Emily in Paris: Full season
October 13, 2020 4:04 PM - Season 1 (Full Season) - Subscribe
A young American woman from the Midwest is hired by a marketing firm in Paris to provide them with an American perspective on things.
Critics have been divided about Sex and the City creator Darren Star's Netflix show:
The Atlantic: Emily in Paris is an irresistible fantasy
Vanity Fair: Emily in Paris is a fluffy, charming cliché soufflé
The Guardian: An excruciating exorcism of French cliches
Rogerebert.com: Emily in Paris is a bland Sex and the City imitation with no identity of its own
Buzzfeed: Everything that's wrong with Emily In Paris according to an actual French person [SPOILERS]
In France, the series has been met with derision ("where are the Yellow Vests")... and a some love too, because Parisians who've been stuck during the day in an overcrowded, virus-infested Metro can appreciate a little bit of saccharine fantasy. Emily in Paris: fluff in the time of COVID.
Critics have been divided about Sex and the City creator Darren Star's Netflix show:
The Atlantic: Emily in Paris is an irresistible fantasy
Vanity Fair: Emily in Paris is a fluffy, charming cliché soufflé
The Guardian: An excruciating exorcism of French cliches
Rogerebert.com: Emily in Paris is a bland Sex and the City imitation with no identity of its own
Buzzfeed: Everything that's wrong with Emily In Paris according to an actual French person [SPOILERS]
In France, the series has been met with derision ("where are the Yellow Vests")... and a some love too, because Parisians who've been stuck during the day in an overcrowded, virus-infested Metro can appreciate a little bit of saccharine fantasy. Emily in Paris: fluff in the time of COVID.
My wife has discovered this and is enjoying it immensely. I'm kind of with the Guardian. I can't figure out if we're meant to laugh at Emily in all her unearned ridiculous splendor or just wish life were really more like this while we slowly rot in a hellscape of capitalism, covid, and Donald Trump.
It makes me think of morphine somehow, and I'm not sure a TV show has ever gotten quite that reaction from me.
posted by Naberius at 2:22 PM on October 14, 2020 [4 favorites]
It makes me think of morphine somehow, and I'm not sure a TV show has ever gotten quite that reaction from me.
posted by Naberius at 2:22 PM on October 14, 2020 [4 favorites]
I was pleasantly entertained by this extremely bingeable show. It accomplishes that difficult task of being light and fluffy without making me feel like it’s draining my IQ points as I watch it. I can laugh at Emily and roll my eyes while still being content to finish all the episodes and see the fairytale shots of pretty, pretty Paris.
I am neither American nor French, so that probably helped me be more charitable in my reading of it as poking fun at Emily’s exaggerated “ugly American” tendencies and her colleagues’ “snobby French person” tendencies. Also, news flash: the Parisian philosophy prof is supposed to be a snobby asshole, not a representative of all French people. The other French characters don’t even like him! He’s like the tedious New Yorker character in an American movie who thinks he knows all the “cool” places to go, constantly puts down people who aren’t “real New Yorkers,” and thinks everyone outside of NYC is a dumb hick. You’re not meant to like him or take what he says seriously. His assertions about how cool a cafe is are suspect, as is his dismissal of Swan Lake at the Opera Garnier as something “for tourists,” and his decision not to avail himself of Emily’s (admittedly sketchy) shower is not a proclamation about the hygiene of all French people—after all, her French boss is appropriately amused/horrified at her washing her hair in the bidet.
I did think the ending was kind of ridiculous and rushed in terms of the Gabriel storyline, but my biggest takeaway was that I love Ashley Park, the actress who plays Mindy, and I would watch a whole show about HER. I want the next season to be “Mindy in Paris.” Enough about annoying white American women in Paris. I want to see a show about a disgraced Chinese-Korean TV talent show singer from Shanghai making it big in the Paris cabaret scene!!
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 1:22 PM on October 17, 2020 [6 favorites]
I am neither American nor French, so that probably helped me be more charitable in my reading of it as poking fun at Emily’s exaggerated “ugly American” tendencies and her colleagues’ “snobby French person” tendencies. Also, news flash: the Parisian philosophy prof is supposed to be a snobby asshole, not a representative of all French people. The other French characters don’t even like him! He’s like the tedious New Yorker character in an American movie who thinks he knows all the “cool” places to go, constantly puts down people who aren’t “real New Yorkers,” and thinks everyone outside of NYC is a dumb hick. You’re not meant to like him or take what he says seriously. His assertions about how cool a cafe is are suspect, as is his dismissal of Swan Lake at the Opera Garnier as something “for tourists,” and his decision not to avail himself of Emily’s (admittedly sketchy) shower is not a proclamation about the hygiene of all French people—after all, her French boss is appropriately amused/horrified at her washing her hair in the bidet.
I did think the ending was kind of ridiculous and rushed in terms of the Gabriel storyline, but my biggest takeaway was that I love Ashley Park, the actress who plays Mindy, and I would watch a whole show about HER. I want the next season to be “Mindy in Paris.” Enough about annoying white American women in Paris. I want to see a show about a disgraced Chinese-Korean TV talent show singer from Shanghai making it big in the Paris cabaret scene!!
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 1:22 PM on October 17, 2020 [6 favorites]
This is not much more than easy-to-digest fluff. But sometimes, that's not so bad! I enjoyed all the street scenes and the fashion. It was bingeable and predictable. Emily's cluelessness was cringe-inducing but she was actually pretty smart and savvy sometimes.
it's coming back for a 2nd season - not sure when. But I'll probably watch it. Only if I can binge it. This doesn't need to last more than 2 binging sessions.
posted by hydra77 at 2:35 PM on November 23, 2020
it's coming back for a 2nd season - not sure when. But I'll probably watch it. Only if I can binge it. This doesn't need to last more than 2 binging sessions.
posted by hydra77 at 2:35 PM on November 23, 2020
I find this Emily is a type I know very well - lacking in self awareness, smart in a school way but with no perspective due to privileged upbringing, assertive and unafraid to ask for what (typically) she wants and expects to get it (and usually does because of aforementioned privilege), not a BAD person and generally tries to be considerate and nice but you kind of hate-like her? I knew someone exactly like this and we ended up moving to the same city at around the same time and she asked to stay with me for a week (fine) but then just continued staying with me for several weeks (less fine) without saying anything and has this exactttttttt personality. I ALSO did Canadian government French training with her where I was in a room with her 40 hours a week and her French approach (and ability/accent) was similar to Emily's.
I want to throw Emily out une fenêtre.
(Probably I can't stand this personality type because it is the polar opposite of my own and I wish I could be more like that and not a self-conscious, conflict averse guesser)
but my biggest takeaway was that I love Ashley Park, the actress who plays Mindy, and I would watch a whole show about HER. I want the next season to be “Mindy in Paris.” Enough about annoying white American women in Paris. I want to see a show about a disgraced Chinese-Korean TV talent show singer from Shanghai making it big in the Paris cabaret scene!!
I would watch the HECK out of this. It could be called Le projet Mindy.
posted by urbanlenny at 7:26 PM on December 2, 2020 [3 favorites]
I want to throw Emily out une fenêtre.
(Probably I can't stand this personality type because it is the polar opposite of my own and I wish I could be more like that and not a self-conscious, conflict averse guesser)
but my biggest takeaway was that I love Ashley Park, the actress who plays Mindy, and I would watch a whole show about HER. I want the next season to be “Mindy in Paris.” Enough about annoying white American women in Paris. I want to see a show about a disgraced Chinese-Korean TV talent show singer from Shanghai making it big in the Paris cabaret scene!!
I would watch the HECK out of this. It could be called Le projet Mindy.
posted by urbanlenny at 7:26 PM on December 2, 2020 [3 favorites]
Well, it doesn’t look like Netflix took our suggestion about Mindy In Paris/Le Projet Mindy, but the trailer for the second season of Emily in Paris is here. I think it looks like fun. Besides, I need some candy coloured escapist fantasy right now while my province is falling apart.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 9:44 AM on November 19, 2021
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 9:44 AM on November 19, 2021
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Something this average would not normally be so interesting to me, but I think I figured it out: it really excels in some ways: the acting is great, and the Parisian street scenes are wonderful escapism during trying times. But the writing is just so bad. The juxtaposition makes it frustrating yet fascinating.
For instance, Emily is definitely an anti-hero, but was that the writers' intent?
posted by lunasol at 2:15 PM on October 14, 2020 [3 favorites]