Emily In Paris has now pissed off Ukraine, too
The Netflix series made the country’s culture minister upset due to its offensive “caricature of a Ukrainian woman”
Much like its eponymous character, Emily In Paris always seems to piss someone off, particularly viewers who question why they spent hours watching an idiot abroad. But with its second season, Emily In Paris made a new enemy: Ukraine.
Ukraine’s culture minister Oleksandr Tkachenko went as far as penning a lengthy post on Telegram, where, according to Vanity Fair, he called the portrayal of a Ukrainian character a “caricature of a Ukrainian woman” and decried it as “offensive.”
The Ukrainian character in question is Petra (played by Daria Panchenko), who Emily meets in her French class. They’re paired up for a class assignment, and Emily, her questionable checkered bucket hat, and Petra go shopping. But because Emily’s (still!) so bad at French, there’s a misunderstanding.
After Petra compliments Emily’s perfume, she tries to explain that she got it through her marketing job, but when Petra tries to understand how Emily got it for free, the latter explains in broken French “I no pay.” This leads Petra to believe she’s found a fellow kleptomaniac, so she grabs as many luxurious items as she can and runs out with the designer digs.
Emily tries to make her return to the store, warning, “Don’t you know what happened to Jean Valjean when he stole the baguette?” but Petra won’t budge, keeping some of the stuff Emily failed to grab from her.
This isn’t the first time Emily In Paris has caused controversial beef with others, either. In season one, Emily talks trash about the deep-dish pizza from Chicago staple Lou Malnati’s, calling it a “quiche made out of cement.” The pizzeria’s owner Marc Malnati called out the show when the first season premiered, writing in a press release, “We’ve been serving Chicago’s favorite deep dish since 1971. When Netflix’s Emily In Paris writers chose to take a shot at Chicagoans and our pizza to try to get a laugh, it felt heartless and not humorous in the midst of COVID-19.”
After Netflix inevitably renews the series for a third season, we’ll find out who the show—and Emily—will piss off next.