Emily in Paris Season 1 Review: All Sugar, No Substance

Warning: This review contains some spoilers for Season 1 of Emily in Paris.

Like so many women of a certain age, I have fond memories of watching Sex and the City, particularly the final iconic Paris episodes. The beautiful tutu dress! The city lights! The romance! The carbs!

Emily in Paris seems designed for fans like me, who can recall the height of Sex and the City and have been on the hunt for a suitable replacement, and those who were too young to delight in the exploits of Carrie, Miranda, and company.

Multiple storylines throughout Emily in Paris seem to be either directly inspired or lifted from Sex and the City or like they are scrapped drafts from its Paris episodes.

Darren Star is behind both shows, in addition to Younger, so it makes sense that the series would share some DNA but Emily in Paris doesn’t quite deserve to be the heir to Sex and the City or Younger‘s legacy.

It’s not a significant, modernized improvement of either, and in fact, at times, feels like it’s written for a totally different time. 

It’s the 2020s: is it really the time for another show centered on a white, thin, cisgender, gorgeous title character who doesn’t ever seem to befall much struggle whatsoever and sales through life in Paris with relative ease and her choice of men?  

Never mind that an American marketer who doesn’t speak French is the best person to somehow school an established marketing agency? (Shall I even touch that the reason she gets the opportunity is her boss gets pregnant, which somehow makes  taking an opportunity in Paris impossible?)

I’ll admit: it’s visually gorgeous. The fashion is stunning with every character possessing a signature, consistent style.

Almost every shot feels like it belongs on the grid of a meticulously curated Instagram page.

Paris is its own character in the story and rather than over-relying on exhaustive shots of the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe, we get more glimpses of everyday Paris: the parks, the cafes, the winding cobblestone streets. It’s hard, especially now, not to want to get caught up in it all.

However, the fact remains that there’s something hollow about Emily in Paris. The core problem probably lies largely in Emily (Lily Collins) herself.

This isn’t a fault of Lily Collins. Collins actually does an exceptionally good job with what she’s given. The problem is the writing doesn’t give her much. Besides the fact that she’s from Chicago and likes Trader Joe’s peanut butter, we don’t learn much about Emily.

We’re given the impression over and over that she’s a branding wunderkind and absolutely enchanting to every straight male of a certain age that she meets but other than that, what can be said?

She is lonely for a brief period, and watching her work through that is actually interesting, but unlike Sex and the City or Younger‘s heroines Carrie and Liza, she doesn’t have much that distinguishes her.

Carrie and Liza make missteps and miscalculations and even experience deep vulnerability amidst their career and romantic successes, but the stakes in Emily’s life are never particularly high.

She clears almost every hurdle with relative ease.

I’d argue that the biggest tension in her life is her “definitely-requited-but-we’re -not-together-love” for her stunning chef-neighbor, Gabriel (Lucas Bravo) and even then, it’s very clear that the two will eventually get together as soon as his lovely girlfriend Camille (Camille Razat) escorts herself out of the story. (I’ll give Star this: he absolutely knows how to cast dreamy love interests. Bravo for Lucas Bravo.)

There is at least one moment from the season in which Emily makes a truly cringe-worthy mistake, sleeping with Camille’s 17-year-old brother on Emily in Paris Season 1 Episode 8, “Family Affair,” but the show moves on from this development quickly.

It’s completely mortifying to watch and worth noting that these storylines are awful. Similar situations pop up on comedies and dramedies all the time, and they’re unwelcome every single time.

You hear that? Every. Single. Time.

The supporting characters fare a bit better. I’m partial to Luc (Bruno Gouery), the first of Emily’s coworkers to show genuine kindness towards her and whose emphatic speech on Emily in Paris Season 1 Episode 7, “French Ending,” that you can never escape life is surprisingly deep and on-the-nose.

In addition, Emily’s Miranda Priestly-esque boss Sylvie (Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu) and gal pal Mindy (Ashley Park of Broadway’s Mean Girls) are significantly more interesting than Emily but even they are both underwritten.

Similar to how Diane (Miriam Shor) is written on the early seasons of Younger, Sylvie’s mostly cold and flat. 

However, Leroy-Beaulieu does manage to convey some of Sylvia’s sadness and reticence about both change and relationships, taking advantage of the small opportunities the show gives her to express something other than her typical grumpiness.

(There’s also breadcrumbs that she’s got an adventurous side and can be terribly conniving, both of which I’d like to see Leroy-Beaulieu play but the show drops these plots before they’ve really taken off).

Should Emily in Paris get a second season — and truly, while I’m not sure it deserves one, it probably will — the show would be wise to dig into Emily/Sylvie’s relationship.

Generationally, culturally, and mindset wise, they’re dramatically different, and they probably have a lot to learn from one another.

Their brief elevator/hotel scenes together on Emily in Paris Season 1 Episode 7, “French Ending,” reveal more about both of their respective approaches to life than almost anything else over the course of the season. We need more of that and both women could use a mirror to help reflect on how they might grow and evolve for the better.

Ashley Park’s Mindy probably comes closest to being a fully realized character and at certain points throughout the show, I wondered how much more interesting it would be if she was the protagonist the audience followed.

A woman of color, daughter of a successful businessman trying to make it on her own as well as a struggling, insecure artist, there’s a lot more to mine when it comes to Mindy than the show seems willing to do.

She mostly functions as comedic relief, which Park does brilliantly — she’s especially cheeky on Emily in Paris Season 1 Episode 2, “Masculin Feminin,” — but she’s capable of more. It’s all so terribly underwhelming.

Overall, Emily in Paris is a frothy confection without much substance or meat to it. Because it’s gorgeous to watch, it’s an easy distraction, but its character development and writing leave a lot to be desired.

Its characters need desperately more depth and nuance. The cast is talented and capable of doing more than what’s been written for them.

Plus, if the show continues, it’s vital that every marketing problem-of-the-week not be easily solved and triumphed over so quickly. Without strong character development or true dramatic stakes, all the tension gets sapped from the show and reduces it to a simple travel and fashion advertisement. It could be so much more.

Stray observations:

• My favorite part of the season is probably when Pierre cracks creme brulees to ease his stress. It’s one of the most naturally funny and absurd bits of the season.
• Influencer-Genius Emily captions a photo #cheeseburgerinparadise. You have a Master’s in Marketing and that’s the best you can do, Em?
• Antoine’s plots don’t feel fully realized. He never directly propositions Emily, though the show dances around it.
• It feels off that it’s Matthieu that Emily initially begins a dalliance with instead of Antoine, especially because Collins and Martins have zero chemistry.
• Does Emily still really not know French well enough by the end of the season to speak it more conversationally?

What did you think of this season of Emily in Paris? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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Emily in Paris is currently available to stream on Netflix.

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