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theelectronicstranger · 2 months

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Netflix’s One Day Surprised Me

I just watched the Netflix adaptation of One Day. I was ready to kind of dislike it because I really like the movie version of One Day and I couldn’t help but compare this TV series to the movie while I was watching it. However, the more I watched this show, the more I grew to like it and ended up really liking the decisions that they made to showcase Emma and Dexter’s lives. Also, it is important to note that I have NOT read the book. I have just watched the movie and really liked it. I’m going to end up comparing these two adaptations a bit and telling you guys what eventually made me like this show, so if you’re not interested in that or you haven’t watched the series or the movie, then maybe don’t read this discussion.

Let’s get the stuff I don’t like out of the way. I think the worst parts of this show as a movie adaptation lover is the first two to three episodes. They actually do find their stride in the third episode, but I was just so worried watching the first two episodes that I was wary of the third. My problem with the first two episodes was that it felt like they were stretching their time rather than expanding on these characters’ lives. For example, the first episode of this show was about 10 mins total of the film. In the film, Dex and Emma meet after graduating and they spend the night together just talking all night. Then in the morning, they take a hike and enjoy each other’s company, but we don’t see that until the end of the movie. Those scenes took about less than 10 minutes of the movie but in the show, it took them 36 minutes and I don’t necessarily think those 36 minutes were used that well.

In the show we saw their first day together play out more, which should have been good, but it felt like the more Emma and Dex talked in this series, the more it felt like they were rethreading what they could have conveyed in 10 mins. At some point I asked myself, “What is Dex still doing in this apartment?”. The reason I asked that was because Emma was being rude to him on this first day and I felt like there were a lot of times he wanted to leave but didn’t. It felt like the way the first episode was executed, the only reason why Dex didn’t leave Emma’s apartment was because he was trying to be nice and trying to save face a bit, which isn’t to say that movie Dex wasn’t like that at first, but in the movie we could give Dex the benefit of a doubt more because we just saw a small segment of them talking throughout the night rather than having these long drawn out conversations that seem to almost lead to arguments. The first episode felt like it was giving us so many reasons why these two people wouldn’t talk again after this day because it shows us too much of their wants and personalities clashing in my opinion.

The second episode didn’t help with my worries for this series because they were separated from each other during this episode, so it was harder to gauge their chemistry with one another. All we know is that Emma has been sending letters to Dex regularly and that she was in Dex’s house for Christmas. Also, Dex’s parents seem to like her. However, that’s all things about them that we have been told rather than shown, so it still doesn’t help with how I see these two characters at this point. Although, with that said, the second episode is where I start liking the decisions that they made to expand these characters’ lives. I really liked how we saw more of Dex and his mother in Episode 2. As somebody that knew what was going to happen to Dex’s mother, it was really nice to see this episode show more of Dex and his mother’s relationship. It was nice seeing them interact and seeing Dex make time for his mother; especially, knowing that she passes later on. I also really like how in Emma’s story for this episode, we see her write more and make an active decision to be a writer; because in the movie, we didn’t really see that much of her writing, we are just told that she tried to write but failed. In the movie, it felt like she just becomes a best-selling author immediately rather than because she’s been writing most of her life. The way the movie does it suffices, but I like how the series expands on that aspect of her life.

What I was worried about with these first few episodes is that this series was going to just stretch these moments in these characters’ lives without making the necessary developments for their characters. However, after sticking with it, I ended up really liking a lot of the decisions the show made, so with the stuff I don’t like out of the way, let’s move on to what I really liked.

I really liked that we saw more of the extended cast in this series because they ended up bringing more to these two characters’ lives. I always felt like in the movie, they were hyper focused on Emma and Dexter’s lives that there was no room for characters like Tilly, who we only saw a bit in the movie. Tilly, in the series, is Emma’s shoulder to cry on. She is the one true friend that Emma has. She also becomes someone that supports Dexter after Emma dies, so that he won’t have to feel so alone anymore. In the movie, after Emma dies Dex just felt so alone which was really heartbreaking. However, in this series, we do see him alone, but we also get to see that there are so many people that are willing to help and support him after those times of loneliness. We see more of how his father is more present in his life after Emma’s death as well, which I really liked.

With Ian, I like how we get to see more of how much Emma was so unhappy because of him, so that when she finally finds some success in her life, it feels like this massive cathartic experience because we saw how her life was with him. We also saw more of how much Ian despised Dexter throughout the whole time he was with Emma, so when he goes out of his way to visit Dexter after Emma passes, it puts more weight on his actions. He went out of his way to cheer someone up that he did not like at all.

Speaking of Emma, I like how we see that she’s not all that perfect in this series. She literally helps a man cheat with their wife in this series and she was pretty well aware of that. She started sinking more to the bottom until she found success in her books after some encouragement from Ian that her writing was good. Like I said before, I really liked how we saw her write more in this series, so when she finds success in her writing, it doesn’t feel like it comes out of nowhere. We actually see her fail a few times with her writing and fail a few times in her career before we ever see any of her success, which I feel like the show is trying to show how her success is earned because of all of her hard work.

I how we saw more of how Dexter dealt with his mother’s illness, which is to say that he did not deal with his mother’s illness at all. In fact, he took comfort in drugs and missed so much of his mother’s last days. He just didn’t feel at all comfortable seeing his mother like that. He couldn’t even be in her bedroom with her because he felt sick smelling the room she was in and seeing her in this awful state. I loved how we saw more of his relationship with his father and showed more of how angry his father was with him; especially since, he was being a fuck up on his mother’s last days. In Dexter’s father’s eyes, Dexter was ruining the last days of the woman that he loves, so he was properly angry at him. The scene where his father drops him off at the station and he yells at him because he couldn’t be sober while with his mother is such a powerful scene.

I like how we end up seeing more of Dexter spiraling down into heavy drug use because of how his career is going and because of his mother’s death. We saw how his chosen career built him up to be this very important person and any time something contradicted that, he would turn to drug use. We see how that affected his personal relationships. Specifically, his relationship with Emma. The restaurant episode was really well done. You can just tell how much of a pretentious prick he was being in that episode and how that would form a schism with him and Emma.

I also like the fact that we spend so much more time with Dex after Emma dies and that we see him being such a wreck during July 15 [St Swithin’s Day (aka Emma and Dexter’s Day)]. I like how we even get moments where Sylvie is helping out Dex and being worried for him. She’s just not this awful person that cheated on him, but someone that genuinely cared for him at some point.

All in all, I really liked this series. Especially towards the end. It surprised me how much I liked it because I really loved the movie adaptation of this story. However, I would probably watch the movie more than this series because even though I liked the series towards the end, I felt like a lot of the stuff they expanded on were just okay; they were more like bonus material for me. I also still felt in certain episodes that their expanding of this story, felt more like stretching rather than expanding on it in a meaningful way. I also would have happily cut a lot of episodes in this series, if it meant that we got to see more minutes of Emma and Dex being happy in the last few episodes. I really would have loved to have seen more moments of them being happy; especially because this show has got a lot of time to do that with unlike in the movie.

Yes, I know the movie is very hyper focused on Emma and Dexter’s lives but I think that hyper focused approach really help give weight to their romance and the tragedy of their romance towards the end. Also, by hyper-focusing on these two, we end up getting a more intimate outlook on them in my opinion. Sometimes, while watching the movie, it felt like I was a passerby getting glimpses of these people’s lives. I don’t necessarily know all of their story, but the stuff that I did see made me want them to be together more. The film is short and bittersweet, and I like it that way. Does that mean the show is bad? Hell NO. I think every actor in here is giving an amazing performance and the parts of the story that they expanded on are wonderful. I just have a preference, that’s all. I’m sure that if you’ve watched the series first then you probably prefer the series over the movie. Same goes with reading the novel, I’m sure that a lot of people prefer that version over the film and the series. I think it’s just a matter of what you experienced first, and I watched the movie first so it’s the definitive version for me. However, I would urge everyone that watched the movie or even read the book to watch the series. I really enjoyed it.

Nitpicks:

Here are just some nitpicks that I have for the show. They don’t necessarily affect my viewing of the series just that it slightly bothered me. Also these nitpicks do not matter at all and should not be taken too seriously. Just nitpicks I thought I'd share.

First, I think everybody in here looks way too young that when they started getting older, I just couldn’t buy they got old as much. Specifically with Dex, I just felt that he looks so young even towards the end. As for Emma, she does start looking more mature after the years they stopped talking. Maybe it's just that I tend to view people my age as babies? I dont really know. I think it's also because Dexter in the movie version ends up looking so old and I'm still comparing the two.

Second, they took out the line “I love you Dexter… so much… I just don’t like you anymore” I just like that line. I told you guys these were nitpicks.

Lastly, I wish they used “We had Today” by Rachel Portman in this series. It’s the theme music for the movie and I would have loved to hear it in this version. I just felt like it’s a wonderful piece of music that deserves to be heard more.

Here’s a link to the song on YouTube: We Had Today by Rachel Portman

If you’re reading this then I’d love to know what you think of the series. If you’ve read the book or watched the movie. I would really love to know what you thought of it. Was I being too harsh on this series? What did you agree with me on and what points did you not agree with me on? Anyways, thanks for reading this. Have a good day!

#One Day #Netflix #David Nicholls #Ambika Mod #Leo Woodall #Amber grappy #Jonny Weldon #Eleanor Tomlinson #Anne Hathaway #Jim Sturgess #my writing #writing

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