One Day is a 2024 romantic dramedy streaming series based on the 2009 book of the same name.

I never thought I’d be using a romantic dramedy soap show to talk about coincidence in plot. I thought for sure that’d type of talk would stay in my review of Andor (which you can read here) or my review of The Batman movie (read my review here). But here I am, writing my review of a romantic dramedy soap show, talking about… coincidence.

I think this is partially because One Day seems to have very high aspirations. There are multiple scenes where the camera holds on an actor giving an impassioned monologue that looks like it’s fishing for an Academy Award (I know this doesn’t win Academy Awards, but I think you get what I mean). There are many serious moments depicting grief, loss, drug and alcohol addiction, and relationships. It gives me strong Marriage Story vibes, and that movie was nominated for many awards and won quite a few, too. It’s got a bit of pretentiousness to it, cataloguing one day a year in the lives of two strangers who become friends and grow and learn and fail and change over almost 20 years, from 1988 to 2009. Never mind that Netflix’s description of it is Romantic Comedy, which is why we turned to it in the first place (marketing much? When it most definitely is not).

And yet, coincidence. Oh, the dreaded coincidence.

Spoilers ahead.

I was… kind of into it?

It’s got interesting characters who are very charming. The two mains – Emma Morley and Dexter Mayhew – are similar yet opposite, They have great chemistry. The first episode especially sells their blossoming friend-relation-ship. They’ve got obvious flaws that are present from the beginning, but they’re not too in-your-face. That one-day framing device gives it an air of briskness; each episode is under 30 minutes long, and the 14 episodes sail by (for the most part). You really get to see their flaws and insecurities as well as their triumphs play out over years.

The set design, environments, and music choices are spot-on. You feel like you’re living decades. The makeup and hair design on the actors is great too, although I wish they had aged them up a bit more as they reach their late 20s and 30s.

I was in to the ups and downs. It was clever how they made it feel as though history happened between each episode. They catch you up on it concisely, sometimes even powerfully when episodes end on cliffhangers only to slowly reveal what the actual event was that they alluded to last time.

In addition, I enjoy the character’s arcs of dealing with insecurities. Neither character takes all the blame – although Dexter’s spirals into drug and alcohol abuse are definitely more consequential lifestyle choices, Emma is not innocent from horrible decisions (which she… mysteriously doesn’t bear any consequences of, sometimes. While Dexter does. Interesting?)

While I wasn’t expecting a drama, I didn’t mind it. It was too much sometimes, feeling repetitive as Dexter does drugs again, Dexter gets drunk again, Emma is sarcastic again. It’s hard to see people suffer that much, and it does milk it for the melodrama. It occasionally laid it on thick with that melodrama, too, some scenes definitely feeling more soap-y when others elevate to a pretty fascinating introspective drama.

But in a lot of ways, in many situations – even as the show was over-the-top in some cases – it felt like real life. Like these were two people, growing and changing and learning, with different perspectives. They argue with each other, and others. There were several scenes, though, that just felt so real to me. It’s hard to put your finger on, but it’s true.

The perspective of the show was also fun, making the show perhaps worth a rewatch for some key scenes. There are scenes where you’re largely in one of the two main character’s Point of View, such as the mid-90s dinner scene. You walk in in Emma’s point of view, and Dexter seems like a total jerk (which he is). But then they get in a fight, and Dexter also accuses Emma of some things… and you realize, “Wow. I was rooting for Emma, but from Dexter’s point of view, she was being very snooty.” It puts the whole scene in a different context. They keep you on your toes, setting up these payoffs just below the surface enough that an audience that isn’t closely paying attention would have a, “WHAT?” moment, while those who are would appreciate the clever drama that isn’t coming out of nowhere. In a way, again… like real life, with multiple perspectives on every time two people, even lifelong friends, interact.

Occasionally, too, there’s a fun misdirection for the careful watcher. Dexter spends a day shopping and eating out with his mom, where she reminisces on Dexter’s childhood and being sheltered from real pain. You think, “Wait, where’s Dexter’s dad? Wait… is it a DIVORCE?” and right at the end, Dexter says, “Are you getting a divorce?” And then his dad shows up and his mom laughs. Wait, what? The next episode slowly reveals: cancer. The careful watcher is actually cleverly misdirected. It’s the telltale signs of a good writer, anticipating the reaction of the audience and working in a way to use the same careful setups for an unexpected purpose.

In short, it’s just a tightly written story.

But then. The show that was really good at clever writing, at hidden setups and big payoffs, at rewarding carefully paying attention, at having melodrama but not going too far into it… has… a coincidence.

Massive spoilers ahead.

THAT Scene

Dexter and Emma end up falling in love. They finally begin a relationship. Episode 13 flashes through several years as they start dating, start a business, move in together, get married, have infertility issues, plan to buy a house. You’re wondering why they’re ratcheting so fast; I waited so long for them to fall in love, and then we don’t get to see the ups and downs of the relationship? Yeah, the old Hobbit quote stands – that, “Things that are good to have and days that are good to spend are soon told about, and not much to listen to; while things that are uncomfortable, palpitating, and even gruesome, may make a good tale, and take a deal of telling anyway.” But I’d like to see those ups and downs! Starting the business, moving in for the first time, doubting Dexter’s fidelity, we’ve got a lot we could work with here!

But then.

They start leaving voicemails for each other, regretting their fight earlier today.

It’s raining, and Dexter tells Emma to be careful riding her bike.

And suddenly, my wife said, “Ah, shoot, she’s going to die.”

I said, “No way. They’re not going to be that cheap.”

Yup.

Emma Morley dies in Episode 13. A car hits her while she’s riding her bike in the rain, and she dies.

You see, coincidence is a really tricky thing in stories. My working definition of a story is this:

“A story is an interconnected series of events driven by characters.”

If the series of events isn’t interconnected, all you have is an account, a retelling. That’s what made your grandpa’s stories hard to listen to as a kid, because he saw the connections that were apparent to him, but that you didn’t see. (And he probably didn’t make the connections clear to you, either). It’s why it’s unsatisfying when things come out of the blue. Yes, Harry Potter could fly in on his Firebolt broom stick, warn everybody a meteor is about to hit the Death Star, which it randomly does, and then Harry would fly off to celebrate with Frodo and Aragorn at the end of Star Wars. But it wouldn’t be satisfying. Those have no connection to what the previous series of events, and the meteor isn’t a character; it just randomly hit the Death Star, and the Death Star exploded. What’s the point in that? It feels cheap.

Some coincidence is going to happen, especially at the start of the story. Emma and Dexter just so happen to meet at their university graduation party. Luke Skywalker just so happens to buy R2-D2 and C3PO from the Jawas – although that’s debatable, as Leia and R2-D2 were aiming for the last known location of Ben Kenobi, which was, of course, near Luke. Which makes the story that much stronger!

The point is, the more connected a story can be, especially as it goes along, the stronger it is. Yes, Dex’s mom just so happens to get cancer; but that’s within the realm of possibility, and that begins an arc of Dexter dealing with the grief of that loss. Yes, Ian and Emma coincidentally work at the same job and meet. But it’s not a coincidence that Emma goes on a date with Ian and then has a relationship with him: those were choices that those two characters made.

Coincidences often begin a story. But coincidences shouldn’t end a story.

You could say that Dexter dealing with Emma’s death is the beginning of a new arc that takes place over episode 14, but Dexter dealing with loss isn’t anything we haven’t seen before. And you could say that it’s not a coincidence that Emma is hit, she’s riding her bike on a rainy day, she should’ve walked instead.

But the point is, that car might as well be a meteor that destroys the Death Star.

It’d be one thing if a character was drunk, or extremely angry and depressed, or even – as the romantic drama I just watched, The Vow, has it – a seatbealt is unbuckled to kiss at a stoplight during a blizzard. Those are all choices characters made; and even if the car crash was a coincidence, it’s not outside the realm of possibility, and they bear the consequences of the choices they made, however well-intentioned they might be (plus, The Vow‘s car crash begins the story and is loosely inspired by a true story. Again, coincidence can begin a story – but it strengthens that coincidence by putting character’s decisions on top of the coincidence). Then, their choices got them into a situation where a coincidence could affect them.

But Emma just got hit by a car.

It felt soapy. It felt manipulative. It felt like I was watching a (mostly) clever dramedy suddenly just try to squeeze every ounce of tears it could out of you. The thing is, that’s just sad. It’s just a big bummer. It’s especially anticlimatic because you’ve been waiting for them to be together for so long and you don’t even get to see it for long, as it flashes through those One Days / years so fast you don’t get to see how they’ve changed. It’s a tragic situation, and you hurt for Dex while he gets drunk at his dad’s house and sobs,.

But it’s not a tragedy, in the dramatic sense of the word. A tragedy is always caused by a character’s actions and flaws. In Shakespeare’s Othello, Othello kills his own wife after his own jealous protectiveness is stoked into thinking she cheated on him. He only finds the truth too late. In Hamlet, Hamlet’s indecision wrecks him, and when he has finally decided to act, it’s too late and everyone dies. Tragedy comes from a character’s flaws being carried to conclusion.

But… Emma’s crash wasn’t caused by flaws, or character choices, or anything, really. It just happened. For the feels.

A Spoiler-Filled Conclusion

It’s especially anticlimatic because this show was so clever. It was so smart, rewarding your attention, not going for the easy route, twisting your guts but building up something more solid and substantial in its place. Dexter and Emma had put each other through the wringer, but those ups and downs made them solidly committed to each other.

And it could still end in sadness! You could even have a car crash, and the physically handicapped Emma can’t write anymore, or Dexter needs to care for her and the pressure is too much in his grief, and he cracks. You had options for tragedy. You had options to not take the easy way out of the romance.

Or – better yet! – actually show a romance getting through tragedy. So often, stories are about relationships that just start, or relationships that fall apart. It’s so much harder to write stories about relationships that stay but get stronger without being stagnant or uninteresting or, again, melodrama. That’s what this show was building towards, and it was almost there. It was almost towards real life.

If you really wanted these characters to not get their happily ever after, though, don’t rely on coincidence. Do what you did the rest of the story, and rely on character flaws, on strongly interconnected series of events, and on good writing. Don’t rely on cheap shots.

Because while you’ll have my tears in the moment, we’re still crying about the truly smart tragedies four hundred years later, or even a few decades later in the case of film. The melodramas just go into the bin, forgotten.