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.

I think Phileas Fogg were the posh crisp of choice in the late eighties/ early nineties.

I'm about half way through. It's one of my favourite books. Not keen on the film.

issue for me is that Emma is all wrong. They haven't captured her at all. Dexter is effect I think. They have done a pretty good job of the other characters too.

I’ve finished it now too. I really enjoyed it overall.
I loved the two leads & thought they were both brilliant but like pp I’m not sure I saw them as a romantic couple. It’s interesting that there was a review in the Guardian where the author was British Indian & she said the casting of Ambika Mod jarred a bit simply because handsome white men wouldn’t have looked twice at a brown woman & she knows because she lived it. Also she felt it was strange there were no references to her culture which is unusual especially at the time it was set. She was able to suspend her disbelief & enjoy it though.

I loved it!

I wasn’t sure about the casting of Emma to start with… nothing to do with her ethnicity (thought that was believable coming from Leeds) but she was quite dour, rude and annoying, and not particularly attractive to start with…

However it soon became apparent as the series progressed that Ambika was playing her really cleverly. She was so insecure and lacking in self confidence to begin with, had a real chip on her shoulder. Very clever take on what it’s like being working class in amongst the more elite society. She gets stuck in dead end job/life because she doesn’t believe she deserves more. Confidence is something you get in spades from private school, not the local Comp.

They looked awkward with each other and lacking in chemistry earlier on because she didn’t think she deserved someone like him. He definitely fancied her a lot- she just couldn’t bring herself to believe it and that’s why it looked awkward.

Then she gets some self respect, changes her life and starts to flourish… her chip is being smoothed off. She becomes really confident , starts to lose the expressions which made her look sour. Becoming happier in her own skin and becomes really beautiful in an unconventional way.

I thought that was very clever and well played. You could see that Dexter believed in her and saw her beauty early on. She didn’t and that’s why it never happened for them when younger. They definitely had chemistry but she kept putting up barriers. He wouldn’t have just slept with her and discarded her… he just said that on holiday to protect himself, to not lose face.

Dexter was equally nuanced and had a different type of confidence problem and self sabotaging behaviour. Even though he was gorgeous he knew that wasn’t enough and he felt inferior and vulnerable in ways that were different to Emma. The way the actors played them made you really believe that they each believed in each other’s potential and they were equals despite initial expectations that he was out of her league.

Really sweet love story and better than the film.

I’ve watched 2 episodes and can’t decide whether or not to watch the rest. Zero chemistry between the characters and the whole thing makes me cringe a little.

I think I was quite indifferent to the book too.

&@Metallicant read my post above about the chemistry… definitely keep going!

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

You've said it better than I did. Yes - dour and sour, that's exactly it. The Emma in the book has wit and humour too, but I just didn't feel this in the TV series- at least not for the first half. She's just depressing, miserable, and boring, and I wouldn't want to know her, so I'm not convinced that Dexter would!

Binged it in two days while I have been unwell and it was just what I needed. Nostalgic, sweet, beautifully shot and with great music and period detail. I can't remember the book well enough to compare, but I liked both the leads here. Special mentions for Tilly and Ian too! Like pp, thought it wonderfully captured that period in your 20s when it feels like you will never find your way. The scene that made me cry was Emma and Ian's break up.

That’s interesting, and kind of what I thought. I get what they’re going for in terms of representation but it does rather whitewash the experience of being an ethnic minority in Britain recent decades.

I think it's meant to be colour blind casting but yes this does gloss over the reality for most.
(I did have a stunning beautiful Asian friend at school/uni around the same time who had white boyfriends but she was herself from a wealthy background so fitted in in other ways.)
Emma was portrayed as an ugly duckling with crap clothes and big specs in the first episodes. I don't think Dex would have looked twice at her because of that tbh. If she'd been stunningly conventionally beautiful but from a rough background that would have been more believable as his type.

A minor niggle but how is it explained that Dex is broke and living in a hovel with Sylvie, but then after he has visited Emma in Paris he still has no job but is living in a fab bachelor pad, and Emma comments that all the ghosts of his previous conquests are there? Did he forget he had the bachelor pad while he was married??

Was it inherited from his mother when she died? There was reference made at the beginning about him going back to London with his parents before heading off to France, but then they lived near Radley. So perhaps there were conquests there when it was used in his uni days?

And in the Netflix series it defines nearly isn’t a hovel with Sylvie - it’s Richmond and Smeg fridge etc but just being done up, which would have cost £££. Which I assumed Sylvie’s parents were paying for?

@ChiaraRimini it absolutely wasn’t colour blind casting because her heritage was referred to. Plus Ambika Mod has mentioned in two interviews I’ve listened to that she had been ‘the last south Asian actress to audition’ so they specifically set out to cast someone of that heritage in that role. I think the issue with this specific actor is that whilst she is fab at acting, she is quite sardonic in her delivery. I’d always read Emma as being chippy but attractive in both personality and looks which I didn’t get a sense of.

I agree Helen Baxendale would’ve been a better choice for the film. Fay Ripley not so much for me.

Definitely agree Leo Woodall is like a young Ollie Reed. I loved him in The White Lotus.

I did love the line ‘washed out C&A pants’ tho. That was definitely the student look in those days 😂

I don’t think they were living in a hovel. It was a nice terraced house in Richmond that they were doing the classic young couple thing of renovating with a baby. It said in the book that Dex had a bachelor pad in Belize Park that he was renting out once he got together with Sylvie and it was the rent from both places that kept him just about afloat after they divorced. Remember he would’ve bought that bachelor pad in the early 90s when such places were affordable. And I’m guessing Sylvie‘s parents helped out with the Richmond place – she must’ve had a job too, though we never know what it was.

The film is on film four on Wednesday for anyone who is too tight to rent it on Amazon (me)

Helen Baxendale’s character in Friends ruined her for me. Also - she’s in her 50s. I’m not with it enough to know who the emerging female stars are in Leo Woodall’s generation, unfortunately!

Completely changed my view on this having disliked Emma at the start. It’s great.

I googled the kettle chips as I thought exactly the same. Yes they actually were in existence at that time!

we were going to watch this last night but dh decided on a film,
hope to watch tomorrow

I'm surprised no one's mentioned the scene where he turns up for his mother's birthday, that was so realistic and fantastic crying when he was phoning Emma from the station. The part where his dad gets cross in the car!!😱😭

Well, you learn something new every day! I don’t think they made it to my unfashionable corner of the north in the 90s.

The later scenes with his mum were really poignant especially the flashback scenes. Originally I thought there was a bit of an Oedipus complex going on but I think they were just trying to emphasise their closeness (plus I’m from quite a non touchy feely family!)

This has been my favourite episode so far, so brilliantly done. Exceptional acting from all of them. You just want to shake Dexter but you can also see how much he's struggling with his self sabotaging behaviour.