Scientific Soulmate: Staffer reviews Netflix Original “The One”

When it comes to watching Netflix, I tend to stick to my comfort sit-coms like “The Office” or “Parks and Recreation.” Since, to my despair, they were recently removed from the platform, I was forced to branch out and find some new options.

As one of the current top ten TV shows on Netflix, “The One” — a British sci-fi and crime-drama series — was practically forced upon me through its multiple promotions on Netflix’s homepage. The series consists of eight 40-minute episodes with a plotline that switches between the developers of a dating app and a crime scene. 

The pilot begins with an eerie scene of a mysterious and unknown character underwater, before immediately cutting to a more light-hearted, bright scene where one of the main characters, Rebecca Webb, is giving a TED-Talk-like speech about the dating app she’s developed, MatchDNA.

This online dating app uses DNA samples submitted from their clients to match them with a stranger that is genetically compatible with them. The scientists in the show have the ability to utilize a single strand of hair to prove that two people can be soulmates.

While Rebecca originally developed MatchDNA with good intentions, throughout the show it receives massive backlash and criticism from the British press, government and society. 

Rebecca, my personal favorite character, is the classic independent female character that every Netflix Original has — and needs — with a degree in genetics and total power over her million dollar company. While I was easily able to connect with her ambitious goals and energy, her haste toward success and impulsiveness ultimately sets her on a downhill path — adding a darker edge to the show.

Adding onto her path toward catastrophe is her own non-existent love life, which comes to be ironic as she originally created her company while in-love. But beyond my love for the tech-genius with no romantic prospects, Rebecca’s connections to a dead body — the body of her former flatmate and friend, Ben, that washed up in a canal after he had been missing for a year — was ultimately what made me continue to hit “Keep watching.”

To bring in the crime aspect to the show, Kate Saunders, a skeptical detective and MatchDNA user, investigates the case of the washed-up body, which has possible ties to Rebecca. The parallel between Kate constantly piecing the clues together behind Rebecca’s back, while simultaneously finding her soulmate on Rebecca’s own software, throws in another splash of conflict that is prominent throughout the series.

Another aspect that adds to the overall sense of mystery and uneasiness throughout the show is the absence of James Whiting, Rebecca’s former best friend and co-founder of MatchDNA. He abruptly vanishes right as the company began to gain success earlier on. 

James’ disappearance from Rebecca’s life adds another element of mystery to the show and gives the viewer a reason to finish the series. Especially with the constant flashbacks to Rebecca’s past life with James and ventures as they develop their company, I just want to know more about this mysterious James guy and why he disappeared.

But beyond the appeal of the potential in these converging plotlines, I felt as though something was lacking with the show in its entirety — or maybe even the opposite. There were so many different characters, parallels and storylines going on throughout the series, which got in the way of other characters’ storylines that had a lot of potential and made the storyline hard to follow.

Take Rebecca for example — as the main character with ambitions that got in the way of her personal life, she had major villain potential. Yet the constant back-and-forth between other characters’ point-of-views made it so Rebecca’s potential to become one of TV’s most interesting and complex villains was lost. 

With a lack of focus on the characters that intrigued me the most, I found that I wasn’t able to form an attachment to any of the other characters, giving me little incentive to continue watching. The only thing keeping me instantly clicking the “next episode” button to watch what I thought would be my “last episode of the night” were the show’s unforeseen twists, such as receiving new information of the characters, which left each episode on a cliffhanger, along with the murder plotline tied to Rebecca.

That being said, the plot of the show was there, but the connections were not, leading me to give “The One” a three out of five stars. While I’m planning on watching the potential season two, when picking out what to watch for the night I’m just not sure if this “Black Mirror” look-alike can beat out “Parks and Rec” and my other favorite sit-coms.