Emily Cooper might need been on to something when she said, “I like Paris, but I’m probably not sure Paris likes me.”
A French politician slammed the favored Netflix show “Emily in Paris” accusing it of fueling the climate crisis and conservative values.
David Belliard, Deputy Mayor of Paris, penned a scathing review of the sitcom within the Libération newspaper on Thursday.
“It’s a snapshot of an unchangeable Paris, a Disneyland, which is confined to the ultra-centre, inhabited only by the richest people in a uniform architectural heritage,” Belliard wrote. “In brief an ‘Instagram Paris’ with impeccable colours and ideal views.”
The show was first released on Netflix in 2020 and started streaming its third season last month. The rom-com centers around a young American woman in her 20s who moves to Paris for her promoting job and stumbles over cultural differences while effortlessly at all times ending up on top — and going viral.
“This fable is neither desirable nor viable… there may be the entire erasure of the constraints of climate deregulation and the rarity of resources,” Belliard, leader of the Greens party within the left-wing coalition, said.
“We now have to get out of nostalgia for a stereotypical city and invent a latest aesthetic coherence that is customized to a changing world.”
The show, starring Lily Collins because the titular character, has been dragged by critics and viewers for its stereotyped — and insufferable — characters while continuing to be watched at record rates, in accordance with Nielsen data.
Thousands and thousands of viewers tuned in to observe the newest season, but Belliard was not excited to see Emily return to the screen, galavanting around France before returning to her tiny apartment within the attic of an old constructing within the fifth arrondissement, generally known as the Latin Quarter.
The Nineteenth-century constructing where Emily lives, at 1 Place de l’Estrapade, along with her best friend Mindy Chen (Ashely Park) may look like an lovely shoebox for the 2 girls on screen, however the deputy mayor warns the setting is just one other unrealistic detail of the series.
While the show has seen Emily and Mindy adorably stumbling over each other’s overflowing suitcases within the tiny studio, lounging around their designer apartment in the midst of the day, Belliard notes that these old units have turn into intolerable with the recent European heat waves.
“The flats on the highest floors, often occupied by the poorest people, turn into unbearable ovens in hot weather,” he ranted. “An easy solution… could be to color the roofs with white reflective paint. But are we able to abandon the colour palette of Paris?”
These issues are of particular importance to Belliard whose duties concentrate on the transformation of public spaces, transportation, mobility and road management.
Belliard is one in all 34 deputy mayors of Paris serving under the Mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, a member of the Socialist Party. He claims that the portrayal of his city in “Emily in Paris” appears as conservative propaganda, resisting efforts to adapt city infrastructure.
“The vision portrayed within the show plays into the hands of conservatives who’re resisting the council’s efforts to adapt town to modern needs,” he insisted.
Despite Belliard’s damning notes of the show, “Emily in Paris” will return for a fourth season although some have accused the show of becoming too boring to even hate-watch.