Emily In Paris creator Darren Star is defiant in the face of the show’s critics, and says he’s not sorry for stuffing it with every cutesy French cliche imaginable, saying he wanted to celebrate the city through the eyes of his main character.
The titular Emily is a young American woman who is swept off her feet by the city when she goes there on a work assignment, and the show is a soft, fluffy ball of escapism, filled with berets, quaint sidewalk cafes and cruises on the Seine.
The show’s critics have been quite harsh, and some have accused it of presenting a “a comic-book version” of the French capital. “Cite a cliché about France and the French [and] you will find it in Emily in Paris,” said one local writer.
According to Darren Star, however, the fairy tale stuff is the whole damn point. Sticking to his guns, he told The Hollywood Reporter:
“The show is a love letter to Paris through the eyes of this American girl who has never been there. The first thing she is seeing is the clichés because it’s from her point of view. I’m not sorry for looking at Paris through a glamorous lens. It’s a beautiful city, and I wanted to do a show that celebrated that part of Paris.”
Netflix has yet to officially confirm a second season of Emily In Paris, however, Star says that his plan is for something a little less starry-eyed. “She’ll be more of a resident of the city,” he told Oprah Magazine, of his future plans. “She’ll have her feet on the ground a little more.”
