Warning, spoilers. It is recommended to watch the One Day series before continuing reading this article.
It’s the romantic series of the moment on Netflix! Among the top views since it was released online, the One Day series is an adaptation of the world bestseller by David Nicholls. This British novel by Nicole Taylor tells the story of Emma Morley (Ambika Mode) and Dexter Mayhew (Leo Woodall) over the twenty years from 1988 to 2007.
For fourteen episodes, subscribers cried over the story of love and friendship between Emma and Dex, for better and worse, against the backdrop of profound British social changes and the illusion of a lost generation. .
While the series has been a huge success, it is not the first time that a David Nicholls novel has been adapted. 13 years ago, director Lon Scherfig brought this moving story to the big screen with actors Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess.
The main story is essentially the same between the film and the series, but some differences should still be noted. Here they are.
A longer, more intense story vs. Short version
A strong point of the Netflix version is that the series format allows more development of the main and secondary characters, especially Tilly (especially her marriage), their relationships with Ian, Sylvie or other conquests, to be able to adapt as well. More passages from the book, where the film had to ignore certain sequences or reduce others, such as the story between Emma and her school principal or the first day Emma and Dex spend together.
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Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess in One Day.
This also allows us to better characterize its two main characters and build on their development in greater depth. In the series, Emma has low self-confidence and learns to cope with Dexter and the world around her and gradually becomes a skilled and confident young woman, and Dexter aspires to be funnier and better than in the film.
The Netflix series with its 14-episode format allows you to dedicate one episode for a year and explore its characters and situations, but above all to nurture the viewer’s feelings for its heroes. Which makes the tragic ending all the more devastating.
Death of Emma
Emma’s death is similar in the film and series: she is hit by a driver. But small subtleties set the two deaths apart. So, in the film, Emma pedals her bike on a sunny day and crosses a street before surprisingly crashing into a truck.
In the series, Emma is cycling in the rain and crashes into a car coming from the opposite direction. In the series version of One Day, the viewer can feel Emma’s death a little more.
Dex’s life after Emma’s death
After Emma’s death, Dexter is distraught. He finds his old demons and dives back into his mistakes by doing drugs and drinking, whether in a movie or a Netflix series. But television fiction takes advantage of its serial format to focus on its recovery in the last episode.
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Leo Woodall and Ambika Mode in the ODI series.
Indeed, the Netflix series focuses on Dexter’s grieving process, which is aided by his family, Blood and Heart, made up of his father and his daughter, but also his ex-wife, Emma’s friends, and Emma’s ex, including There is more empathy. Series than film.
The series ends on a sweet note with Dexter and his daughter walking to the same spot where Dexter and Emma spent their first day together, followed by a montage of the two lovers kissing, with the story spanning decades.
More inclusive casting
One of the big differences between Lon Scherfing’s film and Nicole Taylor’s Netflix series lies in its casting. While the cast of the feature film is exclusively white, the cast of the series is more diverse. Thus, Emma is played by Ambika Mode, a British-Indian actress and her character has Hindu origins.
Several secondary characters, such as Tilly, Jean-Pierre (Emma’s French boyfriend), and Sookie, are played by black actors in the series, who are not in the film.
category one day Available on Netflix.