Inside The Dreamy “Paris” Episode of ‘Red Oaks’

Season 2 of Red Oaks is available now on Prime Video, hooray! As one of the most optimistic and sweet shows available today, it makes for a great binge anytime. While season 2 is maybe not quite as sunny as season 1, the 80s-set half-hour comedy still remains more hopeful than most of the new shows currently hitting streaming platforms.
But Red Oaks hits the ground running with season 2, kicking off with the best and most beautiful episode of the season with “Paris.” In many ways, “Paris” sets the tone for the new season, letting viewers know that the characters exist outside of the country club, and outside of New Jersey. Last season saw Skye Getty (Alexandra Socha) heading off to Paris for a semester, keeping her apart from her new love interest, David (Craig Roberts). “Paris” finds our young lovebirds reuniting, which of course, doesn’t go exactly as planned.
What was very much planned was doing the episode in Paris, according to creators Gregory Jacobs and Joe Gangemi. “Paris was a big one. We were like, ‘Gotta start with Paris,’” Gangemi recalled. Taking the characters outside of the New Jersey suburbs was also “definitely intentional. Amazon encouraged us to expand the world and we wanted to. There were definitely other places that we wanted to explore and get into Manhattan.”
Throughout season 2, you’ll get to see the characters travel to new places both within New Jersey, and outside of it, including Paris and Manhattan, where both David and Mr. Getty (Paul Reiser) spend a lot of time this season. But Reiser wasn’t so sure about taking the show outside of the country club we’ve all come to know and love.

“I worried about that, I felt like if you loved season one and you love the country club, and season two starts in Paris, you go, ‘Where’s the show with the golf clubs and the stuff?’ They are expanding the wall but I think so many shows often shed the thing that launches them. Seinfeld was, ‘Where does a comedian get his material?’ And they started and ended with the stand-up. But we don’t need that, we just wanted to launch these people. I think similarly here, you might get bored if they stayed. And ultimately, it’s the people you watch, it’s not the location.”
His co-star Jennifer Grey agreed, saying, “It’s also very… It’s limiting. Stuck in Caddyshack.”
However, there was nothing limiting about the “Paris” episode. Well, except for when they shot it. Gangemi explained that the first episode of the season was actually the last footage they shot. “We actually did Paris last. For production reasons, we ended in Paris, which was fun to fake the dead of winter in the heart of summer. We lucked out that it wasn’t blazing hot because everyone was in fur coats and things and looking like Christmas.”
Socha particularly enjoyed getting to see the characters in something other than bathing suits and those teeny tiny tennis shorts. “Besides the fact that we got to go and experience Paris, I just think it’s a great episode. It’s nice to start the season not in the summer and a glimpse of these people in a different season and in winter coats.”
Make sure you watch closely, because she revealed there’s something special about the coat you’ll see her wearing. “I was getting to live out every dream I’ve ever had because Paris is my favorite city and they made me look like a little 1920s flapper coquette and I was wearing my grandmother’s fur coat. Everything was perfect. I just think it’s a great episode. I watched it more than once already because it just makes me happy.”

You’re not alone girl! She also explains why Skye and David shippers will particularly enjoy the episode too, noting that, “Because things do get complicated for Skye and David, as it does for most people, it’s nice that we get to have this moment where we see them fall in love and we see them at a really positive, high moment in their relationship.”
Gangemi also explained that the “Paris” episode was special because “Hal Hartley directed that and it was one of the episodes this season where he really nailed it. We’re so happy that we got him to do “Paris”.”
Someone who was maybe a little less happy at first about the Paris episode? Richard Kind, who plays David’s father, Sam. “I actually didn’t want the first episode to be as good as it was because I wasn’t in it. I wasn’t invited to Paris. It’s really a beautiful episode.”
Experience the Paris episode for yourself on Prime Video now!
[Watch Red Oaks on Prime Video]