Emily in Paris

This series is like a "Sex and the City" for Millennials. It's based on the idea of a French farce with a lot of misunderstandings, stereotypical characters galore, beautiful scenery, people, clothes and every French-American put-down one can imagine! Season 1 offered some interest for the first few episodes but it goes steadily downhill from there. Season 2 is a complete washout with the characters becoming repetitive, predictable and boring. The acting is forced and the dialog cloying and nauseating. This level and type of series shows just how desperate the streaming sites are for content....no matter how bad it may be!

I was introduced to Emily in Paris upon a recommendation and in the first 10 minutes of the first episode I immediately disliked Emily. Her character came off as arrogant and selfish. She enters a new country, thinking she can take over. Throughout the seasons, Emily continues to make horrendous mistakes but never takes accountability for them. The back-and-forth between her and Gabriel is getting old. There are other storylines that I enjoy, including her best friend. Anytime chaos hits Emily, it's because it's self-induced. Upon looking up the show during the third season, I noticed an actual podcast dedicated to how much people load the show. Also, there are various Reddit threads. It's pretty interesting to watch a show just so I can see Emily have her butt handed to her because she deserves it, and the crazy thing is I'm gonna end up watching the new season when it comes out.

This was advertised as Sex and the City (in Paris), but it is nothing of the sort. Lily Collins is a great actor, but her character is basic white girl caricature. Everyone is a caricature. French people are mean and smoke too much. You will just meet your new best friend on a park bench. Every man is hot and going to hit on you. The show was so cringy I couldn't believe what I was watching. It felt like a CW show with a larger budget, then I found out the show was originally set to premiere on MTV. With the toned down language and idealized view of the world, this show is probably great for tween girls who want to put themselves in Emily shoes. This is no Sex and the City.

Is it the most well written, eloquent, well acted series ever? No. Is it a light watch that is easy to check in and out of with fantastic colours and set design/ costumes? Yes. I enjoyed this in a time where I don't want to be reminded of the Covid Global Crisis, politics, the crap weather and other depressing things going on across the globe.

The characters are quite fun. The storyline is easy to navigate. The set and colours are beautiful. A lot of criticism around the wardrobe on Vogue Instagram but I thought they were fun and pretty.

It's mindless and distracting from reality. Perfect. What more could one want from a series right now?

I'm French and yes there is lot of clichés in the show, it may be a bit annoying when this is overplayed but to be fair, even if in numbers the cliché are mostly on French, the authors do not avoid to put some on Americans too (shouting instead of talking, not able to dress up without a lack of taste, etc.). Moreover what I found interesting in this show (and apparently my fellow country mans didn't noticed it) is the fact that when there is a cultural difference to settle, this is not a " Merica is always right so think as we do". Both are giving their point of view and explain it.

Overall, the show is quite nice even if lot of things are not credible, and I would put a 8 stars if clichés were a bit more nuanced (ex: yes we know that there is less working hours/per week than in US but come on, nobody starts a 10:30 AM and take a 2h lunch break at restaurant every day).

To conclude, this is not the tv show of the year, but still nice to watch. If you're not French, keep in mind that this is not a true reflection of France, if you say "bonjour" we're not that rude ;), and if your French, chill-out a bit, i know we are a proud of being French and very chauvinist but come on, what is showed is somewhat halfway true and keep in mind that authors try to do it in both ways with superficiality on US social media etc...