One Day

Netflix’s new limited series One Day, based on the novel by David Nicholls, is a slowly devastating tale of love and life, following two friends over the course of 20 years.

The layout of the show is interesting: we jump in and out of Emma and Dexter’s lives on the same day, St. Swinthin’s Day, each year. The risk of constant and unnatural over-exposition as the two “catch up” is thus present, but the clever writing avoids this, instead allowing us to jump to our own conclusions, giving a sense of uncertainty that mirrors Emma and Dexter’s. The episodes may be short, but they’re rich, expertly cramming a year’s worth of living and changing into a mere 30 minutes. Each glimpse of their lives is a sobering yet hopeful reminder of how different life can look year on year.

It’s hard to watch at times, but only in the way that you cannot look away, desperate to know if they’re going to pull together or apart this time. Ambika Mod (Emma) and Leo Woodall (Dexter) are the breathing centre of this. Both characters yearn for each other, but in completely different ways: Mod plays Emma with raw depth and Woodall’s eyes might as well be permanently heart-shaped. Together they are kinetic. Each are complete characters, despite the limited time we spend with them. It’s a constant thread, of course, but their undefined relationship is not the be-all-end-all of their lives. Career, grief, self-belief, fame and family are all significant pressures moulding them as well. Class difference, particularly, is an important theme.

“We’ve got time. I mean, I do, do you?” Dexter says in the first episode, and it rings until the very last. Love stories take time, but time doesn’t always care about love. Love stories are complicated and frustrating and unpredictable. We cling to those like these because they remind us that even though time can be cruel, love stands still. Emma and Dexter fall in and out of love with each other, but also with themselves. This is a story that allows each person to grow separately, and, inevitably, towards the other; an invisible string. It is one that will stay with you forever.

Talitha Stowell

One Day is released on Netflix on 8^th February 2024.

Watch the trailer for One Day here: