The Netflix show Emily in Paris took flak in Season One for trafficking in stereotypes about the French. In Season Two, it's Ukrainians who are offended. Or at least one prominent Ukrainian—culture minister Oleksandr Tkachenko, reports the BBC. Tkachenko is loudly complaining that a new character from Ukraine, Petra, does a disservice to his country. Among other things, she shoplifts and worries constantly about being deported. She also has a lousy fashion sense, which, in the context of the show, is a grave offense. "In the 1990s and 2000s, Ukrainian guys were portrayed mainly as gangsters," wrote Tkachenko on the messaging platform Telegram, per the Mirror. And now this.
"In Emily in Paris we have a caricature of a Ukrainian woman which is unacceptable," he writes. "It is also offensive. Is this how Ukrainians will be seen abroad?" Netflix hasn't responded publicly, but Tkachenko writes that the streaming service was "diplomatic" in its response to him and has pledged to help remedy the situation as the show goes on. The series stars Lily Collins, daughter of musician Phil Collins. She plays a young American living in the French capital. In the first season, the show's depiction of French people—think berets, rudeness, infidelity—was roundly criticized as cliched.
"You name a stereotype, and within the first three episodes, Emily has not only encountered it, but tried to rectify it, to adjust it to the American way," read a typical early review of the "tone-deaf" show in the Guardian. In response to criticism like that, Lily Collins, who's also one of the show's producers, promised more cultural diversity in Season Two, per Insider. While Ukraine's Tkachenko isn't happy, not everyone thinks the latest criticism is fair. "So in a TV series, negative characters can be anything but Ukrainian?" responded Ukrainian film producer Natalka Yakymovych, per the BBC. "Obviously, we all would like her to be from Moscow, but you don't always get what you want." (More Netflix stories.)
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