Watch
Emily in Paris
Netflix
Everyone’s talking about this show. It’s like the Christmas tree in Sydney’s Martin Place each year. You can’t not look at it. It’s beautiful, it’s predictable and it’s a bit saccharine — but it’s undeniably irresistible.
This is exactly what Emily in Paris is. The show is created by the same guy who gave us Younger and Sex and the City, but his latest attempt at “chic young white women doing chic cool things” is nowhere near as clever or interesting as Younger or Sex and the City. But we don’t care, do we? It’s still worth watching because Lily Colins is so pretty you literally can’t look away. Everyone in the show is equally as attractive. And the fashion! Patricia Field is on set this time around. She’s the famous costume designer from Sex and the City. So this is eye-candy-delirium.
The most interesting character is Mindy, of course; the Chinese side-kick to Emily’s white-bread-ness.
Mindy is running away from her Uber-rich Chinese family back in Shanghai, and she’s got dreams to make it big as a singer. She’s a creative. She’s got expression and sass. What does Emily have? A gazzilion French men falling head over heels for her. This is why shows like this one are so immediately and unapologetically embraced by the ‘mainstream’ audience; I’d hazard to guess that 90 percent of people who tune in are straight cis-women between the ages of 15 to 45. And what is our ultimate fantasy? To be fawned over by every man we come across.
Oh, and to look as pretty as Emily, to be as well-dressed, to be as skinny and to be basic, but still be rewarded for it.
What a dream that is.
Listen
Alison Wonderland
Podcast
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Book
“You Daughters of Freedom: The Australians Who Won the Vote and Inspired the World” by Clare Wright