“One Day” is a temporally grandiose but ultimately charming affair. It is predictable to watch, but it doesn’t take away from its charms completely.
Spoiler warning!
In recounting David Nicholls’ novel, the Netflix series takes its time.
Romance on television has had its share of problems. Given its extended structure, it makes natural that the focus eventually expands to encompass a pair or that their tension is subtly dispersed throughout a greater cast of individuals. One Day on Netflix makes good use of the format, although it is also occasionally undermined by it.
The night after graduation, Emma (Ambika Mod) and Dexter (Leo Woodall) cross paths for the first time. They spend the night joking around, plainly in love with one another, and end the next day vowing to stay in contact, both of them taken aback and not sure how to handle their obvious deep bond. The 14 episodes of the show follow Emma and Dexter as they navigate the demands of adulthood, culminating on the day of this promise—July 15—each year.
An adaptation of David Nicholls’ 2009 book, which was later turned into a 2011 film starring Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess, One Day stays loyal to its literature as regards the premise of a chapter every episode. Every year on July 15th, we see Emma and Dexter’s personal growth and occasionally their growing apart from one another. Upon first meeting, they are both wide-eyed recent college graduates and jaded grownups. They clearly have affections for one another, but they tend to show more to the camera because neither Emma nor Dexter is willing to take any chances.
Even though the two characters’ romance is the show’s ultimate focus, a number of the episodes are devoted to examining their separate lives. While Dexter, without a plan, secures a hosting position that comes with a healthy dose of celebrity, Emma, who had aspirations of becoming a writer and changing the world, ends up becoming a teacher. Additionally, One Day performs some of its best work in these episodes.
Even though the entire will-they-won’t-they plot is well done in the program, there are moments when Emma and Dexter are just staring into each other’s eyes. Their famous stare usually carries extra weight when they encounter each other for the first time in over three years, especially since we have witnessed their relationships with other people come and go. The audience is also aware of the big individual turmoils that they are eager to tell each other about.
Although this type of pacing is not totally detrimental to the chemistry, it is also not wholly satisfying. Unfortunately for the show, the writer does not seem to want to favor it.
While Ambika and Leo are outstanding performers against each other, Ambika notably shines in illustrating the tiny changes in Emma across the years. Once more, her performance might have been better shown with a little more balanced screen time.
One Day is a chronologically grandiose but ultimately pleasant affair. Its unusual premise of an annual check-in with the leads makes up for its relatively predictable nature. The program covers most of the rhythms of a slow-burn romance, even though it shines when showcasing personal development.
‘One Day’ Ending Explained:
In recounting David Nicholls’ novel, the Netflix series takes its time.
After Emma gets struck by a car while riding her bike in the penultimate episode, we find her comatose on the ground. The finale takes place in 2003, a year later. “Episode 14” deviates from the norm by focusing on three years of Dexter’s life and interspersing them with sporadic flashbacks to their 1988 first date. This portrays Dexter’s continuous struggle with acceptance and loss.
Dexter is not doing well in 2003. He has resumed his binge drinking, even turning up drunk to his daughter Jasmine’s school function. Who can blame him if it’s difficult for him to maintain composure? Dexter takes a terrible turn after dumping Jasmine off at his ex-wife Sylvie’s apartment. He staggers from bar to bar, starting needless arguments and drinking like there’s no tomorrow (probably because his depression makes him doubt if he even wants a tomorrow). When he starts talking to a stripper about missing Emma, it’s the last straw.
He tries to knock the phone out of her hand and is tossed out of the bar when he discovers that she is texting while he is expressing his innermost thoughts.
At Sylvie’s front door, Dex arrives wasted and covered in blood. They now share a true, familial love in the wake of everything that transpired between them. Before fighting with Callum, Dex’s classmate with whom she cheated, she cleans him up without question. After that, Dex is driven to his father’s house.
Despite his rough attitude, the guy has supported his son in little ways over the years. Now that they are both widowers, he tries to give Dex some advise that he may not be ready to hear yet: “Try living your life as if she were still alive; that’s the finest thing you can do. After ten years, what do you think I’ve been doing?
Dex still feels this way, and being at his parents’ house simply brings up memories of their first Christmas together in 1988. Here, One Day deviates from the norm once more by presenting a day other than July 15, but this is a welcome change. Emma is still riding high, having given Dex a book he will never read.
She reads aloud a passage that discusses the idea of a victim’s unknowable “death day” and is a bit too literal. Dex listens carefully and is captivated by her, even though he hasn’t received anything in return other than a peck on the cheek.
She’s asleep when he returns, having snuck a bottle of wine from his parents’ collection. He sobs himself to sleep when he thinks of this memory. By the time the show picks up in 2004, Dexter has already made significant progress.
In light of the previous year’s events, Tilly, Emma’s closest friend, has rallied the troops to ensure that he never has to spend the day alone. Dexter receives unexpected visitors on his doorstep, including Tilly and her family, Sylvie and Jasmine, Dexter’s father, and Emma’s ex-boyfriend Ian. The group ultimately strikes up a conversation in the living room that is awkward.
When Dex excuses himself to get some air, Ian follows him and offers him an apology, saying that he made Emma very happy and that she helped him become good.
Ian acknowledges that he’s traveled three hours by train to be here, away from his wife and children, making this exchange very different from the one in the movie. Though they aren’t quite buddies, Ian wants Dex to know he’s not alone in his sadness and to accept his own grief as well.
Ian tells Dex, in an indirect way, that he never thought having a family was in the cards before he leaves, encouraging him to keep going for the next stage of his life. Though Dex is unsure of what to say or do, it’s obvious that the gesture has significance for him.
Sensing that Dex would prefer some alone time, Dex’s father has herded everyone out the door and brought him back inside. Even though we learn that Sylvie and Callum are no longer together, it doesn’t mean that Sylvie and Dex will run back to each other because their current relationship is wonderful. When the final one leaves through the door, Dex looks at the bottle.
In a hallucination, he sees Emma, who quippingly remarks, “at least this year you can pass out on your own carpet,” and chastises him for drinking. He imagines her to be intelligent, calm, and playful—exactly what he needs right now.
No matter how long and harsh the road ahead may be, she assures him that time will be the only thing that will release him from these feelings and that the only thing giving him hope that everything will turn out okay is her voice in his brain. The story’s last chapter transports us to 2005 and the University of Edinburgh, Emma and Dexter’s former stomping grounds. As Dex shows Jasmine all of these various turning points from the first night and day he spent with Emma, it feels a little bit like déjà vu.
As they ascend Arthur’s Seat, Emma’s quips seem a lot like Jasmine’s remarks about him moving too slowly. He tells her about St. Swithin’s Day and shows her the precise spot on the hill where he and Emma had their first “date.”
The actual walk down memory lane twists with Dex’s memories from 1988, exposing aspects of that day from “Episode 1” that we didn’t see. Emma declares, protecting herself from grief at the bottom of the hill, that she would rather be Dex’s buddy than some Northern girl he slept with on graduation; she doesn’t want to be a footnote in his life. They decide to be buddies in this.
However, Dex recalls pursuing her down some outdoor stairs after they split up in an attempt to obtain her contact details. He finally reaches out to kiss her, his mouth watering from the intense sexual tension; it is a picture from the series that will live on in his heart forever.
One Day is currently streaming on Netflix
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