Netflix’s Emily In Paris returns for fourth season with messier relationships, wilder outfits

LOS ANGELES – There was a baby pink (red) carpet. Hundreds of tiny fruit tarts. Selfie mirrors that read “Haute girl summer”. And lots of berets.

On Aug 14, about 500 people showed up at the ornate Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood for the season premiere of the romantic comedy-drama Emily In Paris, the tale of the young American marketing savant-turned-influencer played by Lily Collins, now in its fourth season. Part 1 is now available on Netflix, with Part 2 premiering on Sept 12.

“The show has created its own little Emily-in-Paris-verse,” said British actor Lucien Laviscount, 32, who plays Emily’s boyfriend Alfie.

“It’s that little bit of light, that little bit of love, that little bit of je ne sais quoi,” he added.

But as the new season picks up, the main relationships of the show are in shambles.

At the end of Season 3, Camille (Camille Razat) has just called off her engagement party turned impromptu wedding in the sun-dappled town of Champagne in north-east France. In a dramatic turn at the altar, she proclaims she cannot marry Gabriel (Lucas Bravo) because he has obviously been in love with Emily since the moment they met.

Emily is left at the wedding by Alfie, a good guy who has always felt like her second choice. And though Camille does not say it at the wedding, she is pregnant with Gabriel’s baby.

“I think Emily wants the best for each of these people that she’s met,” American actress Collins, 35, said. “In some weird way, it works at the beginning for all of them to be in some version of a friendship-relationship dynamic.”

Of course, as the season unfolds, the dynamics become more complicated.

“She finally explodes a little bit, but she wants the best for everyone,” Collins added. “And she really loves all these people, so she’s figuring it out as she goes along.”

In interviews on the pink carpet, several of the writers said they had been itching to move beyond the Emily, Camille and Gabriel love triangle plot.

“I pitch a throuple storyline once a season,” said Joe Murphy, while Alison Brown joked that ethical non-monogamy would probably work on the show as another one of Emily’s marketing campaigns.

“Listen, if we can figure out how a polycule can sell a product, she will be in a polycule,” Brown said.

Still, Darren Star, the American creator and executive producer of Emily In Paris who was behind popular shows Sex And The City (1998 to 2004) and Beverly Hills 90210 (1990 to 2000), said the new season is trying to embrace more nuanced connections.

“I think the relationships get more real,” Star, 63, added. “The characters go from infatuation to seeing each other in a more realistic way.”

The outfits are, however, still maximalist. Emily wears a black and white look to a masquerade ball this season that makes her appear a little like a sexy Hamburglar. She has also, somehow, meddled her way into getting Gabriel’s new restaurant on track for a Michelin star. And her best friend Mindy (Ashley Park) has just found out that her band will be France’s submission to global song contest Eurovision.

In an interview before the screening, Park – who in late December 2023 was hospitalised due to life-threatening critical septic shock – said that she unfortunately did not get to watch much of the 2024 Eurovision, but that Collins had shared highlights as the latter watched it with her husband, American screenwriter-director Charlie McDowell.

The couple told her that visual artist-DJ Windows95man from Finland “was incredible”, Park added.

The 33-year-old American actress of Korean descent also said she was able to work this season with Los Angeles-based Kyle Hanagami, the popular YouTuber and choreographer who has shaped several Eurovision numbers. NYTIMES