Darren Star, the creator of Sex and the City and Beverly Hills 90210, brought Emily in Paris to Netflix as a romantic comedy about a young American marketing executive who moves to Paris for work and navigates the culture clash between her Midwestern can-do optimism and the French approach to everything from business to love to lunch. Lily Collins stars as Emily Cooper, a character whose relentless positivity and Instagram-ready aesthetic have inspired both devotion and derision in equal measure.
Emily in Paris became one of Netflix’s most-watched and most-debated shows almost immediately. The discourse splits into distinct camps: viewers who enjoy the show as undemanding, visually gorgeous comfort television, and viewers who find its cultural stereotyping and thin characterization difficult to overlook. French audiences in particular have had a complicated relationship with the show’s depiction of Paris and French culture. What’s rarely disputed is that the show is wildly popular and shows no signs of slowing down.
The Allure of Darren Star’s Parisian Fantasy
The show looks incredible. Paris is photographed with a saturated, golden warmth that transforms the city into a storybook version of itself, and the production design fills every frame with details that reward visual attention. The fashion is the show’s most consistent strength: Emily’s wardrobe, curated by costume designer Patricia Field (who also dressed Sex and the City), is a rotating showcase of bold, colorful, occasionally outrageous choices that have influenced real-world fashion trends.
Lily Collins brings genuine charm to a role that requires her to be likable despite the character’s frequent obliviousness. Collins plays Emily with an earnestness that disarms criticism in the moment, even when the script asks her to do things that should reasonably annoy everyone around her. The performance is lighter than anything Collins has done elsewhere, but the commitment to the tone is total.
The supporting cast provides most of the show’s comedic texture. Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu’s Sylvie Grateau, Emily’s icy French boss, is the show’s most interesting character, bringing a sophistication and complexity that the scripts don’t always deliver but her performance implies. Ashley Park’s Mindy Chen became a breakout character through sheer force of personality and a singing voice that gives the show its most genuinely affecting moments.
As comfort television, Emily in Paris is expertly calibrated. Episodes are short, plots resolve quickly, and the emotional stakes never require genuine investment. The show functions as a Paris vacation for viewers who can’t take one, and in that capacity, it delivers consistently.
The Emptiness Beneath the Style
The writing is the show’s fundamental weakness. Plots are built on miscommunications, romantic complications, and professional situations that resolve through charm rather than competence. Emily’s success in marketing is presented as the result of her American can-do spirit, but the show rarely demonstrates actual professional skill, creating a character who rises through a competitive industry on vibes and Instagram followers.
The cultural commentary is paper-thin. The show’s depiction of French culture relies on broad stereotypes that occasionally cross the line from playful to reductive. French characters are alternately snobbish, romantic, philosophical, or dismissive of American culture in ways that feel more like a tourist’s impression than genuine observation. The show seems aware of these limitations but treats them as features rather than bugs.
Romantic plots cycle through the same patterns across seasons without meaningful development. Love triangles form, dissolve, and reform with different configurations, but the emotional dynamics remain static. The show introduces romantic interests, creates obstacles, and resolves them in ways that feel predetermined, and the lack of genuine romantic tension makes the comedy less effective.
Character growth is minimal across four seasons. Emily at the end of the series is not meaningfully different from Emily at the beginning, which is either a feature (she was always herself) or a flaw (she never learned anything) depending on your perspective. Supporting characters similarly maintain their established dynamics without significant evolution.
The Show That Won’t Be Shamed
Emily in Paris’s most interesting quality is its complete imperviousness to criticism. The show has been called shallow, stereotypical, and unrealistic by critics and cultural commentators for four seasons, and it has responded by getting more popular. There’s something almost admirable about a show that knows it’s not prestige television and refuses to pretend otherwise. Emily in Paris understands that not every viewer wants to be challenged, and it serves that audience with professional precision. The show is comfort food made by people who know exactly how much salt the recipe needs.
Should You Watch Emily in Paris?
If you want light, beautiful, undemanding television with gorgeous Parisian scenery and fun fashion, Emily in Paris delivers exactly that. It’s ideal viewing for when you want something pretty on the screen that doesn’t require your full attention. Fans of Darren Star’s previous work and viewers who enjoy aspirational lifestyle content will feel right at home.
Skip it if thin writing, cultural stereotypes, and repetitive romantic plots are dealbreakers for you. The show has no interest in deepening its characters or complicating its worldview, and viewers who need substance beneath their style will find it frustrating. If the idea of an American succeeding in Paris through sheer optimism makes your eye twitch, this is not your show.
The Verdict on Emily in Paris
Emily in Paris is a show that knows exactly what it is and executes that vision with unwavering commitment. Lily Collins is charming, the fashion is spectacular, and Paris has never looked more inviting. The writing is thin, the cultural commentary barely scratches the surface, and the romantic plots cycle without evolving. But the show’s massive audience isn’t wrong to enjoy it. Not everything needs to be prestige television, and Emily in Paris delivers polished, professional escapism with the confidence of a woman who posts an Instagram story at a French bakery without speaking a word of French.