Culture chat: Watching ‘Emily in Paris’ despite ourselves

Life and Art from FT Weekend

Today, Lilah’s back and we’re talking about Emily in Paris! The extraordinarily popular Netflix sitcom, which millions of people across the globe love to hate-watch, just dropped half of its fourth season. It’s about an American 20-something who moves to Paris to live out our Francophile fantasies. And while it's been ridiculed since it first came out in 2020, we're all still watching! Why? And what do we want out of comfort television? Lilah is joined by Adrienne Klasa, the FT’s Paris reporter on luxury and media, and Cordelia Jenkins, FT Weekend Magazine’s deputy editor.

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We love hearing from you. Lilah is on Instagram @lilahrap. We’re on X @lifeandartpod and on email at [e-mail]. We are grateful for reviews on Apple and Spotify. And please share this episode with your friends!

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Links (all FT links get you past the paywall):

– Episodes one to five of Emily in Paris Season 4 are on Netflix now. The next half of the season will air on September 12

– We love this article by Jo Ellison – ‘Emily in Paris is as cheesy as brie’ – from 2020

– Cordelia Jenkins is on X @CordeliaJ. Adrienne Klasa is @AdrienneKlasa

– Lilah recommends American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld. For more on the value of reading old books, here’s a recent column by Janan Ganesh

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Original music by Metaphor Music. Mixing and sound design by Jean-Marc Ek and Sam Giovinco. Clip courtesy of Netflix

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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