Emily in Paris season five review β Minnie Driver is just what this campy masterpiece needed
TVβs greatest guilty pleasure is back β and itβs still a total hoot! Prepare to gorge yourself silly on it over the holidays along with the mince pies. You know you want to β¦
βTurn off your brain and jump!β So says London geezer Alfie (Lucien Laviscount) to ex-girlfriend Emilyβs best pal Mindy (Ashley Park), as they flirt their way through a racy dance scene. It could, of course, be an instruction to viewers of season five of Emily in Paris, too. Once pilloried for its Anglophile tendencies and surface-level commitment to la culture franΓ§aise, the fluffy dramedy about an American in Paris helmed by Lily Collins has β over the past five years β become one of TVβs greatest guilty pleasures: a fancy fever dream of great clothes, strapping love interests and a constant karaoke soundtrack courtesy of Park, a Broadway star whose contract clearly dictates that she sing at least five times per episode. The clothes are less outlandish this time around, but still aspirational β lending the show a strand of Sex and the City DNA (they also share a creator, Darren Star).
But, unlike SATC β whose spinoff And Just Like That devolved into a mindless mess β Emily in Paris is free of any baggage, and at liberty to be as silly as it fancies. Much of season five doesnβt even take place in Paris, as our leading lady continues to mix business and pleasure in Rome with cashmere heir Marcello (Eugenio Franceschini). βCiao and ni hao!β says Mindy, who has rejected a job as a judge on Chinese Popstar (βIβd rather be judging people in real life than on TVβ) and is now headed to Italy, just in time to help Emily and her crack marketing team with some #sponsoredcontent (read: singing inside a giant martini glass). Also in town is Alfie: cue an inadvisable fling between the two that instantly breaks all the rules of girl code.
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Β© Photograph: Caroline Dubois/NETFLIX

Β© Photograph: Caroline Dubois/NETFLIX

Β© Photograph: Caroline Dubois/NETFLIX