Lazy & Repetitive but Tasty Enough

Summary

The fashion remains fabulous and Lily Collins shines, but Season 4 feels repetitive and lacks sizzle.
Supporting characters like Luc and Grégoire add spark, but too many story arcs can feel excessive and numbing.
The attempt to balance its usual lightness with heavy moments misses the mark, but that slight change offers hope for a fresher approach in the future.

Oh, Emily. What are we going to do with you? Certainly not create anything all that new and intriguing. We’re talking about the new season of Emily in Paris, of course. The first half of Season 4 of the popular Darren Star (Melrose Place, Sex and the City) series just dropped — Part 2 lands September 12 — and it’s the same old, same old with our dear Emily. That’s not entirely awful, mind you. Who doesn’t love binge-able comfort, and this show offers that. Why Netflix opted to split this outing in two is curious since it isn’t cliffhanger-worthy. Maybe they realize that you can only binge so much Emily in Paris before feeling like it’s all hollow and repetitive.

Season 4 pumps up Emily’s “new” adventures, and we can once again live vicariously through her experiences. It’s just that none of the “new” experiences or characters sizzle enough to make us eager for more. That’s a red flag for a series that reportedly was streamed by 58 million households back in 2020. What we do get is nonetheless cozy and embraceable — and God knows fashionable. And yet the series drops the ball even on that front, shaking its entire tone occasionally when it wants to be more dramatic than light and breezy.

Still Causing a Stir

Emily in Paris

2.5/5

Netflix’s Emily In Paris is a comedy series starring Lily Collins as Emily Cooper, a college graduate who travels from Chicago to Paris when she lands a one-in-a-lifetime job opportunity that allows her to enjoy French culture and glamour while she overhauls a local marketing firm. From the mind of Beverly Hills 90210 and Sex and the City creator Darren Star, Emily In Paris takes a tongue-in-cheek look at the cultural differences between the United States and France.

Release Date October 2, 2020

Seasons 4

Directors Andrew Fleming

Pros

The fashion is still sublime, and Lilly Collins is still a joy.
Bruno Gouery and Jeremy O. Harris are wonderful as fun supporting characters.

Cons

Season four feels repetitive and falls into the same lazy set-ups.
Emily in Paris is right to try and change things up with surprising drama and maturity, but fails to handle those things well.

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The original premise of the show, of course, gave us a young Midwestern gal hired by a Paris marketing firm in the hopes of offering a distinctly original American perspective on things. That was enough to raise eyebrows for seasoned viewers. Were we really to believe Parisians, as chic and smart as they are, needed an American perspective on things? Well, some of us took the bait and millions of viewers either forgave or overlooked that plot thread, because, well, Paris. And Emily, sure… she’s a delight thanks to Lily Collins.

Pace through — or space out — the first few episodes because the intrigue picks up as the episodes play out. In the aftermath of a time-out with boyfriend Alfie as a result of Season 3’s wedding debacle with Gabriel (Lucas Bravo) and Camille (Camille Razat), we find Emily balancing several spinning plates. She’s flirty, of course, with Gabriel, but then there’s Camille, who’s pregnant with the man’s baby and has decided to keep it. The character isn’t given screen time, purposely so, early on.

Elsewhere, Emily is in emotional peril because she and Alfie (heartthrob Lucien Laviscount) have suddenly become the new fresh faces for Grateau’s latest marketing client. The plot thickens… ish. How fun it is to see Emily’s reaction when she finds her and Alfie’s image on Paris billboards. Meanwhile, fan favorite extraordinaire Ashley Park continues to delight as Mindy, whose Eurovision Song Contest story arc offers some kick with its seemingly simplistic challenges. It feels as if the writers tossed this arc in to flush out the season. But there’s more.

Emily in Paris ended its third season in December 2022, so there has been lots of time to forget all the key details that happened.

Supporting Characters Stand Out Amid Overused Plots

Thematically, those cookie-cutter plot concepts still abound in Emily in Paris. Emily butts in and stirs things up for her coworkers. Emily dresses so fabulously. Emily flirts. Emily resolves something. Or not. On it goes. Some threads seem overplayed. But Bruno Gouery always delights as Luc and whenever the man arrives onscreen, it’s a joy. Keep it coming. We love hearing whatever Luc has to say; there’s a bit with him watching what Emily did on TikTok that’s hilarious. Look for Grégory Elliot Duprée, played so winningly by Jeremy O. Harris, to generate some spark, too.

Otherwise, if you think the series will feverishly impress you from Episode 1, shift your perspective. Once the episodes roll out, you’re tempted to stay with it (after all, you’ve been invested this long). But it feels as if there are too many story arcs to track, or care about. One of them involves Sylvie (Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu), who is approached by a reporter about sketchy work relationships. Something feels off in the way Sylvie ultimately responds to that, perhaps leaning away from her own strengths as an independent woman.

If you enjoyed this Netflix romantic dramedy show, you will definitely love these other projects from its cast.

Emily in Paris Wobbles When Attempting Drama

That said, there’s something about how this show balances its free-spirited vibe with more serious matters, such as sexism being so rooted in French society or the challenges of grief. This is where the show stumbles. On one hand, they’re great topics to explore, but the way this show handles that misses the mark somewhat. Still, we’re tempted to lean into what’s presented because it does finally offer more than a hint of something different.

If you’re here for the fashion eye-candy, this season doesn’t fail. Our dear Emily appears a bit more refined in her appearance. Or, dare we say it, mature? Emmy-nominated costume designer Marylin Fitoussi continues to deliver her A-game. If you can overlook the occasional clumsy balancing act between light and heavy, and the season’s all-too-familiar vibe, Emily in Paris Season 4 is certainly not bad enough to dissuade existing fans of the show. But if the second half isn’t better and more surprising, we may have to bail. Emily in Paris streams on Netflix. Watch it through the link below:

Watch on Netfix

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