Thursday, December 19, 2024

Emily in Paris: Season 4 REVIEW – An Escapist Mess

Emily in Paris is as basic as they come, yet we can't look away.

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Listen, none of us are watching Emily in Paris because we think it’s good quality TV. Emily in Paris exists as pure escapism, where we’re just meant to watch Emily (Lily Collins) go to fabulous places, wear fabulous clothes and date – you guessed it – fabulous men. The men are good-looking, successful, and they all love Emily from the moment they lay eyes on her. Well, with the exception of Alfie (Lucien Laviscount) – he and Emily had more of an enemies-to-lovers kind of thing going on.

So as I went into the fourth season of the show, having watched all the seasons that came before, I knew exactly what I was in for. Firstly, Netflix needs to drop this Part 1 and Part 2 release thing they’ve got going on. It breaks the momentum of the season, and the two parts feel more incompatible than two parts of a whole. It was the same issue with Bridgerton season 3. Either give us everything all at once, or do a two episode release per week if you want viewers hanging on to their subscriptions.

We begin season 4 where we left off in season 3. Emily is dealing with the fall-out of Camille’s (Camille Razat) confession, and Alfie is now actively ghosting her. Even though I adore Alfie, I am a Gabriel/Emily shipper. They had chemistry and spark in seasons 1 and 2, and it was frustrating to see their togetherness foiled by pacts and various obstacles. Now, there’s no obstacle anymore since Alfie wants to just lick his wounds and move on. Yes, there’s a baby in the picture, but technically there’s nothing stopping Emily and Gabriel (Lucas Bravo) from being together. But somehow, all that early seasons spark has vanished, and their coupling feels muted more than something both have yearned for.

The romantic set pieces are supposed to be driving us all giggly and goo-goo eyed, but there’s something missing in these scenes. After making us wait three seasons before we could even get them as a couple, this is all the show has to offer? The baby conflict gets in the way almost immediately, and it feels kinda like romantic whiplash when we consider how quickly things fall apart. Even Carrie and post-it note guy (he doesn’t deserve to be named) from Sex and the City had a longer runway to highlight their relationship failings.

The show does have its moments of spark, like Gabriel’s French monologue to Emily about the issues in their communication. Bravo is great here, and you really feel his hurt, despair, and the seething wounds just writhing underneath all that passive behaviour. Even the way Gabriel is styled hints to the viewers about how down in the dumps he is – he’s lost Emily, his Michelin star, the future he and Camille had planned for all those years ago. There are moments of emotional honesty, like Emily roaming the streets of Paris having lost the love of her life. She bounces back a bit too quickly – yes she is masking and avoiding most likely – but if we’re meant to be invested in this relationship than the show should really give us more to work with.

The show does an incredible job when it comes to the Christmas setting that Part 2 is set in. We really get to feel the season through the quaint decorations and the costumes that the characters wear – it really feels like France at Christmastime. I love when a show is able to do that. The time spent in Rome and the fictional town Solitano is also well done. Emily and new paramour Marcello’s time in Italy feels very rom-com-esque – taking in the sights, enjoying the food – and like Emily said, this is so The Lizzie McGuire Movie, except that Marcello isn’t evil like Paolo. Her relationship with Marcello is pretty much cotton candy – tons of sugar and air but without any substance. There’s nothing interesting about their relationship, and we don’t understand why they’re even together. We need more than just two good-looking people shoved together on screen for a romance to work. Even their almost-kiss scenes are so devoid of tension – I don’t even care whether they hook up or not.

As for the rest of the characters, we’re given narratives and arcs that are tied up way too quickly, so we don’t even feel satisfied if this turns out to be their send-off. Mindy’s (Ashley Park) whole thing with Eurovision goes nowhere, and her relationship issues are so poorly handled. The show is trying to go for a girlboss narrative but how it comes across instead is Mindy being incredibly selfish and never properly acknowledging her faults. Out of everyone, perhaps only Sylvie (Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu) seems to get some character development, and becomes quite a decent boss to Emily and the rest. She’s even accommodating of Laurent’s daughter Genevieve (Thalia Bensson), even though Genevieve is a character I could honestly do without. Bensson doesn’t have the requisite charisma to be a proper villain like Camille, and the show would be better off just writing her out of the show come next season.

I could pretend that my good taste would not allow me to watch when the next season comes rolling by, but who am I kidding? I’ll be tuned in for the mess that is to come.

REVIEW SCORE: 3/5

Natasha Alvar
Natasha Alvar
Natasha Alvar became an English Lit teacher because of Dead Poets Society, only to realise that maybe no one cares about dead poets like John Keats. An idealist, a lover of rom-coms and chocolate cake, and takes fiction way too seriously for her own good. Find Natasha @litmysoul

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