He's actually very passive," Frances informs Bobbi, who shrewdly suggests that Nick's passivity might be a smokescreen that allows him to shirk blame. Conversations with Friends is unafraid to move at a snail's pace, the same slowness and attention to intimate, tender detail that characterised Normal People proving equally as rewarding here; the difference is that we are not watching the unfolding of cerebral puppy love, but of a tale as old as time.