Season five of Emily in Paris feels surprisingly new

The day has finally dawned, the day after binge-watching the entire new season of Emily in Paris. I have to admit I am very happy that Netflix decided not to drag things out the way it so often does with its most popular shows. I assume they realized that splitting the final season of Stranger Things into three parts was already punishment enough. Be that as it may, Emily is back and ready for new marketing victories and, for the first time, it seems, losses as well. If I were to make the joke one more time that this series is no longer Emily in Paris but Emily in Rome, I think I would have to take my keyboard away from myself and book some kind of writing retreat where they would teach me how to have original ideas again. Still, the fact is that the fifth season left a noticeably different impression on me, mostly because it truly feels like a different show.

I would start by saying that I genuinely do not know why I keep turning this show on again and again, when in my right mind I probably would not recommend it to a single person in the world. I think I have that problem where I deliberately put myself through things I find cringe, because I simply cannot stop myself from watching them. However, when I started the fifth season, I noticed that the overall vibe was different. True, the storyline is still similar, Emily works at the Grateau marketing agency for unbelievably luxurious clients, I would even say the most luxurious so far, the characters are more or less the same as at the beginning, national stereotypes are everywhere, and fashion still dances on the line between something cool and total kitsch. And yet, everything is different. For the first time, neither Emily nor Sylvie has everything going smoothly on the business front, someone finally turns down Emily’s mediocre ideas, the show puts more focus on side characters, who does not love Julien and Luc, Italians are not portrayed as stereotypically as the French were at the start, and the fashion is actually not bad.

Courtesy of Netflix

The new season begins in Rome, where Emily believes she is running a branch of Sylvie’s company, only for it to turn out that the entire Paris team, including Sylvie, ends up staying in Italy. I found it completely unrealistic that the agency would simply ignore all its clients in Paris and expect that to be a reasonable business move, but perhaps I just do not understand the power of these marketing wizards. Emily tries to deal with a truly difficult client, the mother of her new boyfriend Marcello, and I cannot for the life of me understand how she thought that was a good idea, while Sylvie, Luc, and Julien try to secure new clients. I have to admit that Emily was not quite as cringe in Rome, and the whole business side felt somewhat more realistic. For example, I do not believe that a random new agency from France would even get a meeting with Fendi, but I appreciate that they were realistic enough to show that Agence Grateau did not exactly blow them away.

Courtesy of Netflix

But the business aspect of this show has always been fairly interesting to me. Romantic relationships are the part I have always found questionable. Let us just remember last season, when Camille lied to both Gabriel and Emily about being pregnant just to put herself between them. Televisa presenta. Unfortunately, Camille is not in this season, a big loss if you ask me, but the bizarre romantic entanglements are still very much present. Let us start with Marcello and Emily, especially since I was one of those people who said they should be together. Well, their chemistry is nonexistent. Go girl, give me nothing. Even when he took her to buy a new Fendi bag, I felt completely indifferent. In fact, I spent the entire season hoping they would break up. And that was not even the worst relationship. I need to know which of the creators thought pairing Mindy and Alfie was a good idea. In what universe? I would love to send that person to the aforementioned writing retreat.

Maybe the problem is me and my low tolerance for cringe, but at no point did I care about Mindy’s performances. But her rendition of the song Espresso this season was the final straw for me. Again, who watched that and thought it was a good idea? The girl can sing well, but the whole performance felt like a very poor attempt at channeling Sabrina Carpenter’s recognizable flirtation, and above all, it felt cheap. Which I definitely do not think is the goal of a luxury marketing agency. That can partly be attributed to the costuming, which in Emily’s case is better than ever this season, with excellent vintage references that the costume designer has talked about, but Mindy’s outfits, especially her performance looks, feel like they were pulled straight from the Toddlers and Tiaras archive.

Courtesy of Netflix

Earlier this year, rumors circulated that Gabriel would not return for the fifth season, mostly because the actor himself was reportedly no longer happy with the direction his character was taking. When you see him lurking behind a fountain in Rome, you will understand why. Still, the creators made an effort to let us know that everything was fine and that Lucas Bravo had not left the show. And yet, it honestly feels like he has. Although the series oddly paves the way for Gabriel and Emily, he is her Mr. Big or whatever, it is strange to think that the endgame will be a character who barely appears in the fifth season.

Courtesy of Netflix

All in all, I have to admit that I did not miss the bizarre petty drama and love polygons, thanks to Mindy and Alfie for their new contribution. I actually think the greatest strength of this series lies in Emily’s creativity and the interesting campaigns they create for clients. To be fair, this season those preparations felt more like a big advertisement for the brands that bought screen time, but honestly that bothered me less than fake pregnancies and dreadful performances. Yes, Emily in Paris is still quite cringe, and at times you will definitely wonder whether watching this show is really the best way to spend your free time, but at least it shifts the focus away from strictly romantic relationships toward work, friendships, and comedy, which sometimes actually lands. That gives me hope that the creators really do read the criticism and at least try to introduce changes and make the viewing experience more pleasant. What can I say, same time next year?