We Need to Talk About 'One Day' on Netflix
I know I can't get the love story drama out of my head. Am I the only one?
[Spoiler alert: You’re safe to read the first part of this story but if you haven’t watched the entire series be sure to STOP when you get to the YouTube trailer since major plot points from later in the series are discussed beyon that point.]
I was preparing for a day of international travel from Los Angeles back to Bangkok last week and, since I’ve learned to never trust the airlines will have enough of an entertainment selection to make me content on a long flight, I started thinking about what to download onto my Ipad.
First, I downloaded a few episodes of Warrior, the action drama that had just been added to Netflix (I’d seen the three seasons before but wanted to revisit some episodes…you saw my post about the ‘Netflix effect’ and how the series needs a fourth season, right?). And then purely from all the buzz I’d seen on social media about it and a few DMs with fellow TV journalists, I downloaded four episodes of One Day.
I knew of the popular novel of the same name by David Nicholls (which I hadn’t read) and the 2011 movie starring Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess (which I hadn’t seen) but I gathered from some of the posts that there was a tragic element to the U.K. import (which dropped all episodes February 8). That didn’t scare me off and then another bonus caught my eye - the episodes were around 30 minutes, give or take, so the time commitment wasn’t huge if I personally didn’t click with the series.
Guess what? I clicked with the series.
Fast forward to me getting to the end of that fourth episode before I was even a quarter through my journey but I had to stop my binge because I didn’t download the whole season. Oh, the humanity!
What hooked me (and apparently a lot of people) since One Day was regularly in the Top 10 on Netflix along with, yes, Warrior? The series begins on July 15, 1988 when college students Emma Morley (Ambika Mod of the BBC series This Is Going To Hurt) and Dexter Mayhew (Leo Woodall of the second season of The White Lotus) meet on graduation day and have an undeniable spark. They share an amazing night together but college is over and they’re destined to go their separate ways. Or are they? Each episode of the series takes us through the years on that same calendar day (July 15) and we watch as Emma and Dex’s relationship changes with each other, the world and themselves.
I was so impressed with how the series effectively creates an undeniable bond between the two characters even when some episodes show they aren’t physically in the same space and others spend more time on one character than the other. And through it all, we’re left wondering if these two will ever actually get together and be the couple we know they could be. Dammit, should be!
And here’s where we get into the spoilery stuff so, trust me, if you haven’t watched the entire series, stop reading here. Seriously. I’m even sliding in the show’s trailer just to put some distance in from the following text.
Okay, hold my hand and let’s continue.
I didn’t expect to fall so hard for this series. I watch a lot of TV and sometimes it’s just work but other times a show will just hit me at the right place at the right time and I get hooked in the best way - as a TV Fan.
And, come on, the more we went through each year with Emma and Dex, the more I wanted to find out how this whole thing would end even when I didn’t exactly love every story turn and even the characters at time. Emma wasn’t immune to making mistakes like, come on, there’s no way she was going to end up happily ever after with nerdy-sweet-but-not-funny Ian (Jonny Weldon). And Dex being a man-child who believed his own 15-minutes of fame and made numerous missteps (and also leaned on the bottle a bit too much) made him unlikable more than a few times. But Emma and Dex together? That worked and kept me in the series.
But then after they did get together and things were going so well even though life problems came up like Emma unable to have a baby and Dex trying to figure out his next career move. And then Emma was killed when an automobile collided with her bicycle. And that TV death hurt. That final shot of her laying on the street with her eyes lightly fluttering until her eyes just went lifeless? My heart!
Anyone could’ve called that it would take Dex a long time to get over Emma and he’d, again, lean on the bottle a bit too much but the latter half of the last episode was the kind of gut-punch we want after sitting through 14 episodes of the show. By this point, Dex had grieved and grown up. He’d become a good father to Jazz (Billie Gadsdon) and I personally loved how close he remained with his father (Tim McInnerny). Then we get to July 15 in the year 2007 and Dex revisits some spots that meant something to his time with Emma and to us.
Dex and Jazz climb up Arthur’s Seat in Edinburgh with Dex lagging behind to his daughter just as he’d perviously done with Emma. They also end up back at the spot at the top of the city steps where in the first episode Dex ran up to catch Emma so their one-night fling wouldn’t end with one night. And then that montage of their kisses over the years.
On paper it may sound schmaltzy but it played beautifully because if you made it to episode 14, you were invested in Emma and Dex and the sad ending would have a happy moment to wrap on.
My guess is I wasn’t the only one who knew things weren’t going to end great for the pair even thought Emma’s death still came as a shock to me. But here I am over a week after I finished my binge (once I got back to Bangkok, I quickly dove back in and finished the series quickly) and I’m still thinking about One Day.
If you know me or have followed my posts on Coffee, TV & Me, you know I love good TV when it handles death and grieving well (see my earlier post on Anderson Cooper’s podcast dealing with grief and other prime TV examples that get a thumbs up for me in the subject area). I would quickly add One Day to that post’s list that included This Is Us, the recent Netflix movie Good Grief and even daytime soap General Hospital. Emma’s death doesn’t happen until One Day’s penultimate episode but the entire series feeds into that grief we all felt in that last episode when she was no longer amongst the living.
So, I know I’m not alone but now that I’ve watched the whole series, tell me what you thought. Did you love the ending? Hate it? And since I didn’t read the book or see that movie, did the series tell the story of Dex and Emma better? Tell me what you think in the comments below. \
One Day Is currently streaming on Netflix. Yes, I recommend it.
I was so hesitant to watch the show because I didn’t care for the movie and I was so happy to be proven wrong. Definitely a great watch (even if it made me cry).
Love this show and love this essay.
I still need to watch "Good Grief."