We’re back, baby. Emily in Paris, the Netflix show that has continued to be bad for the Francophile brand for the past four years, has returned for a fourth season. Split into two parts, the first five half-hour episodes dropped on August 15th.
So what did I think about the latest dose of Emily? Well, I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: it’s a terrible show, and I hope they never stop making it.
What happened in Emily in Paris Season 3?
In Season 3, Savoir folded when the entirely French staff of the marketing agency defected from their new Chicago corporate overlords. Emily chose to stay in Paris to work for Sylvie’s new company, Agence Grateau. Sylvie got back together with her semi-estranged husband, but learned that he is about to go into business with one of her biggest enemies, the fashion industry mogul Louis de Léon.
Mindy started dating Nicolas de Léon, a rich douche from her boarding school days (also the son of Louis), and found out that she and her ex-boyfriend, Benoît, were selected to represent France in Eurovision. Gabriel rebranded his restaurant, and is gunning for a Michelin star. Camille cheated on Gabriel with a Greek artist named Sofia (which only Emily and Mindy know), and then left him at the altar after publicly telling all their family and friends that Gabriel and Emily are in love with each other. So Alfie, hearing this, walked out on Emily. Oh, and Camille is pregnant.
Is Emily in Paris Season 4 any good?
There are a few things about Season 4 that I do appreciate. One is that the show has largely stopped mansplaining French culture, something it was hellbent on doing for the first three seasons. Listening to someone sit Emily down and slowly spell out how the French don’t work on weekends, or how they all secretly love McDonald’s, made me feel like my brain was melting. Just show us! Not everything has to be a Sesame Street teaching moment!
While there are still a few jokes designed as heavy-handed jabs at America—about the French government supporting the arts, or abortion being legal in France—for the most part this season is more interested in characters than culture. The French actors are given more screen time amongst themselves, devoted to their own Emily-free plotlines, which is what I’ve been asking for from the show since Season 1.
Sylvie (played by the ever-fabulous Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu) is given perhaps the only plotline of the season with a little meat on it, when she is given the chance to expose a former employer and current antagonist for sexual harassment, though she knows that doing so will create problems for her husband’s business. (This is actually a place where some French culture context might have been useful, as the #Balancetonporc movement, the French version of #MeToo, faced a lot of backlash in France after its 2017 debut.) But what feels like a dilemma with some stakes gets quickly resolved through a deus ex machina, courtesy of Sylvie’s mother (cheekily played by Liliane Rovère of Call My Agent!).
Most plotlines in Emily in Paris are easily solved, thanks to the fact that everyone on the show seems to have an endless supply of wealth and important connections, as well as several unoccupied luxury properties that can be used when other venues fall through. Now, I love watching shows about glamorous rich people and their stupid problems. Sex and the City, Gossip Girl, Bridgerton… all of these shows have found a way to provide toothsome (if unrelatable) conflicts that cannot be solved by simply throwing money at the problem. Sylvie’s #MeToo plotline could have been so much juicier if it came with any kind of consequence. Same for all of Mindy’s faux-broke-artist plotlines. (It really is infuriating that they try to pass her off as a struggling riches-to-rags story when she only briefly leaves the comfort of her father’s ungodly wealth to start dating the son of one of the richest men in France.)
I will give a hand to the French actress Camille Razat, however, for doing the most acting with the least to work with. Her character, Camille, is also an entitled heiress, who cheats on her boyfriend and manipulates the people around her. But her acting is so good it makes you feel like you’re watching an entirely different show.
(I am asking, once again, for Sylvie and Camille to get their own all-French spinoff!)
Emily in Paris’s Tech Problem
The use of technology in Emily in Paris still leads me to believe that there is no one in the writer’s room who has ever actually touched a smartphone. The season opens with a TikTok—just one—and then the app is never mentioned again. (I guess they felt they had to mention it?) Then later, Emily designs a video in “VR” to try and save a campaign, but the absolutely cursed image she produces seems, instead, like it was AI-generated. Does Darren Star not know the difference between VR and AI? At this point, I wouldn’t be surprised.
Not Exactly On-Trend
Trend references are just as confusing and outdated. There is a whole plotline dedicated to “glass skin,” which was a beauty trend in—checks notes—2017. And the restaurant customers who are wowed by the trompe l’œil desserts of Gabriel’s new pastry chef would probably be a little disappointed to learn that the visual reference to celebrated pâtissier Cédric Grolet is more than a decade old. (Although it’s also giving an “Is it cake?” energy that might be even more cringe.)
Fashion in Emily in Paris Season 4
What Emily in Paris Season 4 lacks in trend-consciousness, it makes up for in style. With so many sophisticated parisiennes around to inspire her, Emily’s fashion has finally started to tone itself down. Some of her looks I would even call downright chic, like her harlequin-esque striped masquerade outfit, or the full cobalt blue suit look she wears to Giverny. Though the season’s costume design is still over-the-top, and overrun with luxury items (including, reportedly, 150 pairs of Louboutins), it feels a little less circus-y this time around.
When is the Emily in Paris Season 4, Part 2 release date?
Part 2 is scheduled to hit Netflix on September 12th, and I’ll be interested to see what direction the show goes in. Personally, I am very pumped for the Eurovision storyline, since I think the competition’s inherent camp is a great match for this show. I hope someone, somewhere, faces an actual consequence for their actions. And I’m looking forward to more breezy, mindless bingeing of the most-hated heroine in television.
Catherine Rickman is a writer, professional Francophile, and host of the Expat Horror Stories podcast. She is currently somewhere in Brooklyn with a fork in one hand and a pen in the other, and you can follow her adventures on Instagram @catrickman, or on TikTok @catinthekitchen.
