By Gabriella Adaway, First Year, Theatre and Performance Studies
Love, friendship and not getting things quite right– Netflix's One Day doesn’t fall short when creating an all-around sublime series, taken David Nicholls 2009 novel. Nicole Taylor adapts both a heartwarming and heart-wrenching tale of two people who just keep missing each other.
The concept of the show is the classic will they/won’t they, where Emma Morely (Ambika Mod) and Dexter Mayhew (Leo Woodall) just can’t quite make things work together, as we watch their friendship and lives unravel every year on July 15, St Swithin’s day. We follow Em and Dex's relationship from their drunken night together on graduation day in Edinburgh, 1988, over the following two decades throughout the fourteen episodes.
Dexter is your classically charming English posh boy whose flirt, face and desirability only get him so far in life. Emma, on the other hand, is truthful, self-doubting and occasionally bitter, whose literary ambitions shift her down different paths. The audience gets to watch two people who come from vastly different backgrounds grow up together in what can best be described as an engrossing coming-of-age story. Love, travel, money, terrible dates, the unknown, bad friendships and even worse relationships, this story doesn’t fall short on delivery or binge-ability. The series echoes that of much-loved stories like When Harry Met Sally (1989), Normal People (2020) and Love Rosie (2014) but it was Thomas Hardy's Tess of the D’Urbervilles (1891) which proved to be most influential.
It’s important to praise the representations of different characters within the show, something the 2011 adaption fell short in. Emma Morely’s ethnicity is only briefly touched on in the opening episode where Dexter clumsily asks why she wouldn't sleep with him and if it was because of religion to which Emma states "Well my Mum is Hindu and my Dad is a lapsed Roman Catholic, so no, God was not involved", and from there is not mentioned again. If anything, there is far more of a point being made about her being from Leeds than anything else. I would argue the simple presence of a non-white leading female in a rom-com creates a new opportunity for brown women to see themselves on screen as beloved characters, without needing to justify or point it out.
Of course, with any tv show, One Day has its flaws. It is often hard to understand why Emma falls for a man like Dexter and why she attempts to obtain their friendship. Aside from his charm (and I would argue) good looks, I often felt confused at how he got her to stick around for as long as he did. It is not hard to understand her initial attraction to him and his to her, but it isn't until around episode 7 that we finally get to see Emma push back. Annoyingly, Dexter just keeps ending up disappointing people.
Whilst the TV show echoes the 2011 film adaptation (including the posters) and may feel unnecessary for the previous audience, this series is for those who want more: more Tilly, more Ian, more of their lives and of course more Em and Dex. Even the more painful moments are still drenched in love and friendship. Be warned, whether you know the story or not, tissues will be needed. This version is comforting and warm to say the least from the streets of Rome and Paris to the views from Arthur’s Seat and Primrose hill, this series is truly beautiful.
So, in the style of Emma Morely and the words of Charles Dickens I end with this passage from Great Expectations (1861); "Imagine one selected day struck out of your life and think how different its course would have been. Think for a moment of the long chain of iron or gold or thrones or flowers that would never have bound you but for the formation of the first link of that memorable day".
What did you think of One Day?
