While fans can still expect chaos and high fashion from “Emily in Paris” as it returns for its fourth season, the new installment leaned into “darker” and more “sophisticated themes,” according to EP and director Andy Fleming.
“This scene overall is darker — it takes place in the winter with more sophisticated themes, and it’s more complicated,” Fleming told TheWrap, adding that the “really strong season” has become his favorite installment for the series thus far.
Picking up after Camille and Gabriel’s disastrous wedding in the Season 3 finale, relationships and friendships between Emily (Lily Collins), Camille (Camille Razat), Gabriel (Lucas Bravo) and Alfie (Lucien Laviscount) are left fractured, and the stakes are higher than ever with Camille carrying Gabriel’s unborn child. Meanwhile, Sylvie (Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu) is forced to confront her past when a journalist comes knocking about a #MeToo story centered on Sylvie’s former employer.
As Emily navigates the fallout of Camille’s truth-bomb, Fleming pointed to an emotional fight between Emily and Gabriel, which marked a “turning point” for Emily when Gabriel tells her he’s tired of all the lies and she exclaims back, “So am I!” “She really connected with her gut there … I’ve never heard Emily speak like that before,” Fleming said.
“In her work life, there’s either success or failure, but what’s really interesting in in the romantic side of this year is that there’s no pure moment of happiness, and there’s no complete disappointment — it’s always more complicated than that,” Fleming said. “She’s always torn on her feelings, but I think she’s growing up … making smarter decisions and taking agency for herself.”
While Fleming, who serves as an executive producer and directed the first three episodes of Season 4, says the Netflix series won’t abandon its fun flair to “turn into something noir,” the darker tone of the series was ushered in by the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes of 2023, which delayed filming until the winter. Despite the circumstances behind the delay — which prompted “Emily in Paris” Season 4 to come out over a year and half since Season 3 debuted in December 2022 — Fleming said the team embraced Paris in the wintertime, especially in Part 2, which debuts Sept. 12 on Netflix.
“I thought, ‘this is great, it’s an opportunity to show a different texture to Paris,’” Fleming said, adding that he spent the holidays in the City of Light prior to the series. “The previous three seasons were all in the summer with flowers and the parks are all green, and Paris is really beautiful in the winter … the [city turns] very grey, but then the light from the windows is very cozy and it’s very cheerful.”
The Netflix series also switched directors of photography to Seamus Tierney (“You,” “Uncoupled”), who Fleming says uses more contrast, resulting in deeper shadows and a more dramatic look. “It really suffuses the entire season,” Fleming said. “It’s more dramatic, more … chiaroscuro, light and dark.”
While preparations for the 2024 Paris Olympics had been underway since “Emily in Paris” began shooting back in 2019, filming for Season 4 coincided as the countdown to the Summer Games ramped up, just before the Olympics took over the whole.
“I’m really looking forward to going back and seeing the city all buffed and polished, because we got out just as they were building stadiums and blocking streets off,” Fleming said. “We really were one of the last productions to get out of there before they started — I don’t think they allowed any shooting after we left.”
Season 4 has also been teased to take Emily on a Roman holiday, which happens further into the new installment. “We knew we wanted to deploy Rome at the end, because the sooner we were out of Paris, the better,” Fleming said. “But we’ve given ourselves some room … it was exciting.”
“Emily in Paris” Season 4 Part 1 is now streaming on Netflix. Part 2 will debut on Thursday, Sept. 12.
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