The Emily in Paris hate is baffling

Variety

Darren Star's Lily Collins-led Netflix dramedy, which is back on Netflix for a second season, "has a way of driving viewers crazy," says Daniel D'Addario. Sure, Emily in Paris' Golden Globe and Emmy nominations were "a little overblown," says D'Addario. "But ... so does describing it as at the forefront of any contemporary movement, much less a dystopian one. Television that exists to be viewed ambiently rather than deeply obsessed over is something that’s been with us throughout the history of the medium; indeed, it’s only relatively recently that televised dramas started being treated as high art. And so it is that in its second season, Emily in Paris serves up more of the same, and more of something TV can do well: Charming, watchable, low-friction entertainment in a setting that’s fun to look at. It’s not the best of anything. But it’s good TV. As played by Lily Collins, Emily is something of a cipher: She wants to be in Paris because she’s looking for love and new experiences, but she seems to exercise little will of her own, stumbling into and out of situations. Her triumphs at work, at a luxury-goods marketing firm, are, viewed charitably, serendipitous — viewed more realistically, they’re often entirely accidental. When she errs, no one stays angry with her for long. And when she scores a win, it’s quickly dispensed with as her coworkers move on to the next thing. All of which adds up to a show that isn’t terribly cerebral or demanding, coasting on the charm of its setting and the age-old culture-clash storyline. (Indeed, in depicting an American whose sunny self-belief erodes the defenses of stuffy Europeans, Emily in Paris can play at times like a distaff Ted Lasso.) But being a good hang counts for something. And the flaws of Emily in Paris — its refusal to engage with the concept of actions having consequences, for instance — can be seen as the result of its endless pursuit of showing us the next charming setting, the next delirious misunderstanding. It’s television that is truly episodic, staging situations and resolving them with close to as little long-term change made as on an episode of The Simpsons. All of which strikes this viewer as a perfectly fine use of the medium."

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• Emily in Paris perfectly encapsulates what is wrong with Americans: "Despite Emily’s couture packaging and doe-eyed glamour, she contains multitudes...of irritating American qualities," says Chloe Stillwell. "She encapsulates the noxious facets of American culture that we’re all beholden to, but also feel existentially trapped by, like the mentality to be constantly working and the tendency to celebrate consumer capitalism. She overly involves herself in other people’s business, and is consistently being told to back off, but responds by grinding in her $2,000 heels — because basics love nothing more than to see people’s honest rebuffs of them as a challenge to win them over. It’s essentially a genre of entertainment at this point. Emily is also prudish, saccharinely sentimental, self-involved, and unironically obsessed with social media. And perhaps that’s why we love to hate watch Emily In Paris. There is a catharsis in seeing Emily get constantly brow beaten for her gross Americanisms. There’s relief in realizing that our culture isn’t just vanilla; it’s a symbiotic force that has engrained patterns and mannerisms into us that we often don’t even realize we have. Watching Emily be rebuked just for essentially being a product of millennial America is (sadly) like an emotional hall pass."
• Emily in Paris is TV for the dentist's office: "One of the greatest leaps forward we’ve made as a society in the last decade or so has been adding televisions to dentists’ offices," says Olivia Craighead. "It’s a simple formula: one of the most miserable things in the world (dental work) plus one of life’s great joys (television) equals an experience that doesn’t entirely make you want to dissociate for however long it takes to get a filling. But what should you watch while someone puts their hands inside of your mouth and drills? The answer is Emily in Paris. And so I watched Emily and her girlies traipse around St. Tropez and party at an art dealer’s house while two people worked on my bicuspids. Thanks to modern medicine and the paper-thin plot of Emily in Paris, I felt nothing physically, mentally, or emotionally. A 10/10 experience."
• Emily in Paris works on a number of levels, appealing to fans and haters: "There’s pure pleasure in realizing that Emily in Paris’ producers know at least half their audience hates — HATES — Emily Cooper," says Robyn Bahr. "Like the oddly exquisite sting of pressing on a wound, Lily Collins’ gauche, jumped-up American marketing executive thrills me every time she pouts, whines or sulks in defeat. If the writing staff truly had no clue her frequent humiliations prickle delicious derision in many of our hearts, they wouldn’t have had her (and her precious smartphone) gloriously sprayed in a stranger’s blood this latest season. The construction of Emily in Paris is a delicately choreographed feast, the writers tasked with simultaneously endearing her to the un-ironic enthusiasts while serving her on a silver platter to the hungry haters. A good time is had by all!"
• Emily in Paris is neither trash nor escapist TV: "It’s worth being precise about its appeal, for Emily in Paris is not trash TV, not some 'Real Housewives of Île-de-France,'" says Jason Farago. "It’s not even champagne-soaked enough to be escapist, in the manner of a Big Little Lies or Gossip Girl. It’s something newer and weirder than those: as insubstantial as a gluten-free meringue from the Bon Marché food hall, so whisper-thin it almost asks you not to watch it, at least not without your phone in your hand. In this, I have to say, it feels like a breakthrough, though perhaps in the sense that a coronavirus infection can be a breakthrough."
• Emily in Paris masks a dull lead character with great fashions and escapist travelogue: "The Netflix series from Darren Star is marred by a nondescript protagonist, who doesn’t evolve or gain any kind of dimension in the second season... Emily—and, by extension, the show—both feel stuck in time," says Saloni Gajjar. "Emily In Paris is essentially a whimsical, escapist comedy; it would be simpler to let it play out as a travelogue or even the couture fashion show it is meant to be. Instead, the show and its lead try to be more earnest in season two, only to fall short due to lazy writing, dramatic and stretched-out narrative arcs, and Emily’s ongoing lack of distinctive traits beyond the fact that she’s apparently good at her job. The show continues to try to sell Emily as a relatable millennial who is obsessed with hackneyed Instagram captions. As the series begins, her world shifts when she relocates to Paris for work, trying to lend her American social media wisdom to the French marketing firm Savoir. The early sitcom-like vibe makes it so that her workplace failures somehow end up becoming convenient successes. This is especially true in the second season as her work and personal life mesh even further, creating room for lots of chaos, whether it’s a trip to St. Tropez gone wrong or Emily losing track of an actress because of her new crush."
• Emily in Paris is still very watchable in Season 2 despite its many flaws: "One naturally expects Emily in Paris to follow the basic formulas of romantic comedy — it's popular for a reason and a lot of the familiar tropes and expectations tied to it are the reason many of us engage at all," says Elizabeth Morgan. "But even though the series has no obligation to solve some of the genre's more glaring problems, it's also not wrong to hope the show might want to try. There exists a version of Emily in Paris that allows Emily to fall in love without sacrificing parts of herself. Admittedly, this might not be as dramatic in the moment as potentially destroying a friendship over a man, but we're allowed to want and demand more from the media we consume. (And that extends to wanting the show not to make repeated references to and jokes about the fact Emily slept with Camille's 17-year-old brother last season, which is another problem altogether.) While that might seem like a lot of negativity, there are things to like. Emily in Paris has always been extremely watchable in spite of its flaws, and that mostly comes down to three things: the chemistry between its leads, which very much still exists in Season 2; a short runtime (Season 2 episodes range from 25 to 37 minutes in length); and an ability to transport viewers to one of the most beautiful countries in the world. That final asset remains in place as we travel from the beaches of Saint-Tropez and the not-remotely-haunting Père Lachaise to the exquisite countryside of the Loire Valley and the opulent halls of Versailles (in addition to the rest of Paris, of course). It's beyond a cliché at this point, but France is another character in the show, and it's easily one of its best."
• Emily in Paris is exactly what it is -- harmless escapism that is critic-proof: "Like Emily, I have been on a journey of self-discovery with this series," says Ed Cumming. "I could talk about the clunkingly obvious script, the thinness of the characters and plot, and Collins’s one-gear performance in the lead. But what would be the point? Emily is critic-proof, and it’s not aimed at grouchy old hacks like me anyway. It is a fantasy world, a make-believe vision of Paris with no Covid, no stakes, no problems that can’t be easily resolved with a chat and a new outfit. It is exactly what it is, harmless escapism, and on its own terms it is enormously successful. We wouldn’t go so far as to say it’s subversive, but Emily in Paris is definitely in on the joke. It winks at the audience. We know this is all ridiculous, it says, but don’t worry about it. Just keep watching. Look at Emily in her dresses, Emily hauling her big suitcase onto the train, Emily sitting in front of the Louvre. Emily in Paris is as close as TV gets to being completely frictionless. Its millions of fans will enjoy more of the same. The rest of us can watch Call My Agent. You win, Emily."
• Emily in Paris writers aren’t the least bit interested in delving into any thoughtful analysis of their protagonist and her motives in Season 2
• Emily in Paris' fashion moves away from reality in Season 2: Costume designer Marylin Fitoussi had originally tried for realism in Season 1. But after talking with the show’s costume consultant, the legendary Patricia Field, she decided to change course. “They said to me the magical sentence: ‘Marylin, we don’t care about reality,’” said Fitoussi. “That is my mojo in life.” For Season 2, Fitoussi and Field were determined to push the show’s fashions even further. 
• Lucien Laviscount says getting cast on Emily in Paris was a whirlwind experience: "Honestly, it happened so quickly, I really didn’t have that much time to prepare," he tells Time magazine. "I was in New York working on some projects when I got a phone call from my manager saying, 'Darren Star wants you to read for Emily in Paris!”'I dropped everything and sent my audition back within an hour, then was on Zoom with Darren and Lily the next day, and in Paris a few days later. As far as getting into character, Alfie’s role is to capture the sense of being lonely in a city. When you feel like that, you can become quite bitter, which is why he puts up his guard by being defensive and sarcastic. Then he meets Emily, who he really doesn’t take to straightaway. He thinks she’s just a puppet in her world. But he finds out quickly that she’s a boss at her job and she’s doing what she loves. Alfie looks at that and he’s super impressed. Emily opens up his world and gives him this perspective on what life in Paris can be like, and that’s where their friendship blossoms." Meanwhile, the Katy Keene and Scream Queen alum isn't ready to blow up on social media. "Honestly, I'm not," he tells Harper's Bazaar. "I haven't really thought about it. The first season was so incredible that I hope me being introduced as the new kid on the block won't be a big deal. I just hope that I do the character of Alfie justice and do the show proud. That's all I'm thinking about."
• Darren Star wanted to spend more time in Season 2 with Ashley Park's Mindy Chen: “I’m such a huge fan of Ashley Park, and Season 1, seeing her singing, seeing her just explode as a character and how much she brought to the show, I just love her,” says Star. “I just love that character and wanted to, personally, spend more time with her and follow her on her journey, because she has her own dreams.”