In 2020, Netflix released a plethora of new TV series in their ever expanding genre catalog. The OTT platform had a good lineup when it came to comedy and dramas. It released Mindy Kaling’s ‘Never Have I Ever’, the teenage high school drama ‘Sex Education’, the royal drama ‘Bridgerton’, and many others. There were many hits and misses, but the biggest miss was the Lily Collins-starrer ‘Emily In Paris’.The series released its third season on the platform on December 21st, 2022.
‘Emily In Paris’ follows the story of a young Chicago resident, Emily Cooper, flies over the Atlantic Ocean to be in Paris for her new job, which awaits personal challenges and cultural shock. Darren Star of the controversial ‘Sex And The City’ helms the shows, whereas Lily has also donned the co-producer’s hat. However, over the three seasons since 2020, the comedy-drama has received a lot of heat from the audience and critics.
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Why Do People Hate ‘Emily In Paris’ So Much?
The series ‘Emily In Paris’ may look dazzling and another damsel in distress tale, but it has hit the mark on what they wanted to achieve. In order to make Emily presentable, it perpetuates the clichés related to Parisians and other nationalities in a derogatory manner. It does not look like Darren Star learnt any lesson from the criticism that he received for ‘Sex And The City’, where the spaces were only and Manolo’s were only accessible to white women. Like the Sarah Jessica Parker-starrer, ‘Emily In Paris’ also lacks diversity. The problem has existed since the first season.
It tried to fix the problem of diversity in the series by introducing a Ukrainian student on the heels of the Russian war looming over Ukraine’s head. But, instead of a sensitive portrayal, it continued with the stereotypes. The Ukrainian student is Petra, played by actress Daria Panchenko. When Emily finally decides to learn French, she meets Petra, a Kleptomaniac with an inflated ego and fear of getting deported. It did not sit well with the Cultural Minister of the country calling it an “offensive” portrayal.
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What Was The Golden Globe Awards Controversy Around The Series?
On top of the clichéd story coated in a dazzling milieu and caricatures, ‘Emily in Paris’ got nominated for the esteemed Golden Globe Awards in 2021. It received two nominations— ‘Best Musical or Comedy TV Series’ and ‘Best Actress In a Musical and Comedy Series’. This did not sit well with the audience at all. The anger was mostly because the Awards snubbed other series that year like ‘I May Destroy You’ and ‘Insecure’.
As Cosmopolitan reported, the reasons for the potential snubs for nominating the disastrous series was due to the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. The production took some 30 odd members to a luxurious trip to Paris to take a tour on the sets of the series and stay at a fancy hotel. The writer on the show, Deborah Copaken protested against the nomination and supported the snubbed Michaela Coel-starrer ‘I May Destroy You’ writing an op-ed.
However, the actress Lily Collins has time and again defended her “bubbly” portrayal of Emily distressed in Paris. In an interview with Nylon, she said, “A lot of the qualities that Emily has, if you put them on paper, would seem so annoying. To have someone be optimistic, bright and bubbly—it’s sad to think that people would look and go, ‘That’s a lot’. They’re such beautiful qualities, and the fact that she can partner that with being vulnerable and asking for help and making mistakes—she’s not infallible”.
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