Emily In Paris: So... Female Friendships Just Stop Mattering When You’re In Love?

Emily in Paris has never taken itself too seriously, and to be fair, neither have we. New season, same chaos. Emily flits off to Rome, then pops back in Paris like it was a long weekend, not a life-altering move. Her fashion remains aggressively questionable, her love life is still a revolving door, and yes, her visa continues to defy every known immigration law. It’s comfort viewing at its glossiest: familiar mess, shiny drama, zero consequences.

But this season threw one curveball that actually made me pause mid-episode.

Mindy and Alfie.

Now listen. There is a universal, unspoken rule most of us grow up with: ou don’t date your best friend’s ex. Not because it’s dramatic or outdated, but because some lines exist for a reason. Emily and Mindy aren’t surface-level friends — they’re each other’s people in Paris, each other’s confidants. They’ve cried together, picked each other up, and survived life in a foreign city side by side. So when Mindy and Alfie happen and Emily is completely fine with it — we’re meant to read the moment as maturity. Growth. Emotional evolution.

Except… is it?

Emily’s reaction feels less evolved and more emotionally vacant. It makes you wonder if she ever cared about Alfie in the first place. Or if he was always just a detour while Gabriel sat permanently in her head and heart. Because let’s be honest: if your best friend hooking up with your ex does not even mildly sting, that relationship probably never stood a real chance.

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And this is where Emily In Paris starts repeating a pattern it refuses to learn from. We’ve seen it before with her, Gabriel, and Camille. Camille did not enter the story as a rival or a threat. She entered it as a friend. Two women navigating Paris, careers, relationships, and life, supporting each other in quiet, genuine ways. That friendship had real potential. Camille was warm, open, and trusting, and Emily leaned into that comfort.

But the moment Gabriel entered the equation, the dynamic shifted. Despite Emily reminding herself again and again about the friendship they shared, it slowly collapsed under the weight of romantic indecision. Camille was pushed from friend to obstacle, her feelings becoming inconvenient the moment they disrupted the central love story. Her hurt was brushed aside, her anger framed as dramatic, and her boundaries treated like overreactions. The show subtly trained us to root against her, to see her as the problem, when in reality, she was reacting to betrayal. 

A friendship between two strong women was quietly dismantled, all so a man could remain at the centre of the narrative.

Which is ironic, because the show actually does female friendships really well — when it wants to. Emily and Mindy’s bond is one of the best parts of the series. It feels lived-in, supportive, chaotic, and real. These friendships are the emotional backbone of the show. We saw glimpses of this same potential with Emily and Camille in the beginning: two women helping each other find footing in a city that can be unforgiving.

And yet, every time romance enters the picture, these bonds are treated as infinitely flexible — able to stretch, bend, and absorb damage without consequence. The men remain complicated but lovable, while the women are left to clean up emotional fallout and carry the blame.

The narrative keeps insisting that love is worth the mess, that friendships will somehow survive everything. That being 'chill' is the same as being emotionally mature. That women should simply understand, adjust, and move on. But real friendships are not that elastic. They have boundaries. They need conversations. They require discomfort and honesty, not convenient silence.

By making Emily instantly okay with Mindy and Alfie, the show skips the awkwardness, the hurt, and the real emotional work. It smooths over something that could have been messy but meaningful. Instead of exploring how women navigate loyalty, jealousy, and love without losing each other, it chooses the easier route: shrug, smile, move on.

Emily in Paris wants to celebrate women, ambition, and friendship, but it keeps tripping over the same idea. Men come and go. Friendships are expected to adjust endlessly. And somehow, it is always the women who are asked to be bigger, calmer, cooler.

Fun to watch, yes. Entertaining, absolutely. But when it comes to female friendships, the show keeps choosing romance over resonance. And that is one pattern that’s no longer charming.

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