S01.E01: Emily In Paris

[Door County Cherry]

Airs 10/02/20:

Quote

Emily brings her can-do American attitude and fresh ideas to her new office in Paris, but her inability to speak French turns out to be a major faux pas.

 

[Miss Slay]

Emily In Paris is the most unrealistic show I've ever watched. And I love every second of it.

I see that it was produced by MTV and it def gave me OG Hills vibes. 

I've taken international flights before. Now way does Emily arrives in Paris,after flying in from Chicago, with perfect makeup. She isn't jet lagged at all and immediately goes to work. Righttt.

Most of the actors in this show don't seem French but that's neither here nor there. It's funny that Emily speaks no french...and expects everyone around her to know English. Also, LOL, at all the random cigarette smokers, just so we know we're in France. 

I'm expecting Emily to wear a beret at some point during this series. 

[MCMLXXVII]

Cute and fluffy so far. I love a Darren Star series.

Edited October 3, 2020 by MCMLXXVII

[JAYJAY1979]

It has potential, but Emily needs to loosen up a bit lol

[Aulty]

Does anyone else find it annoying that Emily's boss, who has been dreaming about Paris for decades, gived up her plans because she finds out she is pregnant? Pregnant women can work, healthcare in France is decent and nannies are not frowned upon.

They could have made Emily go to Paris on her own merits - and for the sake of drama, short notice.

[catherinejane]

i think i found it more amusing that Emily;s boss was played by Dereks' ex wife on greys who in pricate practice spent years trying to get pregnant, and accepting lack of kids at early 40s and now, 10 years later? she falls pregnant at 52 (actress age)!

anyway, totally unrealistic show but i liked it too. Onions and a baguette will feature soon!

Bonus points for NOT having a view of the eiffel tower from her balcony 🙂

and it suddenly got a lot ruder at the end than i was expecting, being pretty pG rated up to then.

 

[Door County Cherry]

13 hours ago, Aulty said:

Does anyone else find it annoying that Emily's boss, who has been dreaming about Paris for decades, gived up her plans because she finds out she is pregnant?

Yep.  Especially since (and I'll spoil this because I've seen three episodes and forget when this little detail about her boss's pregnancy was dropped)

Spoiler

There isn't one confirmed daddy like a boyfriend.

Although, I guess I get her decision if part of the role is to spend a year getting this new office acclimated to the US company's norms.  She'd only be able to do part of the year.

It doesn't make sense that they'd swap out someone who appears to be a senior leader in the company with a junior person who not only knows nothing about France but clearly knows nothing about Europe.

I like Lily Collins but boy was she annoying with what little she knew.  Like not knowing that Europe has a different wattage system and many American appliances would need converters to work in Europe?  

Or the fact that she couldn't "get" such a basic concept as going up a flight of stairs and that being the first floor as opposed to the ground floor.  She kept saying it didn't make much sense but does she go to the first birthdays of babies and say it doesn't make much sense?  They should be been 1 on the first day they were born since that's the "start."

I think we're supposed to find her ignorance charming but it's really not.  It's like she didn't even read a basic blog on what France might be like.  The whole "The French, they do that?" approach to everything on this show feels like a very dated Hallmark-esque approach. 

 

[Espy]

 

This show is so silly, Emily is an eye-rolling ridiculous stereotype of a clueless American, the French stereotypes are ridiculous, but I really did enjoy this. I’d say Emily was written to be annoyingly clueless but I reckon we’re supposed to find her charming LOL.

In Australia we have ground floor, first floor, second etc, and every American I’ve met has figured things out just fine,and vice versa. So dumb.

But this show is light and fluffy, pretty enjoyable, and I need that in my life, so I’ll, keep going 😂

[zenithwit]

What native Chicagoan actually eats deep dish pizza on a regular basis?  That's a thing you only do with out of town visitors.  Clearly the bad stereotypes about Chicago, Americans and the French are heavy handed in this show.  But hey, this is exactly the type of equal parts glossy and trashy TV show  that I love to watch (and complain about the inane plot lines afterwards). Off to binge watch the rest of the episodes!

[Guest]

9 hours ago, Door County Cherry said:

I like Lily Collins but boy was she annoying with what little she knew.  Like not knowing that Europe has a different wattage system and many American appliances would need converters to work in Europe?  

I noticed that she was using a converter. I think the problem was supposed to be the age of the building.

23 hours ago, Aulty said:

Does anyone else find it annoying that Emily's boss, who has been dreaming about Paris for decades, gived up her plans because she finds out she is pregnant? Pregnant women can work, healthcare in France is decent and nannies are not frowned upon.

They could have made Emily go to Paris on her own merits - and for the sake of drama, short notice.

I agree. The show is cute but the premise grates. They could have still gone with the fish out of water concept without making her completely unqualified for the job. 

[Guest]

On 10/2/2020 at 3:52 PM, Miss Slay said:

Most of the actors in this show don't seem French but that's neither here nor there.

It’s interesting that you would say that because most of the actors are French. It makes me wonder if any of the writers are French. 

[Aulty]

13 hours ago, Door County Cherry said:

Or the fact that she couldn't "get" such a basic concept as going up a flight of stairs and that being the first floor as opposed to the ground floor.  She kept saying it didn't make much sense but does she go to the first birthdays of babies and say it doesn't make much sense?  They should be been 1 on the first day they were born since that's the "start."

lol, thats a good point. I'm sure I will quote you in the future 🙂

Some older/turn of the last century buildings in Central Europe haven a mezzanine floor between the ground and first floor. Her confusion over the flour numbering would have been more relatable in a building like that.

[buttersister]

If this were Emily Anywhere But In Paris, I'd be out.

[tennisgurl]

On 10/2/2020 at 6:52 PM, Miss Slay said:

I'm expecting Emily to wear a beret at some point during this series. 

I am really impressed that the show had the restraint to not have her in a beret in her first scene in Paris. 

This is all very Darren Star, so I am here for it and its fluffy goodness and fabulous clothes and locations, and I am also here to make fun of the inevitable plot holes, stereotypes, and characters making incredibly stupid life choices and getting into ridiculous love triangles. Emily is so clueless, its kind of amazing that she is supposed to be high up in some kind of marketing company or whatever, prattling on about Saving Private Ryan to her hot neighbor from Normandy, not understanding how stairs work or are numbered, and not apparently realizing that she might have some issues working in France and knowing only two words of French. 

I also thought her telling her boyfriend that she is going to France for a year at a bar super causally was really weird. Not that she shouldn't take this opportunity because she has a boyfriend, but you would think that telling your significant other that your leaving the country for a year would be a bigger or more serious conversation, even if this whole thing was last minute. It was like she was telling him that she was going to visit her aunt in Springfield for a long weekend, not relocating to a different country for a year. 

[scatteroflight]

On 10/4/2020 at 2:44 AM, Dani said:

I noticed that she was using a converter. I think the problem was supposed to be the age of the building.

That's what I got out of it, too. Years ago, when my friends and I went to Europe, we had all kinds of converters, but still blew the fuse in our room when we tried to plug in our phones because of the old wiring. 

Lily Collins is very likeable and I am enjoying the French scenery, so I'm in for now. I don't think it'll take long for this premise to wear thin, though.

[CarpeFelis]

Her cluelessness about the stairs was clearly a plot contrivance to get her noticed by Gabriel, but it sure made her look dumb.

[thesupremediva1]

I'm watching for Paris, and Paris alone.

What's with Darren Starr and his incessant obsession with this city? 90210 - Donna and Brenda spend a summer in Paris. Donna gets a modelling contract and is sexually harassed by a photographer; Brenda cheats on Dylan with Reeek! Sex and the City - Carrie moves there with Petrovsky only to get slapped and whisked back to NYC by Mr. Big. Has Younger done anything in Paris yet? I see that series shares the same trope as this one - mean, sophisticated older boss making the young ingenue's life hellish in the workplace. 

Lather, rinse, repeat. His series have all the substance of a bubble bath, but are just as comforting. I miss Europe and travelling so I'll live vicariously through this awful set of stereotypes. Plucky Americans, mean French people, rube American boyfriends, sassy gay men... culturally speaking this is a massive insult but aesthetically it's a gorgeous confection. 

I like Lily Collins a lot as an actress, but she's miscast here. She's too thin and too beautiful to be believable in this role. Emily needs to have a hint of awkwardness about her. The French would worship her on sight. None of this is Lily's fault, and Darren is famous for casting this type of heroine in his shows, but I'm constantly suspending disbelief at her plights. 

Also, no company would be tone-deaf enough to treat employees that way. The nastiness and hostility is over the top and not at all believable. This little French firm is owned by a big American company with an HR department. They'd be handling that over a Zoom call post-haste, and given warning to cease with the workplace bullying or be fired.

[Door County Cherry]

34 minutes ago, thesupremediva1 said:

I like Lily Collins a lot as an actress, but she's miscast here. She's too thin and too beautiful to be believable in this role. Emily needs to have a hint of awkwardness about her. The French would worship her on sight.

Ha.  I did find it hard to believe when Mindy told Emily she pegged her as American right away.  While the list of things that stand out as American is long, Emily wasn't displaying any of those seated silently on a park bench.  She's thin, beautiful and was wearing fashionable clothing.  She wasn't talking or looking at anyone. 

[Ms Blue Jay]

1 hour ago, thesupremediva1 said:

I like Lily Collins a lot as an actress, but she's miscast here. She's too thin and too beautiful to be believable in this role. Emily needs to have a hint of awkwardness about her. The French would worship her on sight. None of this is Lily's fault, and Darren is famous for casting this type of heroine in his shows, but I'm constantly suspending disbelief at her plights. 

Yes, there's no way somebody who looks like Lily Collins at her age would have only have 48 Instagram followers at the beginning of the show.  And I'm talking about WITHOUT her being a known celebrity.  It's so RIDICULOUS.  I'm a few years older than her and I have 400.

1 hour ago, thesupremediva1 said:

Also, no company would be tone-deaf enough to treat employees that way. The nastiness and hostility is over the top and not at all believable. This little French firm is owned by a big American company with an HR department. They'd be handling that over a Zoom call post-haste, and given warning to cease with the workplace bullying or be fired.

This part, I'm not so sure.  I have found that HR is much worse the bigger a company gets, but that's my experience.  I've never found HR to actually care about an employee over the company its representing.

Edited October 7, 2020 by Ms Blue Jay

[dubbel zout]

How much say does an American company have with a subsidiary in another country? I would think the local laws would have to be followed, and it is hard to fire someone in France. It's not just a matter of paperwork.

[thesupremediva1]

22 minutes ago, Ms Blue Jay said:

This part, I'm not so sure.  I have found that HR is much worse the bigger a company gets, but that's my experience.  I've never found HR to actually care about an employee over the company its representing.

I don't disagree with this, but the Americans are in the power position - they bought the French outfit, and sending an American rep was apparently a legal term of the sale. I sincerely doubt they'd tolerate the open hostility and mocking of Emily's French pronunciation. Like they really didn't put Sylvie and team on a conference call and say, "Hey, we lost the original rep and we're sending you this other person, and she has had no time to learn the language. Please help her out."

I understand they're going for a fish-out-of-water vibe, but there are better and more subtle ways to make this work than copying the early Younger plots. I believed Liza would take crap from Diana because she was desperate for a job. I do not believe someone with Emily's title and talent - who basically did her company a favor by taking the job and uprooting her life - would take blatant abuse as though she deserved it. 

[Door County Cherry]

4 minutes ago, thesupremediva1 said:

I don't disagree with this, but the Americans are in the power position - they bought the French outfit, and sending an American rep was apparently a legal term of the sale. I sincerely doubt they'd tolerate the open hostility and mocking of Emily's French pronunciation.

The Americans are in a power position but Emily clearly isn't.  Her boss probably would have been since she seemed higher up in the company. 

Whether or not HR would step in is up for debate.  HR departments might step in and intervene in cases of discrimination because, in theory, the company could be sued. 

But what is happening to Emily isn't the kind of discrimination that goes against laws.  In those cases, the company would evaluate which of you they value more and that would determine how they intervene. 

[methodwriter85]

Fun little truffle. I'm in! Lily Collins is perfect for romantic comedies and it's a shame her career wasn't in the 90's and early 2000's when they were everywhere.

[Ms Blue Jay]

I liked her in "Love, Rosie" but I REALLY didn't like the movie.

[methodwriter85]

On 10/8/2020 at 9:38 AM, Ms Blue Jay said:

I liked her in "Love, Rosie" but I REALLY didn't like the movie.

Love Rosie wasn't good? I've heard mixed things about it which is a shame. It looked so cute and delightfully British. Which reminds me that Lily is British, so the show's insistence that she's the hick American girl is funny.

Edited October 9, 2020 by methodwriter85

[Ms Blue Jay]

58 minutes ago, methodwriter85 said:

Love Rosie wasn't good? I've heard mixed things about it which is a shame. It looked so cute and delightfully British. Which reminds me that Lily is British, so the show's insistence that she's the hick American girl is funny.

It wasn't my type of thing.  And I usually love romcoms. I liked Lily and the soundtrack and nothing else.   However, the reception online seems to be good from the audience.

Edited October 9, 2020 by Ms Blue Jay

[preeya]

Finished the series.

One comment: it was like watching a Lily Collins fashion show.  Almost every scene a different outfit.

[HerkyJerky]

Does anybody else think that Sylvie (Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu) looks like a French Margaret Colin?  They're about the same age too.

[methodwriter85]

On 10/12/2020 at 12:15 AM, HerkyJerky said:

Does anybody else think that Sylvie (Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu) looks like a French Margaret Colin?  They're about the same age too.

I can definitely see it. 

[DanielleBowden]

On 10/3/2020 at 6:02 PM, Door County Cherry said:

They should be been 1 on the first day they were born since that's the "start."

My mom, who was born and raised in Europe, does tend to see age this way. She routinely goes by "going to be age", i.e. on your first birthday, you are beginning your second year of life.  

 

On 10/3/2020 at 10:17 PM, zenithwit said:

What native Chicagoan actually eats deep dish pizza on a regular basis?

None. 

[BooYeah2]

On 10/20/2020 at 11:10 AM, CeceliaBedelia said:

On 10/3/2020 at 10:17 PM, zenithwit said:

What native Chicagoan actually eats deep dish pizza on a regular basis?

None. 

Native Chicagoan here and we eat it pretty often. It helps that Giordano’s is right down the street. Best deep dish ever. Emily was right: Lou Malnati’s is TERRIBLE. 

[Hanahope]

Yeah, late to the party here.  Having some personal experience with French people and Paris, the show isn't wrong that many Parisians can be rude to those that don't speak French.   given Emily got this opportunity at literally the last minute, its not that surprising that she doesn't know the language, she never knew she'd need it.  not everyone can learn a new language in a month.  

And the French have a different culture, particularly where sex is involved, that wouldn't be considered bullying or harassment to a French person.  

And oh, Emily got the floors confused after her run, that can happen if one isn't used to the different way of counting floors and isn't thinking that clearly in the moment

what I found so unlikely was a French office business not opening for work until after 10:30 a.m. 

I didn't get the impression that Emily ate deep dish "all the time", not with that figure, lol.  but sure, she has it from time to time, and runs it off.  

But Emily appears to know her stuff re advertising.  her thinness might be "unsual" for an American, but at least its one less thing for the Parisians to hold against her.