Maybe the ’90s really were a more romantic time. A time when people still wrote letters to each other and expressed the things that they couldn’t say out loud. A time when a carefully worded answering machine message could decide the future of a love. And a time when you had to rely on chance in love because you couldn’t find out in two clicks what your ex-flame was doing in life.
At least things are extremely romantic in the Netflix series “Two in One Day,” which is largely set in Britain in the 90s. Emma Morley (played by Ambika Mod) and Dexter Mayhew (Leo Woodall) meet at the university graduation party in Edinburgh. She takes him home, they end up in bed – and talk all night long. They spend the following day together, delaying the start of their “real” adult life a little, as Emma says, but also saying goodbye to each other. There’s a spark between them, but something comes up before every kiss. Emma’s roommate suddenly appears, then Dexter’s parents, and it quickly becomes clear that it’s not supposed to be that one day, Emma and Dexter’s lives don’t really seem to fit together.
But: They promise to stay in touch. Dexter scribbles his parents’ phone number on a piece of paper for Emma, like they did in the ’90s. And they don’t lose sight of each other, even if their lives go in very different directions. At least until Emma and Dexter can no longer convince themselves that they are “just friends”.
The story of a couple who don’t want to be one for far too long, who keep missing the right times to simply be happy together, leaves the audience sobbing in front of the television in the second film adaptation of David Nicholls’ novel (at least if you watch it). Social media claims that people are blown away by the series may be believed). Sure, the images of the Netflix romance are dreamily yellowed, and the Cranberries or Radiohead are constantly playing in the background – that alone makes it difficult not to want to believe, at least briefly, that there must be more between two people than dating trends from TikTok or half-heartedly implemented couples counselor tips.
But it’s more than that. In “Two in One Day” a love story is told through highlights. Over a good 15 years, always on July 15th, you briefly delve into the lives of Emma and Dexter, from 1988 to the early noughties. Nicholls has already been made into a film by Hollywood once (at that time with Anne Hathaway in the lead role). The fact that millions of viewers are once again worried about Emma and Dexter’s love is not just due to the good production. The series plays with thoughts that are probably familiar to everyone who has ever lost sight of a great love; who have decided against a relationship for reasons of reason; who didn’t feel ready to get involved in anything serious until it was too late. It’s about the nagging doubt: What would have happened if? If the timing had been right, if the circumstances had been different, if people hadn’t slipped past each other in life? And it’s about the hope that there is a second chance, that you can find yourself again, that it’s not too late.
In the series, this thought game is expanded into a total of 14 episodes. Social media slang often refers to the “Kryptonite person” when it comes to that one person who you just don’t really want to work out with, but who would make you weak over and over again if the opportunity arose . An allusion to the fictional mineral that can rob the otherwise invulnerable Superman of his powers in the Marvel comic universe. In the series, Emma and Dexter are each other’s kryptonite, and how they can’t be with each other, but also can’t be without each other, this bittersweet little game is what makes it so appealing to binge the series in one go.
Again and again, Emma and Dexter are on the verge of getting involved with each other – and then they don’t. “I really like you,” says Dexter during a vacation together while going skinny-dipping in the Mediterranean at night, “I’m just not ready for a relationship. We want different things.” Emma swims to shore in a huff, believing Dexter is just trying to keep her warm as an option. And the two of them are back in the “friend zone”.
Scenes like this make you want to climb through the screen and shake those involved: Now dare, he’s a boy, she’s a girl, how hard can it be! The reasons that keep the two apart are presented in a more differentiated way than “sometimes she doesn’t want to, sometimes he doesn’t.” It’s about different lifestyles, including social inequalities that make life decisions easier or more difficult. Dexter comes from a wealthy family, he can let himself go in his 20s and finally ends up doing television. Emma, on the other hand, becomes a teacher when she realizes that she cannot make a living from writing poetry and waiting tables. Not a problem on paper, but in everyday life it is – because at some point, despite all the attraction, there is not enough understanding left for the other person’s life. Can you still be the “right one” for someone if you move in completely different worlds?
“Two in One Day” shows how relationships can fail because of very mundane life circumstances before they even really begin. And yet the series is a very heartfelt plea for the courage to love: What would be the worst that could happen if you tried it together? After a few series hours with Em and Dex, not many valid answers to this question come to mind.
