'Emily In Paris' Has Been Renewed For Two More Seasons On Netflix

Whether you hated or loved watching Emily's misadventures in Paris, you have not seen the last of her yet.

The second season of Emily in Paris premiered on December 22, 2021, and received mixed responses. Irrespective of how the show made the viewers or people of different nationalities feel, Netflix is definitely up for not just one but two more rounds of the show. This comes after the streaming site revealed that the new season topped its global top 10 list in 94 countries with 107.6 million hours viewed in just the first five days. The first season had taken the top spot as the most viewed comedy of 2020. Even though Netflix does not disclose traditional viewership data, the viewership for the show has been high enough for it to be renewed yet again.

After the first season was criticized for stereotyping the French, Lily Collins who plays the titular Emily had promised to make amends in the coming season by making it "more inclusive and diverse." But the second time around, there was even more backlash after the Ukrainian character in the show was stereotyped and caricatured as well. So much so that it raised the ire of the Ukrainian culture minister Oleksandr Tkachenko who even filed a complaint with Netflix demanding an apology from the show.

"In the 1990s and 2000s, Ukrainian guys were portrayed mainly as gangsters. Over time this has changed. However, not in this case," Tkachenko stated. "In Emily in Paris, we have a caricature of a Ukrainian woman which is unacceptable. It is also offensive. Is this how Ukrainians will be seen abroad? Who steal, want to get everything for free, be afraid of deportation? This should not be so." 

Show creator, Darren Star, spoke to The Hollywood Reporter to clarify the show's intentions, "I was surprised that people would ever be offended by anything in the show. It’s a lighthearted romantic comedy. I kept thinking, ‘Nobody can really be that thin-skinned’ — we’re poking fun at a cliché, but they’re clichés that everyone has experienced at one time or another, both from the American point of view and the French point of view. That’s what it’s about.” The series follows Emily, an American who moves to France to provide an American point of view to the French marketing firm, Savoir. Her struggles at the workplace are as American as it gets when she struggles without knowing the language and yet somehow makes it through after a lot of confusion and chaos.

Other than the "clichés" the show has also been critiqued for having a main character who barely shows any character development. It has also been criticized for being outdated and celebrating a narrow concept of what makes a strong, independent, career woman.