Emily In Paris – Season 1 Episode 3 Recap & Review

Sexy Or Sexist?

Episode 3 of Emily In Paris sees us return to the city of love with Emily once again out for a run. On the way, she receives a call from Madeline and confirms that she’s single, thanks to Doug breaking up with her.

When she gets home and takes a shower, the pipes dry up and she’s forced to call on Gabriel for help. In order to finish her shower, she’s forced to use the bidet.

After her French class, Emily walks back to the office and receives some scathing words from Sylvie (#badhairday). Things get worse though when Emily gives a list of demands for the group to try and encourage a more “positive” workplace.

Taking offence to her ideas, Emily eventually heads off to the photoshoot where she meets Antoine again. That photoshoot involves a Serbian woman walking naked up a bridge while men watch and admire her beauty.

Emily takes offence to this though, believing it’s sexist and pandering to the male fantasy. Instead of seeing this as a sign of empowerment (Antione’s own words), Emily sees this as an opportunity to have men objectify her.

As the two come to blows, Julien rolls his eyes and Emily is forced to admit it’s open to interpretation, contradicting her own statement.

On the back of this, Emily brings her concerns to Sylvie and in particular the issues surrounding the campaign. She wants to bring an American slant to things and believes this advert is culturally insensitive.

The actual advert is shown to the group, with the naked woman turning into a dove and flying away. A dove, of course, symbolically representing love, peace and freedom. Emily decides to do a social media campaign and see exactly how Twitter will react to this.

In the wake of the campaign, Sylvie gives the hard facts to Emily – specifically around how she hasn’t bothered to learn the language before arriving. She promises they won’t be friends and leaves Emily to head off for her party with Mindy.

There, she meets a man named Fabien. The two hit it off and head out together… until he gives a backhanded compliment that she really doesn’t take to. Instead of the romantic evening planned, things end calamitously

Back at the office, Emily gives the boys a cake shaped as a penis which they take in good heart and start laughing about. Meanwhile, Emily has a present of her own sitting on the table from Antione – sexy lingerie. Well that’s not going to cause any issues going forward!

The Episode Review

The sexism angle once again comes up in this episode and I guess the advert can be interpreted both ways. Personally, I see this as a sign of empowerment – the woman has all the power there and the perfume allows her to be free like a dove.

If you really want an example of a perfume advert that objectifies the opposite sex, check out the video above. THAT is the true definition of objectifying and voyeurism whereas the French advert doesn’t really have that same effect.

Elsewhere, the series continues to deliver some good humour and the workplace banter is actually one of the stronger elements of this drama.

Hopefully the supporting cast are fleshed out a bit more going forward as the early stuff with Luc and Julien boast some of the highlights for this series.

With the battle lines drawn between Sylvie and Emily, could we see the two come to blows in the near future? We’ll have to wait and see for now.