If you’ve had déjà vu recently, you’re not alone. A constant stream of reboots is taking over our screens for a modern reckoning – David Nicholls’ twice-adapted best-selling novel One Day, 2004-cum-2024 cult classic Mean Girls, the 2005 film turned 2024 series Mr & Mrs Smith, and 1999 film The Talented Mr Ripley now 2024 series Ripley are just a few examples. And sometimes a reboot begs the question, why?
However, there are a few instances when reboots really make sense and Netflix’s new series One Day is the perfect example. David Nicholls’ 2009 novel – which follows the lives of two university friends on the same day each year over a 20-year period – is an international best-seller and has been translated into more than 40 languages. In 2011, it was turned into a film starring Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess that was met with wide-spread disappointment from fans of the book. Not to mention New Yorker Anne Hathaway’s risible attempt at a Yorkshire accent, the film failed to capture the true spirit of the story.
The One Day we've been waiting for
13 years later – and with 14 episodes and the funding of a streaming giant behind it – this second attempt feels like the One Day we’ve been waiting for. For starters, it’s got an exceptional cast to its advantage, with This is Going to Hurt’s Ambika Mod and The White Lotus’ Leo Woodall taking the lead. Ambika plays the sarcastic, principled Northerner Emma Morley, and Leo plays the charming reprobate Dexter Mayhew. We watch the pair navigate friendship, failure and the magic of falling in love after meeting at a University of Edinburgh graduation party in 1988.
What’s exciting about this reboot is that it treats rom-coms with the respect they deserve. One Day is a best-seller for a reason – it’s funny, relatable and captures the joy and agony of fate. It invites us to fall in love with the characters, revel in their experiences and hold out hope when we see them making mistakes. This Netflix series, which is executive produced by the author David Nicholls, revives a genre loved by so many, and one that has fallen by the wayside in recent times. Normal People did something to fill the void back in 2020 and One Day gives us hope there's more to come.
Why so many reboots?
However, the same can’t be said for all reboots. For many people, the sheer glut of reimagined films and shows speaks to a wider cultural problem. Why are we favouring the old over the new? Are people doing enough to help new and aspiring creators break into the industry? Or is there just a genuine appetite for nostalgia? It’s not an easy conundrum to solve, especially when the results have been so varied.
Speaking about the quantity of nostalgic reboots that are probably aimed at a younger audience, one X user wrote, 'They’ll have nothing to be nostalgic for because nothing feels like they own it. There’s nothing that’s wholly for them.' Another echoed this sentiment writing, 'Why are soo many films being remade? Hunger Games, Mean Girls, Mr and Mrs Smith. Has Hollywood really run out of ideas?'
Reviews of the 2024 musical adaptation of the 2004 film Mean Girls are case in point. It offers a near carbon copy of the original film but features a new cast, musical numbers and a slightly modernised script. Some fans loved it, others weren’t so sure. When the new Mr & Mrs Smith first appeared, lots of people found themselves rolling their eyes at the thought of Brangelina’s origin story being reimagined for a second time. It wasn’t a great film to begin with, did we really need another one?
But like One Day, the bad film to series pipeline seems to have paid off. Donald Glover and Maya Erskine’s reboot is similar to the original only in name – with Donald even saying that he 'lowkey f*cking hates reboots' at his own premiere, but that the series format enables them to do something completely different with the story. The hour-long episodes build tension, the cast offer sex appeal with a less dramatic marketing strategy and the narrative is far more developed.
As for Netflix's upcoming series Ripley, a black and white series adaptation of the highly regarded 1999 film The Talented Mr Ripley starring Jude Law, Matt Damon and Phillip Seymour Hoffman, we'll have to wait and see, because the series isn't out yet.
It seems that for reboots to work, they need to breathe new life into something we’ve seen before. And for reboots to really work, they need to be improving on something that wasn't quite right the first time. One Day does both in abundance – it offers reparations for the 2011 flop and it revives the rom-com genre in the process. I don't think anyone will watch this series and question why it’s been made.
What have One Day reviews said so far?
Carol Midgley at The Times wrote, 'I loved this adaptation, which is tender, funny, heartbreaking … and gorgeously shot.' She proceeded to give it a full five stars.
The BBC writer Neil Armstrong called One Day 'a perfectly judged adaptation of David Nicholls's bestselling 2009 novel' and warned viewers to 'prepare to laugh, prepare to cry, but don't miss it.' He has also given the series five stars.
It's another five stars from The Guardian, Chitra Ramaswamy wrote, 'Ambika Mod and Leo Woodall are extraordinary in this highly bingeable love story packed with magnificent nostalgia and a sublime soundtrack.'
Variety has described the 14-part show as 'a beautiful and heartbreaking examination of 20 years of friendship'. As Aramide Tinubu puts it, the series 'presents the experience of being alive for precisely what it is, with all the magic and anxiety that come with it'.
It's four stars from The Telegraph, with Anita Singh describing the show as an 'easily digestible drama for the Netflix age' and says author and executive producer David Nicholls' has done so 'skilfully'.
The i's Emily Baker has given the show four stars, writing that 'One Day is simply lovely to watch. It’s just the right side of cheesy and irresistibly charming. I found myself leaning into the romance of it all and rooting for Em and Dex (so intimate is the series that it makes you feel close enough to the couple to share in their nicknames). By the end, I was a wreck.'
The Evening Standard agrees. It's four stars from Alexandra Jones, who wrote that 'despite its flaws, it would be po-faced to not give this gorgeous, cleverer than most, rom-com its due'. She adds, 'It is a perfect, sunny watch for gloomy February which builds up enough emotional weight so that, despite knowing the storyline, I still cried at all the necessary moments.'
Nikki Peach is news and entertainment writer at Grazia UK, working across pop culture, TV and current affairs.