Emily In Paris

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About

Emily In Paris is a romantic comedy series created by Darren Star which streams on Netflix. The series follows Emily Cooper (Lily Collins), an American 20-something marketing assistant who lands a job opportunity at a French marketing firm based in Paris. She falls in love with the city but clashes with the culture, leading to a combative relationship with her boss and other Parisians, as she also tries to manage her feelings towards her downstairs neighbor. The series was widely mocked for its clichés and writing, yet many critics online also found it highly watchable.

History

Emily In Paris was created by Darren Star, whose most notable credits include Sex and the City. The first trailer was released on September 16th, 2020 (shown below), and the series debuted on Netflix on October 2nd, 2020.^[1] Through the series, Emily clashes with her boss, Sylvie (Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu), and flirts with her downstairs neighbor Gabriel (Lucas Bravo), whom she later discovers has a girlfriend (Camille Razat).

Reception

The series received a generally lukewarm response from critics, receiving a score of 63/100 on Metacritic.^[2] Most positive reviews called the show watchable if fluffy escapist entertainment. Vanity Fair^[3] wrote, "Emily in Paris goes down a treat if you can set aside the myriad things it does badly or, perhaps worse, fails to do at all… But if you can tolerate, or even crave, some empty calories right now, Star and company deliver the goods." On the negative end, critics bemoaned the clichés of the show. The Guardian^[4] wrote negatively about most aspects of the show, saying of the main character, "as a character, not only is Emily astonishingly tone-deaf, but she is selfish to the point of amoral; one particular love triangle ends in a way that I think is supposed to be romantic, but feels more like an unforgivable betrayal." People Magazine^[5] got French people's reactions to the series, discovering people found it entertaining but took umbrage with the portrayal of every French character being non-monogamous. Junkee posted multiple articles about how the show was terrible.^[9]^[10]

Online Presence

Online, the show was met with mockery and criticism, but also commentary how despite its flaws, it was addictive. Twitter user @lppny^[6] wrote, "Emily In Paris is the best Netflix show ever made, because it’s so fucking awful that I can’t stop watching it and I think that’s exactly what they wanted," gaining over 50 retweets and 1,100 likes (shown below, left). User @MajorPhilebrity^[7] tweeted, "1) Emily In Paris is one of the worst shows I’ve ever seen. 2) I finished it in one sitting. 3) I hate that I have to wait for season 2." Jokes about the show were covered by Mashable.^[8]