Emily In Paris 5 Review: Lily Collins Shines As She Finds Comfort And Growth In Rome

Emily In Paris 5 Review: After five seasons, Emily in Paris has long since stopped pretending it wants to be taken seriously. Season 5, now streaming on Netflix, feels like a show that has finally made

peace with its reputation, not as prestige television, but as glossy, low-stakes comfort viewing designed to be enjoyed rather than interrogated. In that sense, the latest season doesn’t attempt a radical reinvention. Instead, it offers a gentle reset, swapping Parisian excess for Roman indulgence, and nudging Emily Cooper toward adulthood without ever fully letting go of the fantasy that made the series a hit in the first place.

Season 5 picks up immediately after the events of the previous chapter, with Emily now stationed in Rome to lead Agence Grateau’s Italian expansion. The move functions as both a literal and emotional relocation. Rome is warmer, louder and slightly messier than Paris which seems like a fitting backdrop for a heroine who has evolved from a tone-deaf American tourist into someone more aware of her surroundings, even if she still barrels through them with relentless optimism. Emily’s romance with Italian businessman Marcello Muratori gives the season a softer, more grounded energy, positioning her less as a wide-eyed outsider and more as someone attempting, however clumsily, to build a life abroad.

The shift to Italy is the season’s strongest creative decision. Rome injects visual freshness into a series that was beginning to feel trapped by its own aesthetic. Sun-drenched piazzas, dramatic interiors and indulgent fashion montages reinforce the show’s core appeal as escapist eye candy. More importantly, the new setting subtly reframes Emily’s professional challenges. She is no longer proving herself to skeptical colleagues; instead, she’s grappling with cultural nuance, authority and responsibility.

Lily Collins delivers perhaps her most relaxed performance yet as Emily. The character’s trademark hyper-enthusiasm is still present, but it’s tempered with moments of self-awareness that prevent her from becoming unbearable. Season 5 allows Emily to acknowledge her flaws, tendency to overstep, to dominate conversations, to mistake positivity for virtue without fundamentally changing who she is.

The supporting cast remains a mixed bag. Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu’s Sylvie continues to be magnetic, even when saddled with another romantic subplot that feels more like obligation than inspiration. Bruno Gouery’s Luc benefits from the looser tone, delivering some of the season’s most genuinely funny moments, while Samuel Arnold’s Julien, unfortunately, is once again underused. Ashley Park’s Mindy, however, finally receives a more emotionally grounded arc. Her storyline, which explores love, friendship and self-worth, provides a rare emotional counterpoint to Emily’s breezy trajectory and reinforces one of the show’s quieter truths: personal growth doesn’t always look glamorous.

Season 5 also makes a deliberate effort to step away from the exhausting love triangle that dominated earlier seasons. Gabriel’s reduced presence is not a loss; if anything, it allows the series to breathe. His arc feels less like a dramatic engine and more like a reminder of paths not taken, which suits the show’s evolving priorities. By sidelining its most repetitive conflict, Emily in Paris creates space for new dynamics, even if it doesn’t always use that space to its fullest potential.

Creatively, the season is at its best when it acknowledges its own absurdity. The conflicts are thin, often resolved with laughable ease, and the stakes remain intentionally low. This isn’t a show interested in realism or consequence. Instead, it functions as a colourful travelogue for adults designed to be half-watched while scrolling, shopping or decompressing after a long day. And while that may sound like criticism, it’s also the show’s greatest strength. Emily in Paris knows exactly what it is.

That self-awareness marks a subtle improvement over earlier seasons, particularly the fourth, which leaned heavily into spectacle without offering much emotional progression. Season 5 doesn’t suddenly deepen its characters, but it does soften them. There’s a sense that Emily, like the series itself, has grown tired of chasing validation from men, from social media, from an imagined audience and is instead settling into something resembling contentment.

Is Emily in Paris running out of narrative momentum? Possibly. Does Season 5 push the show forward in any meaningful way? Not dramatically. But it doesn’t need to. At this stage, the series thrives on familiarity. It offers warmth, glamour and gentle humour without demanding much in return. Not every show needs to challenge its viewers; some simply need to entertain them.

Season 5 may not convert skeptics or redefine the series, but it delivers exactly what long-time fans expect: a polished, pastel-tinted escape with enough charm to justify one more trip abroad. In embracing comfort over ambition, Emily in Paris remains exactly where it belongs.