One Day - series adaptation on Netflix, starts Feb 8th

[Netaporter]

Anyone fancy a watch thread? Loved the book by David Nicholls, loved the film, but it’s never really gained a strong following for some reason? The series stars Ambika Mod (This is going to hurt) as Emma and Leo Woodall (The white Lotus) as Dexter.

In fact he was interviewed and said this series is a much better adaptation of the book than the film

so - I’m not naive at all thanks

I’m embarrassed how fit I’m finding Dexter, he’s so young 🙈brilliant actor.
Im not feeling it between them either, loved the book and film, but no chemistry between them, wish she’d lighten up and have fun just a little!

So much better than the film!

Watching now. Am actually surprised at how much I love it.

I've watched the first 3 episodes and I'm loving it. I remember being stunned by the book. Enjoying the nostalgia for my young adult years and the music.

Just finished episode 6 and I'm loving it, the characters are so much truer to the (amazing) novel than the (crap) film. Dexter in particular is just perfect and incredibly easy on the eye.

A very minor point but although it wasn't called The Overground then, the now renamed North London Line certainly did exist in 1990 and alongside buses was the main/only form of public transport to Clapton at the time.

The mobile phone was right, I had that Nokia phone in 1994, husband bought it for me as I was driving around with a new baby, came from Carphone Warehouse which was the only mobile phone shop at the time I think.

The late eighties hair was wrong though, many women still had short hair, the Princess Diana hair copying was still going strong, and most of the others had poodle perms, there were fewer styling products and tools around so people's hair often looked much worse than nowadays.

@sytycd yes I’m familiar with the railway line but its 21st century incarnation looks nothing like it did in 1990. The same can no doubt be said about the buses, even if they are still (mostly) red!

I'm really enjoying it. Think I might have reached a good episode to stop at though!

I’ve just binge watched the whole series. I expected to be bawling but I was strangely unmoved and do think this was down to not finding their ‘journey’ believable. Whether the actors involved thought they had ‘chemistry’ is slightly irrelevant if you can’t convince the viewer. That said I thought Dex was quite brilliant and Emma was ok, just not together. I didn’t dislike it, I just would have liked to feel more about it. The book, from a distant memory, was exceptionally moving.

@ChunkyTofu Im on episode 10 now, need to go to bed though, have a 5 year old who wakes at 6.30 am 🙈

I don't get the love for this at all. The actress playing Emma is sour and dour; there's no sense of the character's humour or sharpness, she just seems depressed and rather boring. Dexter is too boyish. They are never convincing as friends, let alone a couple.

Just finished it.

What a huge undertaking that whole production must have been! All the attention to detail from each year (although yes some things felt a bit out), paint colours, fashion (Emma's - lots of it looked quite samey through the years and her earlier looks could have been from the last 12 months. I know fashion comes round again but somehow she looked too 'modern' I thought)

Anyway I really enjoyed it as some others have said but am normally a really crier in this kind of thing but I wasn't in pieces as I might have expected to have been.

Was Ian well cast? Didn't really believe that one for a second but she was obviously going through a difficult period.

I had completely forgotten about the Moriaty game with Sylvie's family . Absolutely mad and awful all of them - I thought episode was v funny.

I did enjoy it, I do think my main issue was the fact that Dexter just couldn’t be aged up. I really struggled to believe he was 37 and a father of a 6 year old at the end while I do think in the film it’s slightly more believable.

I do think that they struggled with chemistry slightly, I’ve watched a few of Ambika’s interviews and she does seem slightly cold and a bit off so I don’t know if it’s just personality?

I don’t think you could get Kettle Chips in 1991. And £1.39 for a large bag of crisps?

I’m excessively fond of the book, although it has its flaws, some of which have been mentioned. Why does Emma have no family or support network? The supporting characters are very thinly drawn.

I enjoyed it well enough. It’s certainly very faithful and nicely made but I agree that there was a lack of chemistry between them. I struggled to warm to Ambika’s Emma, although she’s better in the later episodes.

I do think casting an Indian heritage actress adds a complicating factor. Emma is as much a type as Dexter. Are we supposed to believe this Emma, who is supposed to be passionate and political, carries nothing of her Indian culture and heritage with her? That in a period of huge social change she never experiences any racism? So it didn’t quite work for me.

Leo Woodall I could watch all day long (loved him in The White Lotus) and he’s the best thing in it, if too boyish and I think less good in the later episodes. He always looks 27, which is what he is. Gorgeous though.

Finally got to the end. For me, this doesn’t really work as a romantic story or even one about friendship: the pacing is wrong, the emphases are in the wrong places, and there’s not enough to see that might attract Emma to Dexter and vice versa.

As a story about a maturing but directionless young man, or about how a certain type of English man deals with grief and emotion, it works really well I thought. It also really captures the awfulness (but less so the excitement) of not knowing what the future holds when you’re in your 20s and 30s! The references to the era were close enough, but it wasn’t a love song to Cool Britannia or the time immediately before/after. It was brilliant in terms of social and class awareness, though: Dexter meeting Sylvie’s family was so, so good.

Anyway, it was more enjoyable than a lot of Netflix’s output, which is good enough!

Finished it all yesterday.
loved:
The variable episode lengths
The Music
Leo Woodall
Leo’s family casting
The story-telling of the book
Ambika Mod as an actress, but I agree she was miscast as Emma. I also agree with the pp that at that time, an Indian heritage background would absolutely necessitate a strong family influence - way more than sending socks in the post. It would’ve been better if her heritage had not been mentioned at all IMO.

I was disappointed that THE scene didn’t have the storytelling that the film did. I cried absolute buckets at that point in the film but not so much for this series.

I never liked the casting in the film, always thought it should’ve been Jack Davenport as Dexter and I imagined Emma as Surrane Jones.

Suranne Jones would have been perfect. I liked Jim Sturgess in the film. He was very like the Dexter in my head.

My main memory of the film is it all felt a bit rushed and telescoped and that Greek beach scene looked like it was filmed in Dorset in February. Romola Garai and Rafe Spall were better cast as Sylvie and Ian than their counterparts in the Netflix series.

God not Suranne Jones, she couldn't act her way out of a paper bag!

Jack Davenport is a good call. Faye Ripley?

It's come to me who Leo Woodall reminds me of - it's Oliver Reed. It's the way he uses his eyes and he has the same long eyelashes. Oliver Reed was very attractive once upon a time.

Yes Oliver Reed! He was gorgeous as a young man and would have got the part of Dexter perfectly

I'm only half way through so it might change but although Dexter is currently being portrayed as the dickish one, I think Emma is too. She's very condescending to him, bordering on dislike sometimes, there's no warmth about her. She's just sarcastic and cynical. I know that's true to her character in the book but I don't really remember her being quite so sour.

That's not to say I'm not enjoying it. I think it's excellently done and the soundtrack is amazing. I just wish Emma would be a bit nicer 😂

Helen Baxendale would be great.

Agree the Emma in this series is humourless - there's none of the teasing that you get in the film and book.