I am pretty sure we have all waited for the day our boss tells us we have a once in a lifetime opportunity of moving to Paris. Sadly, that usually only happens in movies and television shows much like the new Netflix series, “Emily in Paris”.
Throughout the series, we follow Emily, who is played by Lily Collins, as she goes from being a Chicago native to suddenly moving to Paris, France. Emily’s boss offers her the amazing opportunity after she becomes pregnant and can not be in attendance for the business trip. You would assume if someone moves to another country that speaks another language, the person would make an effort to learn the language and culture. However, Emily does not and this becomes a running joke throughout the series. Her new job presents itself with many discussions of sexism, misogyny and class superiority. Despite all of this, Emily is presented as the typical, happy-go-lucky girl with a passion to work and focus on her dreams.
I will admit it, as soon as I saw the trailer, I was expecting the stereotypical ‘American goes to another country’ type of series. And from watching it, I was correct. This show is great to binge-watch during the pandemic when absolutely bored and have nothing better to do, especially for college students. I would dare to say that it has the same energy as Netflix’s “Tall Girl”. These Netflix originals have the main characters seem ‘original’ by making the side characters into stereotyped versions of themselves. “Emily in Paris” truly is the perfect entertainment to laugh at or laugh along with friends.
There was one major thing I happened to realize as I continued the series: it lacked a lot of diversity. In both the race and sexuality department, there was almost no representation in the series. We are almost in 2021 and still do not see enough proper representation of minorities in television series. For example, there is the introduction of Emily’s best friend, Julien, played by Samuel Arnold. Julien is a black, gay man who is the stereotypical gay best friend to a straight white woman. Samuel’s character unfortunately gets no backstory and is seen only as support for Emily.
“Emily in Paris” did not do it for me. Sure, it was entertaining and a good way to ignore the ongoing pandemic for a couple of hours; however, if I did not have the free time I have now, I probably would not have spared a glance.
