In the newest season of “Emily in Paris,” the writers presented viewers with a lot of changes. The first being Emily’s new hairdo – a chic, Parisian bob – despite the fact Emily spent most of her time in Rome.
Beyond the debut of the new hair, the show graced us with a host of glamorous changes – a 1970s inspired Yves Saint Laurent power suit, Sylvie sleeping around in sheers and unlined lace dresses (drawing a parallel to Kim Cattrall’s iconic character of Samatha Jones in “Sex and the City”) and Mindy finding herself amidst a love triangle with two unlikely players. With Gabriel serving as a personal chef overseas, he is no longer stealing Emily’s heart or attention this season.
Sylvie, the audacious businesswoman, was threatened by her rather salacious life choices this season. She may have cut back on the class a bit, especially when she wound up sleeping with her newly reunited best friend’s son, but her clothing choices did a great job of reflecting this crisis in character.
In opposition, following her promotion to run the Rome office, Emily is taking more control of her life. She does this by choosing to go to Rome, and then, by deciding to leave both Rome and Marcello. Emily’s autonomy grew, and with that, her fashion choices were still bold, but now, they were bold with a clearer purpose. She is growing up. She is no longer the bright-eyed ingénue who arrived at Agence Grateau four seasons ago. Emily’s outfits are classier than they have been in previous seasons. In fact, the strappy, little black dress she slipped into in Episode 1: “La Dolce Emily” and the white and black polka-dotted number she wore in the opening scene of the final episode, “Veni, Vidi, Venezia,” were the stars of her wardrobe this season.
Emily has never been afraid to mix prints, vibrant hues and adornments such as feathers, so this classier twist on her bold style is a great way to signify that she is growing into a slightly more mature person.
Unlike Emily, Mindy’s life is not so much coming together as it is falling apart in a plotline that can only be described as poorly written. This season, it felt like the writers didn’t know what to do with her, so they stuck her in a cheap love triangle. Alfie (Lucien Laviscount) could have chemistry with a brick wall, so the tired plotline isn’t a complete disaster, especially due to his off-the-(brick) walls chemistry with Mindy (Ashley Park). The main issue I find with this plotline is that the writers sacrificed Mindy’s character. Mindy is a girl’s girl; there’s no way she would have slept with her best friend’s ex-boyfriend and then kept it a secret.
Her ill-fitting plotline was reflected in her outfits. While still moderately outlandish, we lost the sexy, Mindy flair from the first four seasons. The only truly memorable outfit Mindy graced our screens with was the soft blue pearl draped dress she wore in Episode 2: “Got to be Real,” while she sang Sabrina Carpenter’s “Espresso.” While it was memorable, it didn’t meet the Mindy standard set throughout the previous seasons.
In closing, while the plot points may not always be the most realistic, that is part of what draws so many fans to “Emily in Paris” in the first place. We love the allure of being swept away into a world of luxury, beautiful places, beautiful people and, most importantly, beautiful clothes.
