While he admits that as the writer of particular episodes there can be a “morbid, masochistic” desire to scroll through every comment, “I always remind myself, it’s engagement,” he says. “If someone takes the time to write some scathing review, or to make some hilarious meme, or whatever it is, about something that you’ve created: Thanks!” he laughs.
To hear Murphy tell it, the team had a similar attitude as they started work on season two. Whether loved or hated, Emily in Paris was “clearly in the critical conversation, and that’s flattering. I think that you can do a knee-jerk response: ‘people didn’t like this or that, we better not do that for season two’. From what I’ve learned from Darren over the years,there are a lot of things that the audience want in a show, that doesn’t necessarily mean that’s what you should give them,” he says.
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Star has solidified his status as a pop-cultural icon with shows such as Beverly Hills 90210, Melrose Place and Sex and the City, all “water cooler” shows that got everyone talking.
However, when Emily was first released, no one was near any literal water coolers as the global pandemic had most of us working from home. “Some people found it fantastic travel escape, whereas others felt like it wasn’t really reflective of the times. But, you know, it never intended to be,” he says.
The truly global reach of Netflix also contributed to all the noise. “The show finds you, in much more ways, because there is this big tech behind streamers. The algorithms are like, ‘Oh, you like Emily in Paris? Here’s a link to a Ringarde T-shirt on Amazon’ or ‘here’s this girl on TikTok doing her take’. The show has such a larger, continued life outside the actual parameters of the show itself,” he observes.
The happy ending for the cast and crew is that all the internet chatter has driven enough eyeballs to the show that Netflix has renewed it for seasons three and four. “The great thing with the double renewal is that we have this opportunity to tell longer form stories. It’s phenomenal and rare in television, and speaks to Netflix’s confidence in the show.”
Murphy describes the team of writers as “tight-knit” and most of them had worked together on Emily’s predecessor Younger.
Sutton Foster as Liza and Peter Hermann as Charles in season six of Younger.Credit:Stan
While the two shows have a lot in common, the reactions to them have been very different. Romcom Younger, which screens on Stan, is about a 40-year-old woman, Liza Miller (played by Sutton Foster) who lies about her age to get a job.
The premise, which allowed them to explore issues around ageism and sexism, was “a winning formula that just kept providing opportunities for story and character,” says Murphy. Although it ran for an impressive seven seasons, was favourably reviewed, rated well and had “a really faithful, dedicated fan base”, Younger flew under the radar.
The absence of that intense scrutiny allowed them to enjoy the creative process and the gratitude for having had such a long run with an adored group of colleagues is evident throughout Murphy’s conversation. “We love those characters and that story so much that we’ve had a hard time letting go of them,” he reveals.
While the two shows are set in heightened versions of already glamorous words (Younger, New York publishing; Emily, European luxury brands) Murphy says it is always emotion, not fantasy, driving them.
“Darren is actually very committed to making things feel grounded and motivated. We break Younger and Emily as a drama. He wants to know, how a character is feeling, why they’re doing what they’re doing? And then what’s a surprising way for them to react that we maybe haven’t seen before,” he explains.
As they are just about to reconvene to begin work on season three, what will we see next for Emily? “I’ve got no idea what Darren’s been thinking. He has been working on another show right now for Netflix called Uncoupled,” says Murphy, adding they could take Emily anywhere, geographically or otherwise, which has led to them joking that she could potentially run into SATC character Samantha Jones in London.
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While that is definitely not going to happen, he says that is what makes working with this team so much fun. “I turn up to work and I’m so surprised by how suddenly our story pivots off in a direction I didn’t expect”.
Emily in Paris is on Netflix. Younger is on Stan. Stan is owned by Nine, the owner of this masthead.
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What it’s really like to work on one of TV’s most divisive shows
Source: Philippines Alive
