One Day - is Emma meant to be like this?

[AreolaGrande]

Have never read the book. Saw the film years ago but don't remember loads about it 😳.

Am on ep 3 of the Netflix show and Emma is just so bloody miserable and sour? She's vile to Dexter and I don't get why someone as charismatic as him would bother with her relentless negativity and moaning. I seem to remember Anne Hathaway's Emma having more about her? The connection between her Emma and Jim Sturgess's Dexter was much more believable?

Not sure I can be arsed persevering tbh.

Completely missing the point with this actress. She is very conventionally beautiful. Emma is not supposed to look like this.

Emma’s looks aren’t mentioned at all in the book from what I recall.

Thought the casting was much better than the film. I loved the book when it came out because it was very much of the time we lived in then. The experimental 20s when everyone is a bit of a dick and figuring life out and you rely on your friends to get you through. I knew a lot of men like Dexter and a fair few like Emma - it was also very believable she was South Asian, a lot of women who aren't considered conventionally good looking turn to sarcasm almost as a revolt against the 'pretty' girl.

Leo Woodall is a really good actor, a lot of acting with just his eyes. The nostalgia was real - my only criticism is that Emma's fashion was a little too modern. Those ankle length jeans she wears on Primrose Hill was not a 90s look. Dexter was far more true to the era with those tucked in shirts.

The slow build up was good. I knew a couple like this, where he really liked her and fancied her but she was so different to what he thought he should go for - it wasn't till his 30s he had the confidence to go for it. So they just stayed friends though we all thought it should be more. A bit like Prince Harry going for the society blondes until he was old enough to appreciate a Meghan.

Something I always liked was how even someone as posh and rich like Dexter could feel out of place with someone even richer and posher like Sylvie. And the difference in how much more down to earth his family seemed in comparison to hers, when obviously they're upper class to everyone else.

I wasn't sure abt Ambika Mod at the start because I hate people of colour being shoehorned into stories written about white characters- I think we should just have more stories written for Asian characters and then cast accordingly. But it worked surprisingly well. Before smart phones and social media there wasn't this obsession with appearance like there is now - there was room for personality. She was an irritating character but then so was he but together they worked well, dulling their sharp edges. Really excellent adaptation!

But it's not about Emma's looks really it's her character which I think Simone if you've ever watched her act would fit Emma perfectly

Yes Simone is a pretty girl especially when done up for fancy events but I'm sure dressed down as a student like she is in Sex Education she looks like any other normal student.

Most young people are pretty attractive anyway so you can't dismiss anyone one looks because they scrub up well

Anyway I just think Simone is very cool and would have been a great Emma substitute

I bloody loved Tilly though and hope to see her again on TV or films she was kind of magnificent really imho.

She just had that special something that oozes charisma on the screen. She'd have been a better Emma because she engages well

So interesting reading different people’s takes on the series, their different reactions to the characters, whether they saw chemistry, didn’t see chemistry, found Emma totally dour or loved her humour.

It really demonstrates the subjectivity of art - the person looking/listening/reading brings as much of themselves to it as the creator does, so everyone’s experience of that art becomes unique to them. It’s not that the casting of Emma was right or wrong, it’s just that she spoke to different people in totally different ways.

All very obvious when you write it down, but I still think seeing those responses has made for an interesting thread.

I think she’s probably the right amount of pretty for the character. However when he sees her at the ball he hasn’t actually spoken to her or anything before has he? That’s the part I don’t get, she’s not conventionally beautiful enough for someone to pick her out of a crowd. Maybe that’s horrible, sorry! But I feel the same about myself… I don’t think anyone would have seen me in at a prom or something and just had to speak to me. I did much better winning them over with my personality 😂.

Having said that, I met DH at uni and there’s no doubt in my mind that he was waaay hotter than me. Some people even commented on that. And he fancied me straight away. I think the difference might be that I caught him just as he became hot, before he had realised himself 😂

I haven’t watched it all yet but she is growing on me a bit. So far still don’t think they have any chemistry. If the character is meant to be more ‘normal’ looking that a model then she’s got to be a better choice than Anne Hathaway. I hate when they do casting like that, it’s why I never watched the Keira Knightley version of Pride and Prejudice.

I was drawn to Emma straight away - perhaps Dexter was too 🤷

I do NOT think you have to be a conventional beauty to attract a member of the opposite sex

I am surprised at those that think you do

I don't think he's attractive enough, actually. Maybe that's my unconscious bias against blonds as I'm never keen on blond men...

I think she is attractive- slim, lovely eyes, nice skin, funny with an acerbic wit, social conscience, clever - what's not to like? And what is particularly attractive is that she is completely herself and doesn't give a shit how attractive or not she is to men. I mean that puts some men off certainly, who want women to fawn over them or who are dumber than them, but I would consider that dodging a bullet. I remember someone telling me that men wouldn't fancy me if I drank pints when I was about 20 years old. "Good!" I said (he was astonished). "Because I wouldn't fancy someone anyway who didn't want me to drink pints."

She reminds me of someone I was at uni with who remains a good friend and she never had any shortage of good looking men after her, and indeed lovely women also when she came out!

He's not bad looking, I do keep thinking of Olly Murs though 😂

I loved the book all those years ago - a rite of passage. I didn't like the casting of Emma - I didn't think she had enough fun about her, the acerbic lines weren't delivered with enough wit, she wasn't attractive enough in all the meanings of the word. I like Leo Woodall and warmed to both of them in Episode 10 or so onwards as the relationship natured.

But it wasn't very believable overall.

His grief was very moving though. Good acting and emotion from him.

I fell for it, hook, line and sinker. A week later am still obsessed. The differences between them created so much chemistry for me, thought she was perfect and I’m shamefully in complete love with him

I thought the actress Ambika did a great job, true to the book and far better than Anne Hathaway in the film.
They're both attractive aesthetically, so it's not difficult to imagine that this Dexter would fancy this Emma.

Oh heck Jim Sturgess is in the other one? I hate Hathaway with a passion but love him....so torn!

I haven’t read the book but I know what you mean about the series. What I find very annoying about a lot of character profiles on most recent shows is that they all have to have an underline of “wokeism” as part of their character which often makes them a drag.

I prefer older shows as it feels that the production put more effort into building a character with their own traits and personalities. Whereas many of the shows today create very similar female characters that constantly want to disagree with everything, are never happy and are meant to represent feminism.

I am enjoying the series though.

I finished the series today and absolutely loved it! Cried and cried! Now watching the film and it is awful, the acting is shocking!....

I've not read the book

I think what ruined the chemistry for me was that Dexter would squash her nose when they kissed. It was hard to experience their romance vicariously when I was wondering about her capacity to breathe.

Pretty much exactly this for me

I thought he looked like a young Damon Albarn!

The arbiter of who can find who attractive has spoken, everyone stand down.

It's called having an opinion.

Ambika Mod was superlative, so well cast. I have no idea how she and Leo Woodhall managed to convey the slight awkwardness around each other in the early eps that is a reflection of the ambiguity they both felt about their relationship (that some of you here say is lack of chemistry) but yet be explosive in the later eps. He is really talented, and she is clearly also a talented comedian, who was given some fantastic lines.