Ashley Park returns to ‘Emily in Paris’ after health scare
Ashley Park is on the mend after suffering critical septic shock following a trip to the Maldives with her boyfriend and co-star Paul Forman.
without brand – Entertainment
When the 2024 Summer Olympics came to an end last Sunday, it was like saying goodbye to a vicarious luxury vacation in the City of Light.
It wasn’t just the elite sporting competitions, the celebrity parade, the postcard-perfect sights and the bread and pastry coverage that made these two weeks seem magical. (If only there had been a DoorDash option for Al Roker’s daughter’s Today report on the best croissants in town.)
As club kid Stefon from the classic Saturday Night Live song would say, the Paris Games had it all: a half-naked blue guy, an Olympic flame hanging from a hot air balloon, a nerdy Clark Kent competing as a champion pommel horse, a French pole vaulter made famous by a crotch mishap, an Australian breakdancer whose, er, signature moves spawned thousands of memes, a Tom Cruise rappelling, riding motorcycles and skydiving in the stadium, and the emergence of Snoop Dogg as the most lovable U.S. national team supporter in the entire world.
“We’ll always have Paris,” legendary British actor Michael Caine posted on social media on the day of the closing ceremony, borrowing a line from “Casablanca” that captured the bittersweet end to one of the most refreshing, quirky and inspiring Olympics ever. The fun is over. It’s back to watching prime-time game shows or the upcoming finale of “Bachelorette.” Remember when gymnastics icon Simone Biles defied gravity every night? That’s entertainment.
Recovering from Olympic fever requires slow relaxation, not too quickly subjecting yourself to the pressures of real life. May I suggest staying in that state of bliss for a while longer by keeping your screens glued to Paris? The first half of season four of Emily in Paris dropped on Netflix on Thursday. The five episodes will lull you into feeling like a bonus crush has been added to your post-Olympics Paris getaway, where all expenses are covered (apart from the Netflix subscription fee).
“Emily in Paris” was featured in a pre-Olympics commercial in which Lily Collins, playing Emily Cooper, tried to sell a roomful of executives on a uniform for U.S. sprinter Noah Lyles that featured a yard-long cape that the other runners could trip over. When asked if the uniform was safe, Emily diverted attention by spraying the room with champagne – an inside joke about her ability to use her enthusiasm to turn marketing disasters into triumphs.
That’s Emily in a nutshell, the plucky, overly naive but ever-resourceful marketing agency heroine who spent three seasons prior overcoming French snobbery toward her ideas and charming every 20-50-year-old man in her vicinity. Nothing can discourage her for long, because bad times in Emily in Paris are just the prelude to a return to good times—and how bad can things be when Emily has an unlimited supply of insanely cute skirts and tops somehow hidden in her oversized apartment closet?
In the five episodes available now (five more follow on September 12), the story picks up from last season’s finale – spoiler alert if you haven’t seen it yet – and follows the disastrous failure of the wedding of Emily’s on-off girlfriend Camille (Camille Razal) and her on-off lover Gabriel (Lucas Bravo). As the big day approached, Camille was hiding her affair with a woman from him, and Gabriel was still mad about Emily, who was dating her new British boyfriend Alfie. During the wedding vows, Camille announced to everyone that Gabriel was in love with Emily and had been since he met her. Alfie understandably stormed out after this revelation.
Oh, and just when it looked like Gabriel and Emily were on the verge of romance, he told her in the final moments that Camille was pregnant.
Emily’s conflicting feelings for Gabriel and Alfie dominate the new season, which opens with an episode that revives the 1978 disco hit “Love Is in the Air” and plunges Emily into a minor TikTok scandal and a dilemma over an ad campaign starring her and formerly love interest Alfie. Luckily for fans, there’s also an unlikely subplot in which Emily’s best friend Mindy and her busking group are chosen as the French selection for the next Eurovision Song Contest. And Emily introduces the European nation to the concept of the kiss cam at a tennis match.
Creator Darren Star, producer of “Beverly Hills, 90210,” “Sex and the City,” the “City” sequel “And Just Like That…” and “Younger,” understands the task. Spicy new twists breathe new life into the story. Emily’s cougar-loving boss Sylvie has to deal with the consequences of the #MeToo situation. Gabriel is aiming for a Michelin star for his restaurant. A daring fashion line is created that, let’s say, might appeal to the French pole vaulter. There’s even time for a “Dynasty”-worthy, wet fight between friends Emily and Camille in the famous gardens of the impressionist artist Claude Monet in Giverny. Pro tourist tip: You shouldn’t swim in the lily ponds that he immortalized on canvas.
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Yet, despite all the story’s new plot points, the show itself never changes. “Emily in Paris” is a reliable guilty pleasure. There’s a certain comfort in being immersed again in Emily’s glamorous, essentially unreal world. Like the Olympics, the show is there to be enjoyed by people at home. The pomp, youth and heightened drama focus on characters who are basically living out their dreams in cool places, even if they’re not taking home the gold.
Emily deserves that medal for her wardrobe alone, which surpasses Paris Games chic. Like the gymnasts’ sequined leotards, the equestrian athletes’ old-school tailoring, and the preppy Ralph Lauren vibe of the U.S. team’s jeans and blazers at the opening ceremony, Emily ups the ante this season with a black-and-white masquerade ball ensemble that seems to have been pulled from a 1960s Audrey Hepburn film and a red-and-white striped suit that Michael Keaton could borrow for the upcoming “Beetlejuice” sequel. Just when you think you’re over your “Emily” addiction, the clothes alone will have you hooked again.
And kudos to Collins, who carries the weight of the series on her slim, designer-clad shoulders. In the three previous seasons, Collins has convincingly maintained Emily’s cheerful perseverance without making her seem insufferable. Her innate charm as an actress overcomes the fact that the stakes of Emily’s journey are low. The specifics may change, but her character’s routine of love, work, and resolving the misunderstandings that plague her in both areas remains unchanged.
In fact, one could argue—I wouldn’t, of course, because I don’t need the outraged emails—that Emily is the best female character in Star, combining the gritty determination of Shannen Doherty’s Brenda Walsh in Beverly Hills, 90210, the emancipated freedom of Sarah Jessica Parker’s Carrie in SATC, and the integrity (coupled with the ability to keep great secrets) of Sutton Foster’s Liza Miller in Younger.
You could even call Collins’ Emily the Katie Ledecky (American swimmer with 14 Olympic medals) of streaming soaps. God, I miss the Olympics.
Contact Detroit Free Press pop culture critic Julie Hinds at [email protected].
“Emily in Paris”
Five episodes of the fourth season are now available to stream on Netflix. Five more episodes will be released on September 12.
Rated TV-MA
