This Netflix show, by the infamous Darren Star ("Sex in the City", "90210", etc) is so fluffy that it makes amusement park cotton candy look flat. Yet, for all the volume there is little depth. Storylines tend to focus on building Social Media and the young Emily making her superiors land elders ook bad (followed by a cutesy half-baked apology from the too innocent girl). Like many other big hits this year it has more attention than it might have had if it wasn't a time of lockdown. Critics have panned it, universally. Which is a little unfair. The acting is good, the visuals and yes, costuming, are eye-catching. But it bugs me. So I kept watching, trying to figure out what it was which was nagging at me. I finally realized it. With all the traveling I had been doing in pre-pandemic days I thought about the great care I take to respect the culture, even when that culture is challenging for me personally. "Emily in Paris" does the complete opposite, creating a lead character who could easily be considered the ugly American. She pushes her own agenda over the comfort levels of those around her and makes fun of the language and customs. The French, for their part, come off pretty poorly. Yes, Parisians have well-earned their reputation for being unwelcoming but highlighting this makes for a lot of characters you just don't care about. I watched season one, but I'm not sure I'm up for season two.
