things.
She doesn’t know what to say. And that’s even more obvious when her and Nick are left alone at the table, searching for words to say.
Part of what one has to love about the awkwardness of these two is that you can tells that even with that they find comfort with each other. They seem to be able to speak and are worried about the things that they say, not because what they’re saying is bad, but because of the attraction that they have to each other.
Melissa and Nick are complete opposites and don’t get me wrong, thats not a bad thing. One has to wonder if the moral is that you can love the person that is opposite of you, but need a sense of fulfillment from someone who is more like ones self.
Bobbi obviously has a crush on Melissa and that feeling is obviously returned. Maybe it’s why it is that hard for Bobbi to imagine why it is that Nick and Melissa are married. She seems put off by the idea and seems put off by Nick. But her obsession with Melissa is there.
Frances seems like the type that doesn’t know what to do with her attraction to Nick. But it’s there. She goes as far as to go to the play that he’s performing in, but ditching out afterwards so that he doesn’t see her. She can’t seem to look him in the eyes, but he’s the same.
Looking someone in the eye that you are attracted to is a huge level of intimacy. It can be hard to explain the vulnerability that it makes someone feel, but for Frances, it’s very intimate.
It’s why it’s easier to hide behind a text. They get each other better that way. They can understand each others dry sense of humor and even the slightest text makes them smile. Melissa and Bobbi thrive off the chaos of life while Nick and Frances are romantics, thriving off of the possibilities.
Nick wants to see Frances perform. She seems to be a little scared of it, but bigger than the fear is the excitement that she will get to see Nick again. And so when he’s late, she gets sad, you can see it in her eyes. But you can also see the joy when he walks in late.
Bobbi seems to want to rake Nick through the coals, maybe wanting to draw words out of him, maybe wanting to stake some sort of claim for Melissa. But in the last final minutes is the first time I am annoyed with Bobbi. You have to give your friend room to make her mistakes, but you also have to know that at a certain point, bitchiness looks good on no one.
Strangely though, annoyance with Bobbi fades, because what the show leaves us with is Nick and Frances, again searching for words to speak and not look each other in the eye.
Here’s what we’re loving so far about Conversations With Friends, no attraction or connection is the same. But everyone recognizes that. We’re going to get to see love and lust unfold in different ways.
And that is exciting.
We end this episode with Nick complimenting Frances about her performance, unable to really articulate what he wants to say. He’s going to send her and e-mail full of compliments and she’s self aware enough to know that this way, they don’t have to look each other in the eye. But when he agrees with her about this, she says that they could try [to look each other in the eye that is] and suddenly you find yourself rooting for this attraction to go somewhere.
The first episode of Conversations With Friends does an amazing job at setting up the characters, so you are intrigued enough to continue. You care, you hate, and you wonder.
And you’re anxious to find someone you want to look in the eye, even though for lack of a better term… it’s complicated.
OTHER THOUGHTS
- Interested to see how Frances summer job plays into all of this, if it does.
- Melissa is someone that we haven’t figured out yet. She seems like a bored housewife, only she’s not one. She’s a writer.
- Joe Alwyn’s accent is sexy AF.
- We want to swim in the Irish sea.
- We’re impressed that Frances and Bobbi are friends when they used to be together. We’re not that good to stay friends with an ex.
Conversations With Friends is streaming now on Hulu.
READ ALL OUR CONVERSATIONS WITH FRIENDS REVIEWS –
- ‘Conversations With Friends’ 1×01 Review: “Episode 1”
- ‘Conversations With Friends’ 1×02 Review: “Episode 2”
- ‘Conversations With Friends’ 1×03 Review: “Episode 3”
- ‘Conversations With Friends’ 1×04 Review: “Episode 4”
- ‘Conversations With Friends’ 1×05 Review: “Episode 5”
- ‘Conversations With Friends’ 1×06 Review: “Episode 6”
- ‘Conversations With Friends’ 1×07 Review: “Episode 7”
- ‘Conversations With Friends’ 1×08 Review: “Episode 8”
- ‘Conversations With Friends’ 1×09 Review: “Episode 9”
- ‘Conversations With Friends’ 1×10 Review: “Episode 10”
- ‘Conversations With Friends’ 1×11 Review: “Episode 11”
- ‘Conversations With Friends’ 1×12 Review: “Episode 12”