Lily Collins flounces around the City of Lights in this pretty and frivolous comedy from Darren Star.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Emily in Paris is an aggressively frivolous show. The new series from creator Darren Star is a travelogue disguised as a comedy starring Lily Collins, who flounces around the City of Lights in a series of increasingly ridiculous midriff-baring ensembles. In any other year, I would\u2019ve made it about 13 minutes into the pilot before slamming my laptop shut with a disdainful harrumph. In 2020, I devoured the entire first season (debuting Friday on Netflix) like a tray of petits fours and remain desperately hungry for more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Emily Cooper (Collins) is a plucky twenty-something living in Chicago. She has a bland boyfriend named Doug (Roe Hartrampf) and a job at a marketing firm, where she helps come up with social media promotions for pharmaceuticals and geriatric care facilities. For reasons that don\u2019t quite make sense but ultimately don\u2019t really matter, Emily\u2019s firm sends her to Paris for a year to be the \u201cAmerican eyes and ears\u201d at Savoir, a French marking firm her company recently acquired. Never mind that Emily doesn\u2019t speak French. Never mind that she has no experience promoting the types of luxury brands that are on Savoir\u2019s client list. For the purposes of this show, Emily has everything she needs: a bottomless suitcase full of stylish outfits and the wholly unearned confidence of the young and na\u00efve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On her first day at Savoir, Emily arrives wearing a blouse printed with an image of the Eiffel Tower and chirping greetings through a translation app on her phone. Naturally, everyone hates her. What\u2019s interesting about Emily in Paris is that Star seems to know that his heroine is tr\u00e8s annoying \u2014 just wait until she tries to explain the \u201cmale gaze\u201d to a libidinous French perfumer (William Abadie) \u2014 and therefore not the best surrogate for the audience. So he surrounds her with a host of entertainingly refined French co-workers (played by entertainingly refined French actors) who voice their disdain for Emily bluntly and often. \u201cYou have no mystery,\u201d sniffs her glamorous boss Sylvie (Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu). \u201cYou\u2019re very, very obvious.\u201d An older colleague named Luc (Bruno Gouery) regards the American upstart dismissively, citing \u201cthe arrogance of [her] ignorance,\u201d while a legendary French fashion designer (Jean-Christophe Bouvet) takes one look at Emily and shrieks, \u201cRingard!\u201d (Rough translation: \u201cThat\u2019s a basic bitch.\u201d)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Despite the constant derision, Emily remains determined to teach these French olds about the power of social media engagement. Just as Star set Younger in a hallucinatory reality where the publishing industry is rife with high fashion and glamour, here he crafts a world in which Emily\u2019s marketing job is more about party hopping around Paris than assembling PowerPoints. (All 10 episodes were shot on location in France.) This gives our heroine plenty of time for meet-cutes with her dashing downstairs neighbor, Gabriel (Lucas Bravo), and leisurely lunches with her new friend Mindy (Ashley Park), a Chinese expat who drolly guides Emily through her minefield of faux pas. (\u201cYou think you\u2019re gonna change the entire French culture by sending back a steak?\u201d) Park, the Tony-nominated breakout from Mean Girls: The Musical, is a breezy, funny delight; she elevates even the cheesiest dialogue (“I’d bon appetit him!”) with her ebullient charisma. When Mindy’s backstory is revealed in episode 6 \u2014 no spoilers, but it involves a show called Chinese Popstar and a zipper meme \u2014 you’ll wish you were watching Mindy in Paris. (Not too late for a spin-off, Mr. Star!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That\u2019s not to say that Collins has somehow failed in her role. Emily is written as an irritating go-getter who relentlessly pursues her colleagues\u2019 approval and believes wholeheartedly that she deserves it. If Collins delivered an Emily who was likable \u2014 well, that would be a failure. The actress also serves as a vehicle for Emily in Paris\u2019 other leading lady: Patricia Field. The celebrated Sex and the City stylist, along with costume designer Marylin Fitoussi, drape Collins in a cacophony of clashing patterns, crop tops, extremely mini miniskirts, berets and ridiculous bucket hats, monogrammed turtlenecks, and in one particularly horrifying moment, a see-through raincoat that Emily wears\u2026 indoors. I don\u2019t know if this is real fashion, but it was fascinating to watch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In one of his many moments of Emily-centric ennui, Luc offers her these words of wisdom: \u201cThinking you can escape life is your problem. You can never escape life. Never.\u201d Maybe not, but if you need a five-hour brain vacation, Paris is a worthwhile destination. Grade: B<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Emily in Paris season 1 premieres Friday on Netflix<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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