Are we watching or not? Mine the night, mine the day (Paramount+)
What is mine the night, you the day? Tiffany (Jessica Brown Findlay) has just broken up with her boyfriend and is looking for a new place to live. In order to stay in London despite her meager salary as a freelancer, she responds to a classified ad from Leon (Antony Welsh). He lives in a nice 1-room apartment and is quickly looking for a roommate. The deal? Since he works at the hospital at night, he will live in the apartment during the day and his roommate at night. With one express condition: the two must never meet. To communicate, Tiffany and Leon exchange messages on post-it notes they left in the kitchen… and grow increasingly intrigued.
The essential
Available on Paramount+, Mine the night, mine the day is a British series written by Rose Lewenstein. For her first project as showrunner, she adapts the bestseller true to the original The shared flat by Beth O’Leary (in France by Mazarine Editions), over eight episodes of about forty minutes.
Our two heroes are called Tiffany and Leon. She has to move after being dumped by her boyfriend, with whom she is still madly in love, and is struggling to establish herself as a young journalist in a web magazine. Between a cockroach-infested broom closet in central London and decent accommodation three hours away by public transport, she decides on a different solution by responding to Leon’s ad. Night Nurse, he needs money fast and offers to share his apartment with a single room on the following conditions: he lives in the apartment during the day, the roommate sleeps there and they are never allowed to meet. Communication is via sticky notes in the kitchen: your brother called, don’t touch my yogurt, what’s that new coffee maker?
We love
Mine the night, mine the day falls into the tradition of romantic comedy love life or Starstruck, simple and effective but with an original starting point. Here’s Tiffany and Leon “virtually” living together in the same apartment… without ever crossing paths. He occupies the accommodation during the day and she occupies the accommodation at night without even seeing each other due to their respective schedules and the agreement they made. So they don’t know about each other – just like we do when the story begins.
In this type of series, it is important that the audience agrees with the pairing of the two heroes. And that’s the case here: Tiffany and Leon are young and beautiful, but they’re not perfect, they have this approachable and personable side that makes you instantly bond with them. And especially to Jessica Brown Findlay (The Lady Sybil of Downton Abbey) that we fall in love with instantly (or that we want to become best friends with.)
Without fuss, with fluidity and simplicity, director Peter Cattaneo (The Full Monty) plays with familiar visual effects like split screen to show the parallels and contrasts between the two characters. Their professional and personal environment, their temperament, their little quirks are revealed to us over the course of the first few episodes as they begin to discover each other from afar. Everything carried by a perfect rhythm and a charming sense of humor made up of small repartees and unusual situations.
The series is basically divided into three parts, each with two episodes. We first discover the rules of coexistence, the two heroes and their entourage (Tiffany’s ex, Leon’s girlfriend or his brother in prison…). In a second step, Tiffany and Leon break the rules they have imposed on themselves, and their two previously perfectly parallel and hermetic existences will gradually overlap. With all the misunderstandings and problems that will arise… until the end of the last part.
Also Read: We’ve Seen For You… Ordinary people, the extraordinary romance of ordinary characters
We love less
There is no tension. To be clear, even before the credits roll, we know exactly how the final episode will end: Tiffany and Leon will inevitably end up as a couple. It remains to be seen how. What obstacles, misunderstandings and difficulties will hinder their romance, how will they overcome it, what role will Leon’s brother play, how the ex and girlfriend will almost ruin the beautiful story … twists and turns are again easily predictable; So we have to let ourselves be carried away by the story, its light or even honeyed side, without expecting incredible twists or unexpected reversals of the situation.
And as much as one clings to Tiffany and Leon, the supporting characters are, for the most part, hideous. We might be able to excuse Leon’s girlfriend, jealous as a tigress and not at all happy that the roommate is ONE roommate: On the other hand, Justin, Tiffany’s ex, is so toxic and manipulative that we want to throw ourselves into the Thames with a cement block to hers Feet… Two characters, more cartoonish than the others and even unbearable at times.
We see if… we’re addicted to pretty feel-good novels; we like series that offer exactly what they advertise; We need a light, pleasant and addictive story that we can devour in a few episodes.
We don’t look when… we like to be held in suspense by an exciting story; good feelings make us roll our eyes; We’re more sex and brimstone than honeyed romance.
Mine the night, mine the day.
6 episodes of approx. 42′.
March 17 on Paramount+.
