Alright, I’ve one good and one bad piece of news for you. The good news: Emily in Paris has almost found its lost soul again. The bad news: This two-part structure really doesn’t work. Someone needs to send this memo to Netflix decision-makers, pronto!
You’ll remember that Emily in Paris season 4 began with the French Open at Roland Garros where Alfie (Lucien Laviscount) broke up with Emily (Lily Collins). Part 2 skips months in a transition that could’ve been handled better because it took me a while to find my bearings when we returned. One minute it was episode 5, and we were talking about Gabriel (Lucas Bravo) not getting his Michelin star, and still mourning the death of Emily and Alfie’s relationship. And the next minute, it’s episode 6, Christmas already, and it felt like a separate season. I felt like I’d missed out on some developments and had to watch episode 5 again!
Emily and Gabriel are broken up again because let’s face it, their communication is the worst for a couple who are supposed to be soulmates. It takes Camille (Camille Razat) some time to escape the botching of her badass character with the jealous, conniving ex-girlfriend trope that was her all of part 1, but she does escape it.
The whole world must’ve heard me audibly sigh in relief when she finally told Gabriel the truth about her pregnancy. Camille did not deserve this arc and now she is free! Also free, Alfie, who is already in a new relationship and meeting the girl’s parents? If there’s one thing the characters in this show do, it is move on quickly from bad relationships. Still, it was a rare emotional scene between him and Emily about heartbreak and the loss of something good and true that I really liked. Oh, and Emily has already met her future Italian love interest, all in one episode!
It’s jarring to realize that this is the show’s first Christmas episode in four seasons—Emily has not even been in Paris for a year! Which means all of these characters who have fallen in and out of love, changed their personalities, values, behaviors, and are even willing to move cities to be with her are undergoing this transformation over the course of a few months. This has never bothered me before but because it somehow becomes more pronounced in season 4 part 2, it’s now hard to ignore. You want me to believe Sylvie Grateau (Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu) would upgrade Emily to First Class on her flight to Chicago when literally a couple of episodes ago, Agence Grateau was struggling financially? Mais non, je ne peux pas!
In episode 7, a new American girl—Laurent G’s (Arnaud Binard) grown-up daughter Genevieve (Thalia Besson)—arrives from New York and encroaches on Emily’s personal and professional life. She’s Emily 2.0 but with an advantage over Em; Genevieve is fluent in French. I’d almost thought the series had forgotten that Emily sucked at French and that was supposed to be her biggest weakness; so it was great to have her be reminded of that in a surprisingly effective emotional scene with Gabriel, which then ties up to another scene in the season finale pretty well. That’s the most passion I’ve seen between these two in a while, NGL!
That being said, Genevieve’s character feels like an unnecessary addition because the show can’t even do justice to the supporting characters it already has. Julien (Samuel Arnold), who clearly had a valid professional rivalry with Emily is back to Agence Grateau and suddenly protective Emily’s position in the office? Luc (Bruno Gouery) is, well, Luc, and we don’t even know what’s going on with his professional ambitions or personal relationship with Marianne. As for Sylvie Grateau and Mindy Chen (Ashley Park), some of the best characters on the show, both seem to be floundering, falling into old patterns, and then just breezily moving in a new direction that the Emily wind blows them.
What happened to Julien’s Christmas boyfriend and his problem with Emily butting into pitches? What happened in the aftermath of Sylvie outing JVMA’s Louis de Leon (Pierre Deny) in a #MeToo moment? What’s happening with Mindy and her father, and how does she get over the whole Eurovision fiasco and Nicholas (Paul Forman) this quickly? Not enough season left to make space for them. I am thankful they did include Ashley Park’s singing performances—I was transfixed watching her perform that original song “Beautiful Ruins” (dressed in a romantic red number from Indian designer Gaurav Gupta!), and that main character energy really deserves more and better plots.
I’d be lying if I said I had been eagerly awaiting Emily In Paris season 4 part 2 because part 1 was a disappointment. The show’s USP has always been packaging clichés in the most romantic, frothy, candy-coloured escapist fantasy which instantly puts you at ease with its comforting sense of familiarity. Here, no workplace drama is too much for Emily to handle (despite not speaking the language) and the most gorgeous and well-connected men are drawn to her like bees to honey. If it feels cliché, that’s okay, because it is all a part of the series’ charm, especially when they’re staged against stunning locales and while donning fabulous fashion. Part 1 retained the tropes, yet felt dull and devoid of the usual zing that makes us seek solace in the series and its endless rewatches.
However, the rear five episodes of Emily In Paris season 4, particularly the season finale, bring back some of the things we love about this series. There’s a new love interest, a new city, a new office (technically), and a new language that she will have to deal with. On the surface, it is the same old; Emily seems to be starting from scratch and a lot of motifs this season are reminiscent of season 1 (the vaga-jeune cameo, and return of Emily’s Instagram that the makers seem to have forgotten about!). But when she came to Paris, she was an American, brimming with an unhealthy work ethic and unfailing optimism, and attached to her phone. This Emily who is about to take on Rome is changed for the better because of Paris, and it shows in the smallest of ways that become apparent as the ending mirrors the beginning.
Though we only get Rome in the last two episodes of the season, it feels magical and a welcome change because we’re leaving all that isn’t working in Paris behind. It’s a Roman holiday from the problems we now have with the show. Eugenio Franceschini as Marcello Muratori, another gorgeous, rich man who is besotted by Emily Cooper in one meeting alone and ends up giving her his heart and his fashion business (ah, pretty privilege!) harkens back to what we enjoyed about Emily In Paris and is brimming with new possibilities. Rupert Everett as interior designer and Sylvie’s old friend (and lover) Giorgio Barbieri was a nice surprise!
The Rome episodes make one thing pretty evident—Emily and Gabriel only have chemistry when they are yearning for each other. It’s the salt in their relationship, without which, the dish tastes bland and almost devoid of passion. And it’s not an Emily problem but a Gabriel problem, because he has always been too dispassionate about them. When you watch Emily with Alfie or Marcello, there are sparks flying. Emily is vivacious and great at witty repartée and flirting, something that Alfie or even Marcello was able to indulge her in. We never see her flourish like that with Gabriel. They’re too serious and boring, as if they think that after all the drama their relationship has caused, they owe it to their friends to be together as some epitome of soulmates. If Emily and Gabriel are to be endgame (sigh), we need to bring back the passion and the fire, pronto, and perhaps the distance can help.
Rome is a surprising direction that I honestly did not expect this series to take. But in Paris, with things so complicated and stuck in a rut, and with nowhere else to go, I’m glad that all roads lead to Rome… for Emily. I wish I could say the same for the other characters. When Emily In Paris began, the supporting characters made the show. And now, Sylvie, Mindy, Luc, Julien, Camille, or Gabriel feel as if they didn’t have a life before Emily came. Their arcs are stagnant for the most part, with any changes in them feeling uncharacteristic at best. Rome can be a clean slate for them too, if only they don’t just up and leave their Parisienne lives behind to be with Emily in Rome.
To sum it up, Emily In Paris season 4 is a partial hit and a miss, and can barely be rated as one season because it feels too much like two separate seasons. Part 2 is clearly the better half of season 4, and despite the flaws, a return to form (and fashion, I might add) that proves once again what Marcello Muratori tells Emily on the steps of the Sacré-Coeur at dawn: “Clichés exist for a reason.” You don’t have to subvert them, just do them well and with conviction, and they can work.
Emily In Paris season 4 is currently streaming all episodes on Netflix.
Published: Sep 13, 2024 11:18 am