By now everyone knows Emily Cooper, the American marketing executive in Paris who learns the ropes while pulling the strings, in a manner of speaking.
The target audience for the series is the young urban female who likes clothes tips from the beau monde in Paris . But the chic surface doesn’t denude a beating heart. There is a lot more going on here than just the clothes, although now after having enjoyed the series—I sat through the entire eight episodes of Season 5—I can’t think of what exactly hooks me to the series.
If the target audience is the young female, then I must say there is a lot more going on here than what we have signed up for. The writing is funky and feisty , and often sarcastic. The performances are far more thoughtful than they outwardly seem. Just because the actors are good-looking—the brief for the casting must have been, ‘Looks first, talent later’—it doesn’t follow that they are as shallow as their onscreen shindigs.
The sex… ah that is constant. And relationship- defining. These are characters with a high unapologetic libido, even the older ones. Here I must say Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu as Sylvie, Emily’s boss is the real scenestealer. Her frosty attitude is never overdone. She is slick and sexy in her middleaged space.
Come to think of it, in a world of extravagance, Emily In Paris never gets overbearing in mood. This is minimalism at its peak. The atmosphere is constantly souffle light and stress-free. The series appeals to the First World palate within us. These are characters who don’t give a damn as to what Trump does to Venezuela as long their own wheels of self-advancement are oiled.
Curiously the first half of the series is set in Rome and the second half moves back to Paris. Were the Emilians afraid of ennui setting in? Not a problem. The series sparkles with wit glamour and sex wherever it goes.
