How ‘One Day’ wrecked me

It was early Saturday morning and I couldn’t sleep, so I opened Netflix and found a show that would stay in my mind long after I watched the last scene of episode 14.

“One Day” is a will-they won’t-they British drama about two college graduates who meet at a university party in Edinburgh, Scotland. We meet Dexter, the golden retriever boy, and Emma, the black cat girl who doesn’t understand his laissez-faire attitude. From the moment I encountered these two characters, I knew it would be an adventure watching them bump into each other throughout their adult lives.

Each episode takes place at the same time each year Dexter and Emma reconnect. It started July 15, 1988, and travels through September 2007. I know I’m biased, but I love that the month of September reappears throughout the show — a time when Dexter and Emma became more than the friends they promised to be — Dex and Em.

This show is perfectly binge-able, with episodes that are anywhere from 30-40 minutes and signal their ends with classic music from the year they take place.

I can’t stop thinking about this show, its characters and how everything is crafted perfectly around the human experience. Emma, an intelligent and artistic writer, explores different life paths like traveling with a theater company, becoming a teacher and finally chasing her dream: publishing her novel.

Through all these changes, she can’t keep away from Dexter, sending postcards to the various places he’s run off to. He lives in the moment, too much at times, focusing on trashy reality TV gigs and people who only want to profit off his good looks and charm. But Dexter has a burden he’s carried since graduating from university, and Em is the only one who could help him deal with it if he would just let her in.

My favorite episode is when Dexter finally decides to meet with Emma after years of relationships with different people and struggles with addiction and popularity. He looks at her the same way he did in the first episode, knowing that he shouldn’t have let go then. It was hard for me not to bite my nails during this episode, waiting to see if they could make it work.

Within days of starting this show, I was telling everyone about how this show is a masterpiece of character study and cinematography. The music matches every year of these characters’ lives. And don’t get me started on the colors — you will blink once and be transported to a whole different mood.

It makes you root for Dex and Em even more than you can imagine.

I wish I could talk more about it, but you’ll have to see for yourself. First, you need to grab a box of tissues, your favorite snack, and preferably a blanket that’s good for soaking up tears. Then buckle down for your heart to take many twists and turns through a few hours but somehow end up at the same place.

Rating: 9.5/10

@earlgreyincense