Netflixs glitzy series Emily in Paris has gained a global fanbase since the streaming giant premiered the rom-com in 2020but it doesnt seem to have proven popular with those running the French capital.
The third season of the Netflix serieswhich follows a young American woman, played by Lily Collins, who relocates to Paris for workhit screens in December.
Its release may have helped fuel interest in Parisian tourism, with American Google searches for Paris vacation rising to their highest numbers in five years in the weeks following season threes debut. Searches for Emily in Paris surged more than 1,000% higher at the same time.
The interest sparked by travelers hoping to get an in-person glimpse of Paris as seen in the show has led to a swathe of articles and tours promising to help people step into the shoes of protagonist Emily Cooper.
Even Pariss official tourism website has published articles detailing the best locations in the city for fans of the series to visit.
Irritating Netflix series
However, David Belliardthe deputy mayor of Paris, who in charge of transforming the citys public spaces and transportlet loose in an op-ed in French publication Libération on Thursday about his disapproval of the irritating Netflix series and its complete erasure of climate-related issues, describing the shows portrayal of Paris as an urban caricature where the Eiffel Tower is there, in the background, at every street corner.
What Emily gives us through her wanderings is a snapshot of an unchangeable Paris, a Disneyland, which is confined to the districts of the ultra-center and is inhabited only by the richest people in a uniform architectural heritage. In short, an Instagram Paris with impeccable colors and ideal views, he said.
This fable is neither desirable nor viable there is the complete erasure of the constraints of climate deregulation and the rarity of resources. We have to get out of nostalgia for a stereotypical city and invent a new aesthetic coherence that is adapted to a changing world.
A spokesperson for Netflix was not immediately available for comment when contacted by Fortune.
One specific example Belliard gave of Emily in Paris prioritizing aesthetics over real issues was the shows lack of reference to historic heatwaves that have swept across Europe in recent years, which have seen summer temperatures in Paris reaching catastrophic highs.
In the series, Emily lives in an attic apartment in Pariss Latin Quarter.
The flats on the top floors, often occupied by the poorest people, become unbearable ovens in hot weather, Belliard said in his article on Thursday. A simple solution would be to paint the roofs with white reflective paint. But are we ready to abandon the color palette of Paris?
Despite Emily in Paris being a big hit with Netflix subscribersseason three had racked up 117.6 million viewing hours within a week of its debut, according to Deadlineits reception has been far less warm elsewhere, with critics widely panning the series and French people mocking the show when it was first released.
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