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Marriage is sacred
Despite all the bed-hopping and the proliferation of extramarital liaisons, Emily In Paris is quaintly wedded to the idea that there is something special about the bond between a husband and a wife. It may well involve free licence to root around like a Parisian sewer rat, but marriage is sacred. It’s sweet, but if Sylvie (Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu) and her St Tropez-nightclub-owning beau Laurent (Arnaud Binard) settle into something like a traditional relationship it will feel a bit like a betrayal.
Marriage, French-style: Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu as Sylvie and Arnaud Binard as her husband Laurent G.Credit:Netflix
To work is to be ... or not to be?
In the very first episode of the show, Emily and Luc (Bruno Gouery, one of Tanya’s “the gays” in The White Lotus) have an exchange that basically sums up the entire three seasons that follow. “I think the Americans have the wrong balance,” he tells the brightly coloured Duracell bunny who has stormed the office. “You live to work, we work to live.” It’s a cliché, but like all clichés, there’s something to it. Each can and does learn from the other, but it’s pretty hard not to side with the French on this one.
The rich suffer too
Well, the children of the exceptionally rich do, anyway. Witness poor Mindy (Ashley Park), estranged from her billionaire father because she embarrassed the family on national TV back in China.
Poor little rich girl: Mindy (Ashley Park) is estranged from her billionaire family.Credit:Netflix
Take poor little Nicolas, her I-had-a-crush-on-you-back-in-Swiss-boarding-school boyfriend, the son of one of France’s wealthiest men but destined never to make him feel proud, even while running one of his luxury brands. Yes, people, they suffer just like the rest of us. They just do it in fabulous restaurants while wearing designer clothes, with endlessly flowing champagne on hand to dull the pain. Where’s my hanky?
Australians can’t be trusted
Look, we’re not quite as bad as the rostbif English, but Scott Morrison ripping up a $90 billion submarine contract while they were looking the other way seems to mean we’re a bit dans le nez right now. When Emily meets with stylemaker Janine Dubois (Kate Colbrook) to try to get Sylvie onto La Liste, a ranking of the hottest people in Paris, she ends up on it herself, along with he’s-just-a-friend hot chef Gabriel (Lucas Bravo).
English actress Kate Colebrook plays Australian woman Janine Dubois.Credit:Netflix
Janine, it turns out, is Australian – though the actress who plays her is English, and her accent sounds suspiciously South African – which makes Sylivie suspect un complot. “You’re American, she’s Australian,” she fumes. “You colluded!” Totally awks (or should that be AUKUS)?
The French love cinema
There’s a hilarious bit in season two riffing on Francois Truffaut’s 1962 movie Jules et Jim, about a menage a trois, which gives Luc the opportunity to regale Emily with how much Parisians love the cinema.
If you spend your nights texting your ex while lying in bed with your partner, it might be telling you something. Credit:Netflix
So, what do they all choose to see at an open-air screening in the park this season? A Matthew McConaughey-Kate Hudson rom-com, naturellement. “Everyone likes watching a story about two people trying to fight off their natural attraction to each other,” Gabriel says to Emily, thereby summarising the strange appeal of this delightfully ridiculous show for millions of people who really should know better.
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Email the author at kquinn@theage.com.au, or follow him on Facebook at karlquinnjournalist and on Twitter @karlkwin.
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