Critics say Emily in Paris season 4 is a 'black hole' or 'adorably idiotic'
Emily in Paris is back for season four, bringing with it one of culture's greatest questions: why is this show still on? Nobody seems to earnestly enjoy it in the same way as other Netflix fluff like Bridgerton, and yet it continues to amass hefty viewing figures and keeps Lily Collins in an array of hats and summer dresses.
Perhaps, then, Emily in Paris is perfect streaming material. It's the ideal show to have playing in the background as a sort of soothing balm to offset your doom-scrolling of an evening, or to provide a bit of comforting noise in the room while you fold washing or iron clothes.
Certainly, when it comes to critical reviews, Emily in Paris season four has fared about as well as what's come before for the show. That is to say, not well at all.
Critics on Emily in Paris
Katie Rosseinsky in The Independent wrote that, in this new run of five episodes, "sub-plots are introduced, partially resolved then discarded with head-spinning frequency".
She added: "While the show’s silliness has a certain limited charm, the cumulative effect is akin to eating too much sugar too quickly: it leaves you feeling a bit queasy and vowing to swear off this stuff in future."
Read more: Everything that’s happened in Emily in Paris so far (Yahoo Entertainment UK)
Perhaps the most savage reaction came from Leila Latif in The Guardian, who penned a one-star review of the new episodes in which she called them "a black hole devoid of plot, charisma and intrigue".
"To say that this is as thrilling as watching paint dry would be a disservice to the many excellent shades of paint," she wrote. "[Emily's] Disney princess approach to romance and unrelenting sweetness feels insidious – the centre of a series that has repackaged feminine empowerment with a pretty bow but is afraid to make its protagonist too messy, too horny or too flawed."
Harriet Addison in the Evening Standard was more complimentary, writing that after a "slightly grating recap" of what's gone before, she enjoyed the show as much as before. "This drama is as cheesy and fun as ever. I’ve loved it since the beginning, for pure candy-coloured reverie, and I won’t even call it a guilty pleasure — it’s just a pleasure," she wrote.
Read more: When does Emily In Paris season 4 part 2 come out? (Cosmopolitan)
Similarly, The Daily Beast's Emma Stefansky described season four as "absurdly, adorably idiotic", though made it clear that there's very little plot in the new episodes and that what there is is "trivial"
She added: "The characters move around the scenery of each new episode like flat paper dolls being tipped from one end of a page to another."
It will be interesting to see what the French critics think of the latest season when they decide to weigh in. Historically, the show's depiction of Paris and the people of the city hasn't gone down well with those who actually live there.
Given the sheer quantity of berets on show, it's not difficult to see why they feel that way. After all, c'est très cliché.
Emily in Paris season 4 part 1 is on Netflix now, with part 2 due on 12 September.
This article originally appeared on Yahoo TV UK at https://uk.news.yahoo.com/emily-in-paris-season-4-reviews-critics-131025457.html
