Recently, everyone has been talking about the new Netflix show “Emily in Paris”. As soon as I heard about this, I was very intrigued because it definitely sounded like my kind of show! I have such a love for Paris, and just by reading the description of the show, I felt that I was the targeted demographic. I was excited to finally watch a new show, because many of the shows I watch stopped filming due to COVID-19.
“Emily in Paris” came to Netflix on October 2, and it was created by Darren Star, who also created “Sex and the City”. While I never watched “Sex and the City”, I can definitely see that these two shows had similar elements. Today, I wanted to share a brief review of the show for you all. Warning: there will be spoilers included in this post, so I would recommend watching the show first, and coming back to read afterward!
This show is about a girl named Emily Cooper (played by Lily Collins) who is a marketing executive living in Chicago. Her job ends up taking her to Paris and she is determined to bring her American perspective and ideas to a French marketing firm. While this sounds like a dream come true, Emily finds herself struggling to keep up with the language as well as French culture. At work, she is surrounded by disapproving coworkers and in her personal life, a few potential love interests. Despite the challenges, she remains confident and I found this as well as her perseverance to be very admirable. I think that I would have struggled a bit more if I were in her shoes.
Before I get into why I did not like this show, I will first explain what I did like. This show is based in Paris, which was honestly one of the only reasons I liked it. I feel that the setting is a character in itself, and to film and center a show around this beautiful city definitely helped me enjoy it a bit more. I have actually been to Paris before, and it was really fun and cool to recognize some of the places in certain scenes! Paris truly is a romantic and gorgeous city! I also adored the fashion in this show! For the most part, I truly loved what the female characters wore, and as someone who loves fashion, this made the show a tiny bit better. I also liked the roller coaster of a relationship between Emily and Gabriel. While I didn’t like that he was cheating on his girlfriend (who was also friends with Emily) Camille, I did like the two of them together. Lastly, I liked the storyline. Although it was a bit cliché, it reminded me of my favorite early 2000’s “chick flicks” and Emily’s life is basically my dream life.
Of course, the reasons that I liked the show were minor in comparison to the reasons why I didn’t. Let’s start with the characters. I struggled to connect to the characters in this show, and I felt that they simply weren’t very relatable and they lacked depth. Part of what makes a show/movie great, is realistic and relatable characters. We really didn’t know very much about Emily or her past, and she wasn’t the most likable person. As I mentioned, her confidence and perseverance was admirable, but she seemed to be a little ignorant to the culture that she was immersed in. Of course, no one is going to know everything, but when you travel somewhere new, I think it is important to do some research and learn about the culture and its people. She was a bit too cocky, and she always wanted things to go her own way. I also don’t feel that she was a very good friend. She went behind Camille’s back multiple times to be with Gabriel who was Camille’s boyfriend, and she never told her the truth. For this reason, I was not the biggest fan of Gabriel either. It’s somewhat contradictory though, because I did want them to be together, I just didn’t like that cheating and sneaking around was involved. By the end of the season, it was obvious that there was no real character development for Emily (or any of the other characters for that matter).
The next thing that I disliked was the way that the French were portrayed. I understand that stereotypes exist and they are often seen in movies and TV shows, however, I don’t really like it because it gives people a false view of a culture and/or place. I always heard the stereotypes that French people can be rude and stuck -up. I was lucky enough to travel to Paris and Lyon earlier this year, and based on my own personal experience, I can say that every local that I came in contact with was incredibly kind and helpful. Of course, I was a tourist and simply exploring the city, whereas Emily was living and working there, so our experiences were a bit different, however I felt that the creators exaggerated and played up the stereotypes too much.
I found the amount of potential love interests to be confusing at times. There were a few different men who seemed to be interested in Emily. We met Antoine, Gabriel, Mathieu, and Timothee. I knew going into it that there was going to be romance, but I was hoping to see her with one guy steadily throughout the show. In the end, I believe Emily was technically in a relationship with Mattieu, however it was very clear that she still liked Gabriel. The ending made me believe that there will be a season 2 at some point.
Overall, I felt disappointed with this show. I really wanted to like it, but sadly it was not for me. I would say it is more of a fun feel-good show rather than anything serious and long-lasting. Although I didn’t enjoy this show very much and this review is mostly negative, I am interested to know your thoughts! Leave me a comment below and tell me what you thought of “Emily in Paris”!
Thank you for reading!
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