'Emily in Paris' Season 4: Emily Is the Definitive Mary-Sue

By Chris Revelle | TV | August 19, 2024 |

Ever since Fifty Shades of Grey was scraped clean of any original Twilight characters and blew up as a beach read and then later a film franchise, the fan-fiction of sites like Wattpad had become a prolific source of plenty of garbage, hilarious and otherwise. My theory is that the ascendancy of Wattpad fanfic influenced even original fiction. Look no further than It Ends With Us which features such fanfic-flavored characters as the florist Lily Blossom Bloom and hot-blooded abuser Ryle. Being fanfiction, there’s a certain predictability to the tropes you see in books and movies like these and there’s perhaps no trope more common than the Mary-Sue.

Named for the self-insert character of an early Star Trek fanfic, the Mary-Sue is faultless to a fault, ridiculously overpowered, and everyone worships the ground they walk on. Whether it be having tons of romantic suitors, seeing everything they touch turn to gold, or being a peerless warrior, the world seems to bend over backward for the Mary-Sue to make them the most powerful, the body magnetic, the most incredible person anyone anywhere has ever met. To whatever extent a flaw is allowed to exist, the Mary-Sue will be clumsy or maybe impulsive, but no mistake will stand without it being secretly a triumph. The most prominent current example of the Mary-Sue can be found with Emily Cooper, the titular star of Netflix’s Emily in Paris which has returned with the first part of the fourth season. That’s right, Emily in Paris is the latest show to indulge in season-splitting so we can stretch one season out to feel like two.

Last season, Emily (Lily Collins) found herself torn between two of her boyfriends that she keeps on a rotating carousel: British business bro Alfie (Lucien Laviscount) and moody French chef Gabriel (Lucas Bravo). Mirroring this bad decision to split her attention between two people, she also attempted to do two full-time jobs at once: one job with Madeline (Kate Walsh, insane) and the other at Savoir with Sylvie (Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu, divine). Wouldn’t you know it? Both things blew right up on Emily’s face! Madeline stomped off the show and Sylvie (briefly) fired Emily. Then at Gabriel’s wedding to his fiancé Camille (Camille Razat) that Emily and Alfie attended, Camille announced that Gabriel and Emily are in love so the wedding is off. Ruh roh!

Typically, when Emily is caught out being terrible or when she makes an enormously obvious mistake, it’s only a matter of time before every character agrees whatever she did, didn’t do, lied about, etc, was actually brilliant. For a brief and golden moment, the opening scene of season four is all about accountability; Camille’s brother has taken to TikTok to tell a multi-part story all about the monster named Emily Cooper. He really goes in on her and for a show that typically misunderstands social media, the TikTok-isms of this kind of video are actually pretty well-observed. It’s a fun reminder that in real life, everyone Emily meets would probably have a story about her being a nutcase. “I didn’t do anything wrong!” Emily insists to her friend/superior choice of protagonist Mindy (Ashley Park), whose band is headed to Eurovision to represent France. It turns out, Camille has disappeared and isn’t in contact with anyone, presumably holed up somewhere with her secret girlfriend Sofia. Gabriel and his handsome sadness are out searching for Camille, so he can’t be bothered with Emily’s bullshit at the moment. Alfie is fully over Emily’s bullshit and yet Emily heaps more of it upon him when a Savoir client features the couple in an ad. This is the central dynamic, the reason for the season, the entire heart of the show: Emily running roughshod over the lives of superhumanly patient French people. There are subplots aplenty this season whether it’s Mindy struggling with money as her band hustles to make it to Eurovision or Sylvie weighing the affections of her boyfriend against her husband’s, but all roads lead back to Emily in time.

As someone who gets a ton of enjoyment scoffing at what a sociopathic hot mess Emily is, I was cackling away. The joy of the show is in seeing the ridiculous and predictable mechanisms of Emily’s Mary-Sue world, but it felt exciting to see more people within the world of the show agree: Emily sucks. She’s a manipulative liar and a careless friend who regularly bulldozes everyone around her. Alas, the accountability doesn’t stay and the wish-fulfillment cannot be denied. Alfie, the boyfriend Emily roundly humiliated, inexplicably capitulates to Emily when she requests him for a work event. He has every reason to reject Emily and leave her to embarrassment, but there is no higher force in nature than Emily Cooper. The moral arc of the world bends toward her. Emily exists in a very specific canon of Mary-Sue characters like Carrie Bradshaw of Sex and the City, Karen Cartwright of Smash, and Marian Brook of The Gilded Age; all women so pronouncedly horrible or dull that it feels like an absurd joke that the world falls at their feet regardless. For as much as Emily would be a terror to experience in real life, she wears bonkers lewks like this and I realize I can never actually hate this show:

The Carrie Bradshaw comparison feels especially apt because Emily in Paris and Sex and the City share a creator in Darren Star. Both characters are absolutely insufferable, both wear some pretty insane outfits, and both inspire a fantastic cocktail of disdain and hilarity. I never forget that Emily in Paris is deeply terrible, but I can’t truly hate something that makes me laugh this much, even if it is in disbelief. Emily in Paris is a goofy romantic comedy that feels like a game where you win points every time you roll your eyes. I can criticize this show until my hands cramp from typing, but they may as well be compliments; I enjoy Emily in Paris because it’s an inept mess and because it presents a Livejournal-perfect example of a Mary-Sue character in all their power-fantasy vainglory.