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In Emily in Paris, a Beautiful Disaster Unfolds
It’s worth watching, but not for the reasons you might think
The first season of Emily in Paris came out on Netflix in Sept 2020. The premise: a young woman, Emily Cooper, is offered a job in Paris when her employer buys out a French marketing company, Savoir. Though she doesn’t speak a word of French, and her boyfriend protests, Emily accepts.
The show is entertaining, but Emily (Lily Collins) starts committing faux pas soon after she lands. For example, she tries to open the wrong apartment door because she doesn’t understand how French buildings are set up. She quickly meets her boss and co-workers, who are taken aback that she only speaks English. And she quickly falls for a guy who isn’t available.
The show is reminiscent of The Devil Wears Prada: a young woman who knows nothing of fashion has to please a difficult boss. But in Prada, Anne Hathaway’s Andy actually listens when someone tells her how to fit in and excel at her job. While many characters tell Emily to learn French and step out of her American mindset, she refuses.
Though Emily chronicles all of her activities in an Instagram account that gains in popularity, she never actually speaks to the woman in charge of social media at Savoir, due to the language barrier. Emily briefly…
