“A year’s not long.” “A year is long.” This exchange from Episode 13 of One Day is the thesis of the show to me. It’s also something I personally think about often. As a Virgo and therefore a planner, I try to figure out all aspects of my life in advance. But it’s hard when life could easily be exactly the same or wildly different one year in the future. So much and so little can happen in a year. 

That’s the entire conceit of the show One Day. The U.K.-set narrative follows Emma Morley (Ambika Mod) and Dexter Mayhew (Leo Woodall) for almost 20 years, from 1988 to 2007. We, as viewers, check in on friends Emma and Dexter on the same day (July 15) every year. For the most part, each episode pertains to a different year, chronologically. I like that the friends don’t have some kind of arrangement to see each other every year on that same day. But rather, things happen year round and we just happen to check in on the duo on that same day each year. We see where they are at that point and catch up on everything that may have happened in the time in between. 

There’s a lot to like about this show: the concept, the acting, the chemistry, the accents. It was a mostly enjoyable viewing experience. But it is also the kind of show that sometimes elicits a visceral reaction because of how closely a line or a scene or an expression mirrors something in your own life. There were moments in this show that I felt on almost too personal of a level. I had concerns about writing this review because I was worried my thoughts about the show would reveal too much of myself and my inner psyche (which really I don’t mind sharing but I also ultimately don’t know who might read this. If you don’t actually know me, hi, welcome, I’m sorry, now you kind of do!) Ultimately, though, this blog isn’t a place for unbiased reviews. It’s a place for me to talk about my experiences watching things. So here we are. 

One Day has sympathy for both main characters and tries to show them as human through all of their flaws and mistakes. But I just found myself so closely aligned with Emma, seeing similarities between myself and her character, and so often innately annoyed by Dexter, that it could be hard to be neutral in their disagreements. Leo Woodall plays Dexter perfectly as the kind of dick you hate yourself for being attracted to. But as much as this is a love story, it is also a show about growing up. We have all really known people like this or have ourselves been people like this. But then you grow and change and evolve into different people, who are kind of dicks in different ways. Emma and Dexter in their 20s are real and personal to me, mistakes and all. Maybe if I rewatch the show in my 30s, I’ll have stronger reactions to those versions of their characters as well, but I don’t know those people in real life yet.

Thematically, One Day has a lot in common with Past Lives and (yes, once again) Taylor Swift’s “invisible string”. The show itself quotes Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations: “Imagine one selected day struck out of your life, and think how different its course would have been. 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 that memorable day.” If you believe in these stories, if you believe in fate, the message isn’t to wait around until the right thing finds you. It’s whatever finds you is the right thing. Everything happens for a reason, even if we can’t see what that is yet. As viewers, we may see the connection between Emma and Dexter in a way they can’t see for themselves and root for them to figure it out sooner. But maybe if they had gotten together earlier, they would not have been right for each other because those earlier versions of themselves wouldn’t be the same people without having the life experiences they had on their own. Dexter says himself, “We grew up together”. They didn’t have to fall in love, that was always there. They had to grow into compatible people. Right person, wrong time. Until it wasn’t.

I guess it’s really all about trust and patience, two things that are immensely hard. Trusting that if you are patient, eventually you will realize that the path you have taken, the path you are on, has always been the right one to lead you to maybe not where you thought you wanted to go, but where you are supposed to go. The place the invisible string was leading you all along. But there is no endpoint, really. Taylor Swift wrote that song about a man she is no longer with. Maybe she thought at the time all of her life experiences were leading her towards this person. But really, he was just another brief stop in the journey. And it keeps going. Emma and Dex prove that too. Their story does not end with them finding each other. It keeps going beyond just them and their relationship with one another. It will keep going after the show stops following them. The string has more places to lead. 

I’m a sucker for a story about fate. Like I said, I’m a planner, so I like to believe that there is a plan. There is a reason. There’s good stuff and bad stuff but it’s all leading somewhere. One Day is another great entry into the fate story canon because it doesn’t show fate as a fairytale. There is plenty of hardship and there will be more. And a lot of it feels unfair. The ending of this show has been controversial and wildly upsetting to many people. (I actually need to take a moment to say here that everyone on the internet is being overly dramatic about this. And if I’m saying that, you know it’s a problem. Yes, the ending was sad and, yes, I did cry. But it doesn’t really even come close to some other way sadder things I have watched, so let’s all keep some perspective. If you want a real cry, I have plenty of suggestions.) That being said, even with the sad ending, what’s the message? At first I thought, “Is the show trying to say that there are no happy endings?” But the more I thought about the show as a whole instead of just the final episode, I think the message is that there are no endings. Period. No matter what, even if your world feels like it stops, life moves on. If we are happy or sad or whatever, that is not our ending. Things will change and we will feel differently. You just have to keep moving. That’s the message Dexter’s father tries to impart on him and I think the takeaway from the finale of the show. Because, yes, One Day is about romance and friendship and relationships, but it is also really about life. We see these people connect with each other but also live their lives and experience everything that comes with that. 

I really liked this show. It was cute and sweet and easy to watch and definitely not as sad as people would make you think, but did have me in my feelings and I guess more than a little philosophical. I’d recommend it to everyone! 

One small note to the creators: The episodes are just called “Episode 1”, “Episode 2”, etc. They should just be titled the years they take place in. Would make it easier to keep track. I know they’re reading this for my advice, so you’re welcome. 

2024 Count: 8 seasons, 10 movies