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As rom-coms complete their migration to the small screen, so the course of true love has become an increasingly arduous, multiple-episodic journey. Both One Day and Alice & Jack chart love stories that take at least a decade to really get going after a not hugely promising one-night stand. In One Day, posh boy Dexter (Leo Woodall) tumbles into the sack with mouthy northerner Emma (Ambika Mod) after their graduation ball for a chaste night and a delightful St Swithin’s Day the following morning. Their lives unfold, revisiting them every 15 July as their stars, careers and passions rise and fall. Alice & Jack, conversely, tracks the brittle result of a hook-up app encounter between alpha financier Alice (Andrea Riseborough) and awkward scientist Jack (Domhnall Gleeson). Her enigmatic rejection inflames his pursuit and appears to destroy his life on a regular basis. In both cases, some form of resolution is achieved – and, in both cases, happy is not quite ever after. Much like Rose Matafeo’s pioneering TV rom-com Starstruck, these shows play with the conventions of the form before disposing of them elegantly. One Day will tear you to pieces and leave you in a quivering heap, while Alice and Jack eventually earn your respect. But then, in so many ways, is that not how love is? Happy Valentine’s Day, crazy dreamers.
One Day, Netflix, available now; Alice & Jack, Channel 4, 14 February, 9pm.
Photo: Netflix