Emmy Catch-Up: Emily in Paris

Every year, I watch the six submitted episodes of every series I don’t regularly watch that’s up for one of the Emmy series prizes. Last year, I started watching the entire season of each show to get a better idea of the quality I missed, and I’ve decided to continue that this year.

Emily in Paris: Season 1, Episode 8 “Family Affair” (B+)

This episode was fun because it got out of Paris and got to show how Emily acts in a different context, which isn’t all that different. Camille wanting to have lunch with Emily to talk to her about something important resulted in something perfectly innocuous that she didn’t see coming, though she didn’t yet know what Camille’s mother was like and how difficult it was going to be to impress her. After an interesting start with Gérard being naked and Louise being almost as mean to Emily as Sylvie is when she asked about a tour of the house, things got better when she was able to unwind and enjoy the champagne on the other tour with Camille’s brother. While, in hindsight, his breast shape pickup strategy might have indicated his young age, Emily had no idea, and so she got mocked by the whole family before rallying to do exactly what she had come there for, which was to get a new business opportunity. Her creativity and watching the video of Mindy and her fancy friends turned out to be just the right recipe, and things are looking good for this new collaboration. Mindy’s friends revealing themselves to be more genuine and understanding than she expected was a nice surprise, as was her tour de force onstage performance. The “coq” jokes with Gabriel weren’t terribly highbrow, but I do enjoy the way that Emily and Gabriel interact as he continues to downplay the problematic nature of their flirtatious behavior and occasional passionate kissing.