Emily in Paris: croissants and cliches
***SPOILER ALERT***
Image: @roybitchenstein
Despite the fact Emily in Paris offered exquisite aesthetics and much needed escapism in a time of despair and civil unrest, it’s hard to be totally sold on the show as a concept. Spoiler alert for anyone who hasn’t seen the series yet!
Croissants, wine and baguettes, they’re staples of French culture and the only people who don’t love them are gluten intolerant. But surely, in the modern age, we can’t still be clinging to these stereotypes and cliches? Surely, we’ve evolved past that? It should be illegal to be so unoriginal! However, it seems this was almost done on purpose as one of the major subplots was all about the celebration of the ‘ringarde’.
Ringarde - a word in the show which we were led to believe means ‘basic bitch’ – is offered initially as an insult but is later blown up as huge triumphant festivity. This is something I deeply cannot subscribe to for a myriad of reasons, mostly because of the major repercussions of giving basic people a platform to spread their unenlightened disease amongst us.
In a typical Hollywood style, everything just seems to fall into Emily’s lap: job opportunities, new friends and love interests. We get it. It’s a TV show. No one wants to squeeze any kind of struggle, trials of tribulations into a 26-minute episode of a trashy bingeable Netflix series, but come on, no one, I repeat NO ONE, starts an Instagram account on 48 followers and then subsequently goes on to upload blurry images with ridiculous hashtags (THAT AREN’T EVEN TRENDING) and then magically acquire a following of 20k followers! (Sorry aspiring influencers, it just doesn’t happen). There are so many people out there doing some truly phenomenal things with Instagram from curating original content to raising awareness for important social causes. But, I’m afraid to say that in the real world Emily would not be one of them.
It’s also obvious that Darren Star hasn’t had any original ideas since Sex and The City and is still profoundly obsessed with Carrie Bradshaw, albeit he tries to shove a more modernised version of her down our throats. Like Carrie, Emily is a wide eyed, bushy tailed phenomenally clueless woman meandering through life having experiences by the bucket load simply because of who she is. It’s a tired, unrealistic concept and I for one have had enough.
Even the writing is the same, tired dialogue with snooze worthy sexual innuendos – oh, but of course, with that Parisian flare!
Furthermore, every single passing man, woman and child falls aimlessly in love with Emily at the drop of a hat… Does anyone actually live such a charmed life? ‘I bought a croissant and it changed my life’, ‘I sat on a bench and found my new BFF who I can sporadically lunch with whenever my boss gives me a (much needed) reality check!’. ‘I bought some pink roses and somehow acquired a new friend who brings me a wealth of new clients for my business - from a Major Hotel mogul to her own parents chic, expensive champagne vineyard - but that still doesn’t stop me from sleeping with her boyfriend’. COME ON!!!!!!!!!!! Continuing to create such flawed ‘perfect’ characters like Emily only causes damage to impressionable young viewers that think this way of life is achievable. Sorry kids, you actually have to work hard to prosper, nothing is handed to you on a plate. (Unless you’re Emily of course).
The final dagger in the heart is the costuming. I’ve been a huge fan of Costume Designer Patricia Field’s for many years, but the wardrobe of this programme is just as tired and cliched as the plot.
This show is recommended if you want some easy, breezy, light content that allows you to separate from your brain (whilst simultaneously turning it to mush) in the evenings. You may even be inspired to try your hand at some French cooking; I for one made a steak for my dinner which was inspired by the shows DISHY Gabriel. So overall, although I’ve lost my faith in the future of TV, I enjoyed a superb meal.
Words by Shen Djafer
