Director: Sarah Kate Lynch
A small New Zealand town, still shaken by an earthquake, absorbs a second kind of aftershock in Friends Like Her, a 2024 drama about a surrogacy arrangement gone wrong.
What is Friends Like Her about?
Nicole and Tessa have been close friends for years, close enough that Nicole agreed to carry a child for Tessa under a surrogacy arrangement. As the pregnancy nears its end, Nicole starts to waver, and what should have been a joyful handover turns into a standoff neither woman is prepared for. Set in Kaikōura, a coastal town in New Zealand still recovering from a recent earthquake, the series lets the physical damage around them mirror the emotional cracks opening between the two friends. Old secrets surface, loyalties get tested, and people who thought they knew exactly where they stood with each other are forced to reconsider. The show moves between the two women's perspectives, refusing to make either one simply right or wrong, and lets the fallout ripple outward into their families and the tight-knit community around them.
Cast & crew
Morgana O'Reilly and Tess Haubrich lead as Nicole and Tessa, carrying the emotional weight of a friendship pulled apart by an impossible situation. Jarod Rawiri rounds out the principal cast, and the New Zealand ensemble grounds the story in a specific, believable small-town setting.
Context & significance
Directed by Sarah Kate Lynch, Friends Like Her is a New Zealand-produced drama series that runs 43-minute episodes, released in 2024. The choice to set the story in earthquake-damaged Kaikōura gives the surrogacy conflict a physical backdrop of instability, reinforcing the idea that the ground both women stood on, literally and otherwise, has already shifted.
Where & how to watch
Friends Like Her is available on K-Time with a free account login and no purchase needed to browse the page. Persian subtitles let Farsi-speaking viewers follow the series' emotional turns closely, through K-Time's Persian-language interface built for the Iranian diaspora audience.