From the creator of Sex and the City and Younger comes Netflix’s latest series, Emily In Paris, and you can definitely tell it’s from Darren Star as the feel of the show and even the opening scene felt very reminiscent of Younger (unfortunately I haven’t seen Sex and the City, but I feel like that might be my next binge).
The series holds some promise, although the first episode feels a little clunky and unsure of itself. However, with it only being the first episode, here’s hoping that it finds its footing, just as Emily is trying to find her place in Paris and a new job.
Au Revoir To Chicago, And Bonjour To Paris!
The first episode begins in Chicago with Emily (Lily Collins) out for a run, followed by informing her boss, Madeline Wheeler (Kate Walsh), that she is in Adweek in regards to Gilbert Group acquiring French luxury marketing company, Savoir, with Madeline named the director of marketing for the firm. With Madeline’s promotion and move to Paris, it seems Emily will be taking over some of the company’s clients. That night, Emily meets up with her boyfriend, Doug, at a sports bar to tell him that Madeline’s pregnant, which means Emily has been offered the job for a year and would become a senior brand manager when she returns.
Emily arrives in Paris with a glorious montage of all the sights before arriving at her apartment building, which has no elevator to her level five apartment, but she’s also asked out by the charming rental agent so there’s a plus. Well, it would be a plus if she didn’t have a boyfriend already.
First Day On The Job
However, not everything is so smooth as when she arrives for her first day (although she turns up a day early), Julien (Samuel Arnold) and Sylvie (Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu) are not too impressed that she doesn’t speak French. Sylvie introduces Paul (Arnaud Viard), the founder of Savoir, to Emily and he’s not exactly sure how her experience in pharmaceuticals will help her in fashion.
Emily holds a meeting with Julien, Sylvie, Paul, and Luc (Bruno Gouery) to discuss their social media strategy, but Patricia who runs their social media doesn’t speak English…so there’s a little bit of a problem there. Later on, she has a video call with her boyfriend who’s arranged his passport in hopes to see her soon.
Returning to her apartment building, Emily’s key won’t fit into the door only to realise she’s on the floor below and greeted by the handsome Gabriel (Lucas Bravo).
Ignorance or Arrogance?
The next morning, she stops by a bakery and attempts to speak French, but can’t understand what the salesperson is saying, nor understands how much money to give. This is missed by Emily, but she does fall in love with pain au chocolat.
Her day doesn’t go so well with Patricia running away when Emily tries to use a translate app, she arrived two hours early to work, nobody will have lunch with her, and they call her ‘la plouc’, which means ‘the hick’. In the park by herself for lunch, she meets Mindy (Ashley Park), who is an American au pair in Paris, and she pops her number into Emily’s phone.
That evening, she sits down at a cafe when Luc sees her and tells Emily he doesn’t agree with her being called la plouc, as well as how Americans live to work, while the French work to live.
During the early hours of the morning, Doug video calls her and the pair begin having video sex but the video drops out. She decides to enjoy herself with her vibrator instead, but it shorts out and causes multiple buildings to go out.
Overall Thoughts?
Emily In Paris does provide some fun, but it’s very clunky in its first episode. Naturally it’s obvious that Emily and her boyfriend will break up at some point, but his character shouldn’t have to be completely flat? I didn’t even know his name until halfway through. It is only the first episode, and I usually allow a couple of episodes for me to fully decide my opinion, but I can’t help but compare it to Darren Star’s Younger as I immediately loved the show from the first episode.
