Emily In Paris (Netflix-2020)......is indefensible on every and any level.
So don't anyone hold their collective breath waiting for us to defend it.
But did we enjoy it? (sound of a low, low whisper:) Hell, yes.
Let's be clear, though. By 'enjoy', we mean the same way we'd enjoy a jumbo order of extra greasy French Fries from our favorite beachside burger stand.
We know it's the worst thing in the world for us to consume, loaded with artery-clogging cholesterol.......but pardon us while we slather on the ketchup and stuff them into our mouths, two and three at a time........
The very definition of a guilty pleasure. And "Emily In Paris" may stand as the guiltiest pleasure we've unashamedly gobbled down this year.......
Created by 'Sex And The City' mastermind Darren Star, the show follows the misadventures of millennial marketing exec and social media 'influencer' Emily (Lily Collins). Her Chicago firm has sent her off to Paris to sort of 'American-ize' their newly acquired French marketing company.
Emily arrives in nothing resembling the real Paris, but in Darren Starr's fantasized version of some Never Neverland Paris he imagined from watching too many old movies like "An American In Paris" and "Funny Face"........(only now with the addition of up-to-the-minute hard-humpin', bedpost thumpin' sex.....)
Then again, Emily fits in perfectly since she's as much a fantasy character as the make-believe city she's landed in. She's as shallow as a rain puddle on your front walk, and life is meaningless to her unless it's posted on Instagram. (You can almost picture her as one Lori Laughlin's daughters, conning her way into college by claiming she's a champion athlete,)
This forces Lily Collins to work extra hard to convince us that Emily's really, really lovable.......you can practically see her breaking out in flop sweat as she grins madly at everybody she encounters.
We'll not belabor the storylines of the show's ten episodes........not one minute of it is believable, rational or contains anything approaching recognizable human behavior......
With great willpower, we'll not even discuss one of Emily's sexual escapades that in America, would've landed her in jail......(but in Darren Star's semi-porn, Euro Disney version of Paris, anything's possible....)
With the help of cinematographers Steve Fierberg and Alexander Gruszynski, Star envisions the most drop dead gorgeous Paris we've seen since.....well, since Audrey Hepburn and Fred Astaire cavorted there in 'Funny Face'.
We guess we should just spit it out and say what we're trying to say here.......the show is indeed mindless, dumb , in some spots, unforgivably tasteless.......
But we had whole lot of pleasurably guilty fun watching it. It's junk to its very core, but it's fast, snappy and more than a few times, laugh out loud funny.
If we applied any artistic standards to it, it'd never get more than a Zero (0)
But if we think of it as that 5 pound plate of crispy boardwalk French Fries, then on that basis, it's a 3 star (***) Extra Guilty Pleasure.
If it's not good for us.....so what. After the year we're having, maybe we could all use a little bright bubbly trip to 'Emily In Paris'......pass the Ketchup.
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