13 years after the original film adaptation, One Day brings the meandering love story of Emma and Dexter back to our screens. But can it deliver the pathos needed to fulfil its ambitious vision?
★★★✰✰
“Imagine one selected day struck out of [your life], and think how different its course would have been. Pause you who read this, and think for a moment of the long chain of iron or gold, of thorns or flowers, that would never have bound you, but for the formation of the first link on one memorable day.” At her best friend Tilly’s wedding in Episode 10 of One Day, the protagonist Emma Morley (Ambika Mod) reads from her Maid of Honour speech, quoting Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations. But it’s clear this reflection isn’t meant for Tilly: watching Emma from a few metres away is fellow Edinburgh University graduate Dexter Mayhew (Leo Woodall). It is St Swithin’s Day, 15 July 1997, nine years to the day after the pair’s first meeting at their graduation ball. Such is the series’ central conceit: adapted from David Nicholls’ novel of the same name, One Day follows the lives of Emma and Dexter every 15 July over a period of 20 consecutive years.
An unlikely pair–Emma is working-class and from Leeds, whilst Dexter is upper-class and from Oxfordshire–Mod and Woodall successfully communicate the unusual chemistry between their characters. Following her incredible breakthrough performance as Shruti Acharya in This is Going to Hurt, Mod’s Emma is sarcastic and watchful, while Woodall (of White Lotus fame) successfully embodies the various charms and deficits of the carefree, womanising Dexter. However, while the series opens in persuasive fashion, making use of an excellent soundtrack, a mere few episodes in, the prospect of completing the 14-episode viewing stint was filling me with weariness.
In showcasing how the numerous hopes and disappointments of two romantically intertwined people relate to each other over time (a format employed to captivating effect in Normal People, or the even more chronologically expansive Fellow Travelers), One Day has the potential to paint an affecting portrait of life, in all its twisting unknowability. In terms of scope, the 14-episode format certainly has its advantages. In addition to giving Emma and Dexter more depth as characters (the 2011 film adaptation, by contrast, is only 1h 47m long), One Day’s wider character base is explored to a greater extent. Highlights include Eleanor Tomlinson’s fraught but ultimately redemptive arc as Dexter’s partner Sylvie, and Essie Davis, who adds some much-needed thoughtfulness as Dexter’s mother, Alison. Jonny Weldon’s Ian, however, is more polarising, and it’s worth questioning whether Emma is given equal agency; we learn little of her family, and though the effects of class are integral, the implications of her South Asian heritage in this adaptation go unexamined.
One Day does not reach the level of profundity achieved by Normal People. Though differences in length and format might render the comparison limiting, one area where One Day decidedly comes second is in the dialogue. The vague mediations on the role of the universe in holding the pair together (“It’s like you want me to still fancy you. Like it’s a necessary condition of the cosmos or something,” Emma remarks in Episode 4) are more likely to inspire teenagers looking for a quote to put on their bedroom wall (no offense–we’ve all been there) than be successful in conveying real depth between adults. And, despite being a rom-com, One Day is hard to find funny. This is more of an issue than it may initially seem—in order to really care about Emma and Dexter, we must surely be able to laugh along with them in moments of levity, as well as feel their pain.
As demonstrated, however, by the popularity of the novel (from which the series understandably borrows much of its dialogue), and even by the widespread fondness held for the critically rebuked film adaptation, these criticisms are likely to be simply a result of personal taste. In a similar vein, the ‘same day a year’ format could either be deemed inventive or restrictive, and the twist at the end is likely to divide opinion. Is it a bold subversion of the romantic genre, or a desperate, failed grasp at emotional intensity? You decide.
A critical failing of One Day is the lack of meaningful change in the central characters’ dynamic. Emma and Dexter’s relationship fails to really evolve during the first half of the series, stretching implausibly over distance and context and apparently lacking many of the betrayals, misjudgements and silences likely to define any relationship over a period of years. This above all, when combined with a total viewing time approaching seven hours, makes many of the episodes feel unstimulating; under such conditions, contemplating Emma and Dexter’s yearly progress soon becomes a chore.
The Verdict
Overall, though boasting formidable central performances, One Day does not deliver the poignancy it promises. In its dimensions, it only really succeeds in being formidable in length; the depth it is clearly aiming for is not realised, and though it picks up towards the end, it sometimes feels that there has been little worthwhile development. Even the sequences leading to the series’ climax feel repetitive, and as the pair enter yet another argument to almost identical effect, you might find yourself questioning whether they have really changed at all.
The entire series of One Day is available to stream on Netflix now.
Words by Naomi Rescorla-Brown
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