“Emily in Paris” gets a lot of things wrong about being French

“Emily in Paris” is now back for its fourth season — yet it still gets so many things wrong about the city in its name.

The Netflix original, which debuted in 2020, follows American marketing executive Emily Cooper (played by Lily Collins) as she navigates her new life in Paris.

Despite it being widely panned by audiences, the show is pretty popular — part one of season four debuted with almost 20 million views on Netflix.

As a French person, I’d say the first season had some bad representations of France and its culture. The second and third seasons showed some promise as Emily tried a little harder to integrate herself into the French lifestyle.

Unfortunately, season four seems like a regression to Emily’s old self: She is more American than ever and seems to have decided she’s better off culturally stagnating.

Here are some of the worst parts of this season so far.

Emily’s ability to speak French is still basically nonexistent.

Emily has lived in Paris for a while but still doesn’t know much French at all. Netflix
I would’ve hoped to see at least some improvement in Emily’s French-speaking skills by season four. However, she continues to barely speak French, mispronounce words, and make basic mistakes.

Learning a new language can be difficult, but the worst part is that she seems to have given up on even trying. She no longer seems to be taking French lessons and most people around her just revert to speaking English.

I am beyond amazed that she believes that her dream life is in Paris but that that life doesn’t seem to include actually learning French.

If she intends to stay in the city, I would urge her to resume those French classes immediately.

Emily seems to be on a mission to wear the least office-appropriate clothes possible.

I’d argue micro shorts aren’t considered appropriate office attire in France. Netflix
The French are definitely not prudish, but officewear is overall still quite conservative in France.

Even if Agence Grateau seems a bit more relaxed than the average workplace when it comes to fashion, wearing micro shorts to the office is perhaps pushing the boundaries a little. I’m not sure some of Emily’s styles would fly in the corporate sector in the US, either.

Although Emily’s fashion choices were a big topic of office conversation in the first season, it seems her coworkers have given up on giving her style notes.

Personally, I wouldn’t be too pleased if my employee showed up dressed like Emily for a client meeting.

The depiction of French people as professionally incompetent is getting a little tiring.

Luc seemingly breaks a lot of rules with some of his ideas, too. Netflix
In my opinion, “Emily in Paris” has a record of portraying the French as incompetent and often shows Emily coming in as the trooping American savior.

After all, season one’s plot revolves around how, apparently, nobody at the Savoir agency in France understands digital marketing until Emily arrives and saves the day because “Americans invented social media.”

This trope continues throughout season four, when account manager Luc is constantly shown as completely inept at his job: He’s been working on a specific account for months but can barely remember the details of the campaign for it.

So, he has his former colleague tell him what to say through an earbud during the big presentation. This obviously backfires.

Later, he even creates a rigged giveaway for a client that violates most social-media promotion guidelines.

France is depicted as cheap.

Mindy and her band are apparently going to Eurovision. 
Mindy and her band have somehow been selected to represent France at the Eurovision Song Contest.

More shocking is that they’re informed they will have to pay for their entire performance themselves because France has drastically cut its funds for Eurovision.

Considering how seriously France takes its cultural diplomacy (see the 2024 Paris Olympics) and how big of an event Eurovision is for the country, this feels like a cheap and inaccurate dig at its budget.

In fact, France is usually one of the top financial contributors to the Eurovision organizers.

Emily and Camille disrespect an iconic French landmark.

Emily and Camille fight like little kids on the boats. 

Emily confronts Camille while she’s volunteering at Claude Monet’s beautiful gardens in Giverny. Instead of speaking like adults, they have a fight on a famous lily pond and hit each other’s boats with oars.

Both women fall in and find it quite funny to be berated by another volunteer for being disrespectful. But I’m on the volunteer’s side — and they’re lucky they didn’t damage anything and that she didn’t call security on them.

Although Camille said she’d make a generous donation to the gardens so they wouldn’t be banned for life, I wish they would be.

No, French people are not all wildly obsessed with alcohol.

Alcohol is popular in France but it’s not everything. Stephanie Branchu/Netflix
A large portion of the third episode is dedicated to depicting French people as completely alcohol obsessed. It’s popular in France, but it’s not everything.

When Emily brings up the possibility of trying out an alcohol-free product in the French market, Sylvie exclaims that sobriety is “the antithesis of French culture.”

Luc adds that “Dry January was banned from France by order of President Macron,” which is not true — even if the French president has yet to publicly back the alcohol-free month.

Later in the episode, two pregnant people are shown drinking wine at a restaurant, which would not be recommended by any good French doctor. France has also had warnings about drinking during pregnancy on alcohol containers for more than a decade.

People are getting fired way too easily considering we’re in France.

Gabriel was annoyed by his pastry chef and then abruptly fired him. Netflix

Gabriel hires a pastry chef for his restaurant in order to get it closer to receiving a Michelin star. The pastry chef is good, but Gabriel thinks he’s annoying.

Later, when Gabriel realizes he’s not actually getting a Michelin star, he fires his pastry chef on the spot.

However, employees in France have quite a few protections that make getting fired more complicated than it seems on the show. It’s not as easy as just saying, “You’re fired.” For starters, employers in France should have a clear reason.

Gabriel didn’t exactly have one, especially since the talented pastry chef was doing his job and helping to fill the seats in Gabriel’s restaurant every night.

This is also not the first time the show has portrayed a more American-style firing system: Sylvie similarly quickly and immediately fired Emily in season three.