One Day has audiences grabbing for popcorn and tissues

Editor’s Note: This review contains spoilers.

We all have our favorite comfort TV shows – whether it’s a classic sitcom like The Office or a Ryan Murphy creation like Glee. After watching One Day on Netflix, it quickly rose to the top five of my personal favorites. 

One Day is not your typical romance creation, and the intriguing storyline took my tears from joyful to somber in a matter of 14 episodes. 

The main characters include the dreamy Dexter Mayhew, played by Leo Woodall – my favorite Essex boy from The White Lotus –  and the studious beauty Emma Morley, played by Ambika Mod. Emma and Dexter are two soulmates with opposite pasts. 

The show is set in England and takes the viewer on a journey, displaying one day a year for 20 years of the characters’ lives. 

Their love story begins on the evening of their university graduation. The night of drinking ultimately leads to our duo going home together. Instead of having a one-night stand, the two simply go to sleep and end up spending the next day together. Emma leaves enough of an impression on Dexter that he runs after her while she’s departing, making sure to grab her phone number before she goes. 

In the first few years of their post-grad experience the two stay in touch, but are ultimately at different points of their lives. Dexter is traveling worldwide, untouched by the reality of a 9-to-5 schedule. Conversely, Emma is working her way up from a waitress to eventually becoming a traveling play actor.

During episode four, Emma reveals her true feelings for Dexter, but his playboy-type attitude gives Emma a heartbreaking answer: He’s not ready to commit … something we all may have experience with. 

During episode five, emotions start to run high. We see Dexter’s vulnerable side come out for the first time as the audience learns his mother is sick with cancer. Dexter’s coping mechanism for this is drinking and partying, and ultimately it becomes a turning point for Dexter’s maturity level as he realizes he needs a friend like Emma now more than ever. 

As they enter their mid-20s, both Emma and Dexter go through serious relationships. Emma is with an, ahem, goofy man-child who she is slowly falling out of love with while they live together. Dexter is with a woman whose family is even more posh than his own. During their mutual friend’s wedding, the two reconnect and find their way back to each other, committing to a new friendship after not speaking for years. 

The characters’ lives continue to go up and down, and unexpected moments like marriages, children, deaths, and lost careers make the story more realistic than ever. The two ultimately end up growing up, and as predicted, find their way back to one another; Dexter as a divorcee, and Emma as a talented author. Neither of them is perfect, yet they’re perfect for each other.

The last couple of episodes satisfied my need for a full-circle moment, although the tragedies continued to occur in ways no one could have expected. Emma fell in love with Dexter too early, and Dexter too late, ultimately giving our couple less time together than anyone had hoped. I cried the entire way through episode 13, as a hospital scene became an imaginary conversation. 

Their happily ever after story didn’t end how I would have liked, but the show ended in the best way it could. One day, watch it and it will make you feel a certain way as well.