Emily in Paris does the unthinkable: It develops (somehow)

Emily in Paris has gotten away with four seasons of being a superficial, relaxed time-filler. It's an ideal TV show for the TikTok era to flip through, enjoy the sights, and keep going until new episodes coming for more of the same. It's not what anyone would consider a meaningful character study, and it doesn't even come close to what series creator Darren Star did with the four main characters of Sex and the City. This is mindless entertainment – hackneyed and repetitive plot lines and so on – in which Emily Cooper's (Lily Collins) love and work misdeeds are resolved far too quickly. The haute couture remains constant, too, because no matter how bad things get, there will always be another fancy party (probably with a ridiculous theme).

A specific escapist quality makes Emily in Paris prone to monotony. If the formula is changed, the show's luster could fade. That's why any attempt to tackle weighty topics usually fizzles out in a generic conclusion. Emily herself has remained pretty one-note. There's little to learn about her life in Chicago before moving to Paris, and it seems like she doesn't want more from her career, despite being incredibly fantastic at her marketing job. (Her salary must be insanely high if she can afford the outfits she wears, though, right?) Emily's relationship with Gabriel (Lucas Bravo) has gone through various ups and downs, a frustrating trend that continues in season four. So can a shallow TV show like this even try to grow up?

Strangely enough, the Netflix comedy actually bothers to ask this question towards the end of the last five parts of the fourth season. Don't worry, Parts of it are just as ridiculous and even downright outrageous. But it all builds up to a surprising final act that hopes to change the predictable status quo Emily in Paris thrives. Collins also ups her performance to support this. Nothing is too drastic, but the script evolves in small steps and the show arrives a little better than ever because of this risk-taking, if that's what we're going to believe. very I would like to call it generous.



It all starts when Emily hires a hot Italian client who naturally joins the fight for her affection. Yes, Gabriel and Alfie (Lucien Laviscount) now have competition in Marcello (Eugenio Franceschini). Through him, the show at least dares to open up her world beyond staples like striving to get Gabriel that damn Michelin star or figuring out her frenemy status with Camille (Camille Razat). She even takes her very first vacation as Emily in Paris becomes Emily in Rome for a while. It gives her (and the audience) a much-needed break from the routine while setting up a twist in the story. The execution is decidedly silly to fit the tone of the show, but it gets brownie points for simply trying to shake things up.

To make up for this, the rest of the fourth season is as frivolous as possible. The worst offense is Genevieve (Thalia Besson) in a subplot that is straight out of teen dramas like The OK And gossip Girl. Genevieve is Sylvie's (Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu) daughter, who moves from the US after graduating and starts working at Agence Grateau. She's not as naive and helpful as the title character. In fact, she's the Regina George to Emily's Cady Heron. After setting her sights on Gabriel, Genevieve becomes a thorn in this love story in an eye-rolling way. There isn't an iota of originality in this storyline, which seems to exist solely to add drama.

This is one of the many problems Emily and Gabriel are grappling with. (Another is that our protagonist can't speak French properly yet.) At this point, their back-and-forth has exceeded its limits, and there's no sign of it stopping, no matter how Season 4 ends. Meanwhile, Mindy Chen (Ashley Park) suffers a similar fate. Emily's best friend is a welcome sight throughout, but she's burdened with boring subplots, including a love triangle of her own that suddenly springs back to life after it ended. (It's one step forward and three steps back on this show, isn't it?) So yeah, Emily in Paris does not want to reinvent itself here. But season four does be somewhat successful in making room for a little bit of growth in the future. And maybe that's all a television show about flights of imagination can handle.

Emily in Paris Season four, part two starts on September 12th on Netflix