Television series

The One

Name: The One
Genre: Drama, Science Fiction
Released: 2021
Cast: Hannah Ware, Dimitri Leonidas, Stephen Campbell Moore, Diarmaid Murtagh, Lois Chimimba

Other titles called The One: the 2001 film.

A near-future drama where a DNA test identifies your genetically perfect romantic match. The One explores what happens when that certainty arrives: marriages fracture, obsessions ignite, and people discover that knowing who you're supposed to love doesn't mean you can live with the answer. It's relationship drama with a sci-fi hook, less interested in the technology than in the wreckage it creates.

TVMaze rating

2.7

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you enjoy near-future sci-fi that treats a big idea like genetic matchmaking as a lever for character drama, where the fun is watching ordinary people's relationships buckle under a bad test result.

Skip it if you want the premise to stay sleek and intriguing, since the eight episodes lean into soapy domestic melodrama and some storylines feel stretched thin across the run.

What it asks of you: Eight episodes of roughly forty-three minutes each, so it is a brisk binge rather than a commitment, though it wants you to stay with the couples' arguments and sulks rather than the tech.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

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Fleabag2016

Explores messy modern relationships with wit and real vulnerability. Phoebe Waller-Bridge captures the gap between who we pretend to be and who we actually are—the same emotional core as The One, just funnier and less paranoid about it.

But The first season is rougher than the second. If you start and bounce off, it gets better, but not everyone wants to push through.

Westworld2016

Asks what we'd choose if we could have everything we wanted without consequence. Like The One, it's a high-concept premise used to interrogate desire, choice, and what we owe each other. Visually stunning and morally complicated.

But The plotting becomes increasingly baroque across seasons; some viewers find it more convoluted than clever. Your patience will depend on whether you're there for the mysteries or the ideas.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The One

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Her2013

Both imagine love as a solved problem, then explore what solving it actually destroys. Both end with characters realizing the match was never the point.

A man falls in love with an artificial intelligence. It asks the same essential question as The One—what if you found someone perfectly suited to you?—but inverts it: what if the match was engineered specifically to match you? Gorgeous, lonely, and more romantic than it has any right to be.

But The film's optimism about the relationship is complicated by its unavoidable sadness. Also, if AI romance sounds inherently cold to you, Spike Jonze can't fully argue you out of it.

Normal People2020

Two people across a decade—connection, separation, return. It understands that love isn't a fixed state. The acting is so naturalistic it feels like watching real life, and the sex scenes are genuinely tender rather than performative.

But Pacing is glacial by design. If you need plot momentum every five minutes, this will feel like nothing happens. Also emotionally exhausting in stretches.

Undone2019

Rotoscoped animation and surreal storytelling about a woman discovering something impossible. It has The One's central question—what do you do when your perception of reality shifts?—but approaches it through grief and mental health rather than romance.

But The animation style alienates some viewers immediately. Second season took years to arrive, and the ending is deliberately inconclusive rather than resolved.

Killing Eve2018

Obsession between two women across a cat-and-mouse game. Like The One, it's fundamentally about what happens when you become fixated on someone you shouldn't want. Dark, darkly funny, and charismatic in ways The One reaches for.

But Tonal whiplash between comedy and violence can feel uneven. The later seasons lose some of what made the early ones crackle.

The Affair2014

Each episode retells the same events from different perspectives, revealing how subjective memory and desire are. It's about people convincing themselves of stories that justify their choices. Complex, intelligent relationship drama with formal ambition.

But Fifty episodes across five seasons means significant commitment. Some viewers find the repetition tedious; others find it the whole point.

You2018

Explores obsessive love from inside the obsession. Joe Goldberg believes he's found his perfect match and will reshape reality to keep her. Like The One, it's about the danger of certainty about another person, but written as psychological horror instead of romance.

But The premise relies on excusing or sympathizing with a stalker and murderer. If that makes you uncomfortable (it should), the show doesn't entirely account for that tension.

Conversations with Friends2022

Sally Rooney adaptation about complicated entanglement between four people. Smart, literary, focused entirely on the texture of attraction and doubt. If you want relationship drama that trusts the audience to stay interested without plot, this delivers.

But Deliberately paced and emotionally cool. Nothing explosive happens; if you need momentum and clarity, this will feel like nothing. The ending is ambiguous.

Love, Death & Robots2019

Where The One asks 'what if we could know?' these shorts ask 'what if we couldn't stop wanting anyway?' Same emotional DNA, completely different medium and sensibility.

Animated anthology that treats sci-fi concepts as vehicles for human emotion rather than plot mechanics. Episodes range from sex robots to temporal loops to alien contact, but they're all about desire, connection, and the gap between what we want and what we can have.

But Anthology means no character continuity; if you need narrative through-lines, it's frustrating. Also wildly variable in quality and tone across episodes.

Marriage Story2019

The One imagines the problem is finding the wrong person. Marriage Story argues the problem might be that people change, or that love itself isn't enough. Both are about the gap between expectation and reality.

Noah Baumbach's chronicle of a marriage dissolving. It's not about infidelity or betrayal—it's about two people who love each other realizing they can't stay together. Painfully funny and brutally honest about how certainty curdles into doubt.

But Divorce is depressing and this film doesn't offer comfort. It's also dialogue-heavy and theatrically structured; if you need visual momentum, it's static. Plus, it will hurt if you're currently processing a breakup.