While dedicated fans can hardly wait for the new episodes of “Emily in Paris,” they will probably only make some people in the French capital groan. The cliché-laden series about marketing manager Emily (Lily Collins) from Chicago, who is looking for love, success and adventure in Paris, has not only made friends in France. The second half (episodes 6 to 10) of the fourth season has been available on Netflix since Thursday.
“Problems at all levels”
Parisians have been rolling their eyes at the fact that the series shows a fairytale version of Paris rather than real life since the Netflix romance began in 2020. Even though the series by “Sex and the City” producer Darren Star is by no means the first story of Paris as a postcard idyll and romanticized place of longing.
The magazine “Harper’s Bazaar France” feels that the series is more like a comic than a realistic depiction of the fashion world or even of Paris. “Problems – there are problems at every level,” writes the magazine, and judges that the strange constellation of characters full of outdated clichés annoys the French as much as the Americans.
But the fact that the French women in the fourth season are portrayed as so fond of wine that they even drink while pregnant is likely to be seen as an unnecessary and senseless affront, especially in France. And the countless product placements that led GQ magazine to describe the series as “one giant billboard” are likely to be easier to digest in the hugely commercialized USA than in culture-conscious France.
Welcome greetings look different
Before filming for the new season began, anti-Emily graffiti appeared in the middle of Paris. “Emily is not welcome,” it said, scrawled on the wall of the house where Emily lives in the series. “Southern Paris is not yours” and “Fuck off, Emily” were also reportedly written.
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The frustration is probably not so much about the countless stereotypes or the naive main character in the series, but rather about the many tourists who visit the filming locations of the show. Several providers now have tours on their program to follow in Emily’s footsteps through Paris. And although the show has been criticized by the Paris City Hall – Warning! Poorly insulated buildings are idealized here! – the city itself lists on its website where fans can find the most important addresses from the series.
Paris is a magnet for tourists and Emily fans
The cinema website Allociné says that Paris did not necessarily need the additional advertising. After all, the city on the Seine is considered one of the most visited metropolises in the world. In 2022, 24.5 million tourists came to Paris. If you leave out the French, Americans made up the largest group among them at 7.9 percent.
It should be clear that not everyone in Paris is interested in hordes of holidaymakers who drive up inner-city housing prices and clog up sidewalks. And anyone who has watched even a few episodes of “Emily in Paris” can guess that travellers from the USA, with their style, which is very different from the French savoir vivre, may not be everyone’s favourite guests.
But Paris may now be able to breathe a sigh of relief. In the second part of the fourth season, Emily is heading to Bella Italia. It is possible that Paris and Rome, which is also already groaning under the masses of tourists, will soon be able to share the attention of the series fans.
Show also a success in France
Irritation about tourists and clichés aside, the French can’t really live without Emily. After all, the current season, which was watched almost 20 million times worldwide in its first week, landed at number one in the Netflix charts not only in the USA, but also in France. Well, what a surprise!
Whether this is hatewatching, i.e. people watching a show that they actually find totally stupid, for example to get worked up about the lack of French subtitles or French words like “cauchemarque” that were probably accidentally made up during translation, or whether the light fare and escapism behind drawn curtains also catches on in France or even Paris, is another matter.
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