Emily in Paris Netflix Original Season 1 Review
Major Spoilers are included in this season review. Please read with caution.
On October 23, 2020, I started watching Netflix Original Emily in Paris—released on October 2, 2020—and finished on October 24, 2020. The latest rom-com—a 10-episode season—centered around Emily Cooper (Lily Collins), a workaholic at a marketing firm in Chicago, being offered her dream job of working in Paris after her boss discovers she’s pregnant and cannot make the trip. Of course, Emily accepts the job and moves to Paris to bring the “American perspective”.
This rom-com series had a lot of cliches—like all rom-coms do at this point—but it was also very charming and filled with good-looking people, a breezy script, and lifestyle porn of great parties, aesthetic views, and beautiful outfits. These aspects were the most appealing for me—for anyone—during my viewing, and Emily’s character journey was also fun to analyze.
Honestly though, I still wasn’t sure if the series itself was intentionally making fun of Emily or not the whole time. For example, Emily’s White Privilege rears its ugly head a few times—like whenever she becomes shocked by the cultural differences and trying to control the Paris branch with new imposing rules—but she’s checked on it every time at least. Then things just work out for her—a cliché of rom-com, things have to work for the white heroine—eventually by the end.
Emily in Paris is supposed to be light television though, so it is serving its purpose similar to shows like Sex and the City. Darren Starr is also the creator of this show too, so Emily in Paris is serving its purpose and hitting the target audience—white women. Unlike Sex and the City though—based on what I remember anyway from the little I’ve seen—almost every moment in Emily’s life is consumed by work and helping brands succeed.
Not people. Brands.
Emily is definitely one of those people who have to be bullied into taking a break or vacation—hey, like me… oh no…—and when she does take a break, she’ll find a way to make it into a last-minute pitch meeting or a way to bolster her social media account for networking purposes. Like Emily achieved her dream job and loves “living the dream”, but it’s merely being used to make the brands look good. Basically, everything she does is somehow always tied to being a professional—even her romances to a certain extent.
The dream job is ideally supposed to give us the money to vacation in Paris—or anywhere we want—whenever we felt like it. Apparently based on what I learned from Emily in Paris, the only way to experience Paris is if you’re lucky—and of course, work really hard with that American go-getter attitude—and you go make sure the dream job is Paris itself. Thinking deep about this amusing rom-com, that’s low-key true especially with 2020 exposing uncomfortable truths lately.
I would still highly recommend watching Emily in Paris. The show is very enjoyable and an escape—sort of—from reality if you don’t think too hard about it like I did. I hope the series gets renewed for a second season. Thanks for reading this season review!