Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Emily In Paris’ On Netflix, A Darren Star-Created Dramedy About A Twentysomething American In The City Of Lights

Darren Star has been writing for TV and movies for just about 30 years now, believe it or not, with his first credits being Beverly Hills, 90210 and Melrose Place. He has a knack for creating memorable characters and utilizes sophisticated storytelling. There’s a reason why many of his shows run for years; they’re just fun to watch. His new series for Netflix, Emily In Paris, drops a twentysomething in the French capital, where she learns that things there aren’t always romantic.

EMILY IN PARIS: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: The Chicago skyline. On a grey, cold day we see a young woman jogging in a bright-yellow, checked jacket. She looks on her phone and it says she’s increased her pace.

The Gist: Emily Cooper (Lily Collins) is a twentysomething living in the big city. She’s got a fulfilling job at a marketing agency, assisting her boss Madeline (Kate Walsh), who’s one of the firm’s executives. The firm has bought a Paris-based marketing firm known for repping luxury brands, and Madeline is supposed to move to France to oversee the transition. It’s been a dream of hers, but when she finds out she’s pregnant (and miraculously so!), she decides to stay in Chicago. So guess who gets to move to Paris for a year?

You guessed it — despite being inexperienced and not speaking a bit of French, Emily volunteered to take her boss’ place. She swears up and down to her boyfriend Doug (Roe Hartrampf) that it’ll be good for her and them, and she’s already planned blocks where he can visit.

As soon as Emily lands and settles in her new apartment with a breathtaking view, she goes to the office. There, she’s greeted with surprise — they expected her the next day — and more than a little skepticism. Her boss, Sylvie (Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu) absolutely doesn’t want her there, and she promises to the firm’s founder, Paul Brossard (Arnaud Viard) that she’ll make Emily quit pretty quickly. Everyone is annoyed that they have to speak English around her. Emily tries to talk to the social media manager about the firm’s strategy, but the woman speaks no English and just runs away when Emily approaches.

The first day of work is a bit rough, but at least it’s somewhat brightened by her accidental meeting with her downstairs neighbor Gabriel (Lucas Bravo), who doesn’t seem to get her D-Day reference when he says he’s from Normandy. She puts pictures up on her Instagram (now re-dubbed “emilyinparis” and gaining followers with every post) of her having a great time, but she almost immediately starts to feel lonely.

The second day is worse; she arrives at 8:30, not realizing the office opens at 10:30. No one wants to go to lunch with her. And when they all return from lunch, they call her La Plouc, which she immediately plugs into Google Translate and sees that it means “The Hick.” During her lonely lunch in the park, though, she meets an American-by-way-of-Shanghai nanny named Mindy (Ashley Park), who tells her in no uncertain terms that people in Paris are awful, especially to Americans.

She runs into another coworker, Luc (Bruno Gouery) scootering by her at a cafe. He stops, apologizes for the “La Plouc” name, and tries to tell her that she should be working to live, not the other way around. She doesn’t see it that way, and he basically feels bad for her.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Given the fact that Darren Star created the series, Emily In Paris feels like Sex And The City with a bit of The Devil Wears Prada mixed in.

Our Take: Star has proven over the last three decades that he can create pretty well-rounded characters and put them in funny, if at times a bit light, situations. While we were watching the first episode of Emily In Paris, we were taken with how casually paced the show was. It wasn’t necessarily slow, but it sure was easygoing. That pace, rather than slowing the show down, will actually help it. Because Emily, the go-getter American, has time to breathe and explore life in more laid-back and romantic Paris, we have the time to enjoy the journey with her.

It helps that Lily Collins is charming and adept at giving Emily a little more of a clue than your typical American interloper in the City of Lights. Yes, she’s entranced with the romanticism of it, but she also realizes she has a lot to learn in order to fit in. French, for one, because it’s presumptuous for the American to require everyone speak English around her. The fact that there’s a ground floor and a first floor for another, though her mistake led her to meet-cute with Gabriel, so how bad could it be?

While we don’t necessarily know where the show is going, we do know that her relationship with Doug is doomed. Why even give her a boyfriend when we know that she’s going to fall for some handsome French dudes along the way? This is about Emily living and loving as an American in Paris in a pre-pandemic 2020. What fun is it if she’s still in a long-distance relationship with her handsome but dorky American boyfriend? That sort of predictability is a bit of a turn-off. We get that there needs to be a tiny bit of conflict back home, but we’d find an untethered Emily to be more refreshing.

Of course, watching Emily in her designer clothes walking around Paris, even as she gets lonely, when we’re all struggling emotionally and financially these days feels like a huge disconnect. But perhaps we can just watch and imagine what was and what will be, not what’s right now. It’s not Star’s fault that a pandemic hit after they shot the first season.

Sex and Skin: Emily and Doug attempt FaceTime sex, but Emily’s mind is so full of all her angst that Doug finishes (and gets disconnected) before she even gets a chance to start.

Parting Shot: When that happens, Emily plugs in her vibrator — she has an adaptor — and somehow not only blows out the lights in her apartment but the entire block.

Sleeper Star: Samuel Arnold plays Julien, and he’s either going to be Emily’s best friend or worst enemy. We’re hoping for the second choice.

Most Pilot-y Line: Doug talks about the Cubs winning the pennant so casually to Emily, you wonder if he’s really a fan or not.

Our Call: STREAM IT. While Emily In Paris seems to be a bit of a lightweight series, Collins is a winner in the lead role, and Star is a pretty dependable storyteller, so we’re hoping for the best.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.

Stream Emily In Paris On Netflix