There are clichés that are tolerable because they provide entertainment.

The series “Emily in Paris” draws on it alone: ​​A capable American (played by Lily Collins) meets French smokers in Paris - a cliché in itself. It was to be expected that the cultural differences would be exploited again in the second season.

This time there are a few more nationalities - the British are bankers, the Chinese dress hip, the Spaniard plays the guitar.

Uncreative, but bearable. 

Caroline O. Jebens

Editor in the Society department at FAZ.NET.

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But one cliché was so negatively exaggerated that even the country's minister of culture has now intervened: blonde Petra, who Emily met in the French language course, comes from Kiev;

she first appears as a dodgy and nice tandem partner who, like Emily, is interested in fashion (even if not dressed as smartly) - and then steals designer clothes in a boutique, which the American heroically snatched from her and brought back.

Petra shows little understanding of what she is saying but is not subtitled.

The Ukrainian Minister of Culture Oleksandr Tkachenko wrote on Telegram that it was an "insulting" caricature. The character of Petra, played by the Ukrainian actress Daria Panchenko, is a decal of a poorly dressed woman who is afraid of deportation. "Is that how Ukrainians are seen abroad?" He added. Such a representation is not only unacceptable, but also "offensive". As the BBC reports, Tkachenko has already complained to the streaming service Netflix, which produced the series.

Ukrainians also spoke out on social media: The way in which their compatriot was portrayed was scandalous and “a shame”, wrote a Ukrainian woman who lives in Paris on Instagram and received more than 77,500 likes for it.

Filmmaker Natalka Yakymovych countered this: “So in a television series characters are only allowed to be portrayed negatively if they are not Ukrainian?

Sure, we'd all like her to simply come from Moscow, but you don't always get what you want. "

The fact that the stealing Ukrainian has no other function in the series than to bring Emily closer to the football-watching Brit is ultimately not just a stupid cliché - it is simply unnecessary.