S02.E04: Jules and Em

[Door County Cherry]

Quote

When Emily's personal drama impacts her work at Savoir, it pushes her to focus harder on her French lessons; Mindy faces off with a mime at her new gig.

 

[Harvey]

Why did the first guy she approach in French class reject her?

It shows that the show creators took notice of the feedback that season 1 received and they are trying to show more of Paris and display more of the french culture.

The singing C-plot was pretty whatever, it has nothing to do with the main story. It looks more like an attempt to advertise the actress and her singing abilities rather than something that has a point within the series.

[TVForever]

11 hours ago, Harvey said:

The singing C-plot was pretty whatever, it has nothing to do with the main story. It looks more like an attempt to advertise the actress and her singing abilities rather than something that has a point within the series.

Normally I would agree 100%, but I have to admit that I actually enjoy her singing.

[Door County Cherry]

6 minutes ago, TVForever said:

Normally I would agree 100%, but I have to admit that I actually enjoy her singing.

Me too. And at least the singing this season was more natural than her randomly singing La Vie en Rose last season. 

[CarpeFelis]

I enjoyed Mindy’s singing. I like Mindy a great deal more than Emily, for that matter. Must be getting cynical in my old age, because I’m finding I much prefer Sylvie over Emily as well. And Camille. Emily isn’t coming across as cute and charmingly clueless as the writers seem to want us to think. I wouldn’t call her the stereotypical Ugly American who demands everyone speak English; she’s trying to adapt, but she still manages to come across as a blundering idiot much of the time.

[SlovakPrincess]

Two laugh out loud moments for me:  (1) when the mail guy thought Sylvie might be Emily and she said "how dare you?!"; and (2) Camille calling Emily an "illiterate sociopath" in her letter response.  

I see wardrobe's malevolent campaign against Camille continues unabated and has leaked over into the hair department.  Does Angry Camille somehow translate into all-black, unflattering clothes and dirty-looking hair for these people?  Are they trying to make her the villain in this scenario, 'cause that's gonna piss me off.  And this show needs to at least keep its French stereotypes straight ... are the French more relaxed about menage a trois and affairs, or is a "French girl" the only type that won't forgive what Emily did (as Mindy claimed)?  Stupid.

I actually liked Emily's crazy oversized lime green, black and white flower coat, but for the love of all that is holy, wardrobe people, you can have one over-the-top pattern/shape/color/couture piece per outfit, not three or four or five.  One.  ONE!  

Don't get me started on Mindy's singing outfit.  I shouldn't have liked Julien's pale pink striped baseball jacket thing ... but I kinda did.  

Show, when I begged you to do something to make Gabriel interesting, I did not mean having him make seductive faces while arranging a leek on a plate.  I like food porn as much as the next person but that actually wasn't that appetizing and this man needs another facet to his personality other than sexy chef ... or just, like, one actual personality trait.  Please.

I had to skip some of the Mindy singing parts -- I simply cannot with mimes.

 

[ifionlyknew]

2 hours ago, SlovakPrincess said:

 I like food porn as much as the next person

Speaking of porn, I laughed when Sylvie asked Luc what actress would want sprayed with Champere and he said porn actress.  

[SlovakPrincess]

The whole idea of crappy champagne that's only suitable for spraying all over people is just so mind alteringly silly.

[Nellise]

Is Emily a golfer? Why does she keep wearing what look like golfing gloves?

[SlovakPrincess]

5 hours ago, Nellise said:

Is Emily a golfer? Why does she keep wearing what look like golfing gloves?

 

Stupid gloves are to this season what berets were to last season.

[A.Ham]

On 12/23/2021 at 11:23 AM, SlovakPrincess said:

Camille calling Emily an "illiterate sociopath" in her letter response

Ha! I did love that. Especially with the tone she said "illiterate" because it sounded a lot like the Spanish "analfabeta". Packed a stronger punch for me. I mean, Emily has all the tools and opportunities in the world not to be a dumbass and yet... 

[Bill1978]

I confess Emily's letter made ,e laugh out loud but Camille's response had me in stitches.
 

While this is not a deep thinking, ground breaking thought provoking show, it is perfect viewing for the week between Christmas Day and New Year's Day where I have no idea what day of the week it is. My only critique so far is that I don't care two bits about the love triangle. I want more office banter.

[methodwriter85]

On 12/23/2021 at 5:08 PM, Nellise said:

Is Emily a golfer? Why does she keep wearing what look like golfing gloves?

Lily Collins is promoting a Patricia Field/Seymoure line of fingerless gloves.

I did love that this show finally acknowledged how bad Emily's French is and that she has to repeat her French course. I had to repeat French in high school and I just cannot pick up languages. (Italian was a little easier, but I never got better than a C. Of course I've forgotten everything.) 

Edited December 28, 2021 by methodwriter85

[HerkyJerky]

24 minutes ago, methodwriter85 said:

Lily Collins is promoting a Patricia Field/Seymoure line of fingerless gloves.

And at the low, low price of $300-$350!🙄

[Norma Desmond]

20 hours ago, HerkyJerky said:

a Patricia Field/Seymoure line of fingerless gloves.

My mom used to wear those. Back in the 70s.

[chitowngirl]

Didn’t Madonna also wear them in the 80s?

Edited December 29, 2021 by chitowngirl

[Harvey]

19 minutes ago, chitowngirl said:

Didn’t Madonna wear also wear them in the 80s?

Yup and George Michael.

[dubbel zout]

LOL that Emily is shocked—shocked!—she has to repeat her French class. When you don't put any effort into something, you're not going to get much out of it.

How tacky to write a personal apology on company letterhead.

Since when do leeks need to be marketed to the U.S.?

[tennisgurl]

I like Mindy a lot, and while they are clearly coming up with situations to let the actress sing, she's really good so I cant be mad about it. Even if it did involve Mindy getting into a sing off with a mime. As happens. 

Emily's dramatic black and white French letter was pretty funny, as was Camille's response. Illiterate sociopath is a pretty great insult, maybe if I ever end up in a love triangle I can use it. I would possibly be more interested in this love triangle though if Gabriele was more interesting. He's pretty dull, I am really not sure why Emily and Camille are throwing down for him. 

[twoods]

This episode made up the fact that I couldn’t stand Emily this season. I did like her better this episode so maybe it’s taking a turn for the better, and it helps that Camille finally knows and isn’t forgiving anyone. The voiceover letters made me laugh so hard, especially Camille calling Emily an illiterate sociopath. Comedy gold. 
Still not getting everyone’s ridiculous fashion sense because it is not my taste. 

[shrewd.buddha]

We watch mainly for scenes of Paris .. and as a fun diversion.
But I will commend this episode for pulling together a lot of elements into the story:  French landmarks, French classic weird cinema, French language learning -- and then tying them into Emily's current situation.  The black-and-white, floating head, letter reading scenes added to the effect.  It seemed as if someone put some thought into this one. 

[Shermie]

I assume it’s intentional, but it grates on my ears - Emily’s terrible, or lack of, accent when she speaks French. Even though she says the correct words, there are no rolling R’s, no accent, no rounding of the words to give her French the mellifluous tones. She might as well be the ugly American tourist who barks out, “Gar-kon, more veeno sillvoo play.”

[dubbel zout]

I had a French lit professor in college who spoke French with absolutely no French accent, which kind of shocked me at the time, but as someone who can't roll her r's (so my Italian sounded pathetic), I also felt like the pot. Not everyone can sound like a native.

[Shermie]

It’s not necessary to roll the R to sound native. It’s the hard flattening of all the words that sounds terrible. Like saying s‘il vous plait with the correct intonation. More like “seel voo pleh” than “sill voo play”. Of course, what can I expect from people who pronounce foyer like it rhymes with lawyer. Ugh.

[Nellise]

28 minutes ago, Shermie said:

It’s not necessary to roll the R to sound native. It’s the hard flattening of all the words that sounds terrible. Like saying s‘il vous plait with the correct intonation. More like “seel voo pleh” than “sill voo play”. Of course, what can I expect from people who pronounce foyer like it rhymes with lawyer. Ugh.

Emily has been learning French for all of a few months and isn't even really trying so her accent should be terrible. Wouldn't it be odd if she had an acceptable one at this point in her learning?

Foyer in American English is supposed to rhyme with lawyer. Loan words often don't keep their original pronunciation especially when the word has a sound not really used in English like 'fwa'.