This is the accepted truth, a single American , upon arriving in Paris, must want a hot French date.
This is the latest American-made attempt to explore the premise of the expat experience in gay Paris, this time in the form of Bravo’s reality TV series. If The Network’s Housewives is real, it might be even more real Real Girlfriends in Paris , which premiered earlier this month.
“Cheers to new long-lasting friendships! May they last as long as us – it’s okay,” toasts Adja Toure, Kacey Margo and Victoria Zito, newly met Friends and three of the show’s six lip gloss-loving actors were in one of the pilot’s early scenes.
To be fair , the girlfriends have started to achieve some other goals in their new city. Kathy, from Southern California, wanted to make enough money to make ends meet in Paris as an English teacher — a noble cause. Victoria escaped her “ very Christian” background in Texas to become a fashion designer in Paris. Meanwhile, Margaux Lignel, who grew up between New York and Paris, is allegedly seeking financial independence from her wealthy French father, starting with a meager 2K a month instead of K She’s used to it. Her dad said he hoped she
wanted it to work, and she confirmed she really, really did. It’s all very inspiring, but the project feels predestined, like a modern, ultra-vulgar Edith Wharton novel.
Side note: Margaux’s completely deadpan French father was the only true Parisian among the pilots. He walked into his daughter’s apartment and affectionately insulted her dog, her choice of seasoning for scrambled eggs, and her apparent inability to open floor-to-ceiling windows or earn a living. He’s the perfect antidote to the saccharine binge of overzealous praise in the late dinner scene in this episode.
said by art and cultural theorist Anya Fair Stone’s party is the crown jewel of the pilot’s frivolous episode. The party was clearly meant to showcase the sophistication of Paris to Anya’s new expat friends, who were impressed upon arrival. After several days of trying to find recipes for a low-carb Thanksgiving dinner, the immaculate intellectuals of the group came to the door wearing the most snug-fitting shiny copper pants anyone had ever seen.
CAST
REAL GIRLFRIEND in Paris ).
Oh la la
, does Anya seem not interested in all this? Frankly, it’s in her right as she tries to serve Thanksgiving dinner without carbs. Newsflash: Real Parisians, like real people around the world, eat carbs, albeit probably less than their American counterparts.
Other Newsflash: The French love to talk about sex. So they at least got it right.
In general, if you have been
Real Girlfriend Some correct insight into life in Paris and you’ll be disappointed. You can bring this group down in any city “abroad” and the storyline is pretty much the same, minus a shot or two of the Eiffel Tower. But if you’re here for fun watching some creepy reality show à la Bravo, you’re in luck.
There’s also something oddly refreshing about this. Naturally, people will compare to Netflix’s
Emily in Paris . While there’s a real Emily (ie Emily Gorelick, Anya’s biggest big-eyed admirer ), and equally bad hair dryers abound, but the key difference is that Girlfriends are what the French call “bien dans ses baskets” (literally, being comfortable in one’s coach, or accepting as one’s own). While Emily in Paris tries to address deep cultural differences and conflicting waves of feminist ideas, Real Girlfriends just blindly plowing forward, bulldozing the streets, while accepting the utter vileness of its jokes and being totally candid about the fact that the protagonist is a little desperate. From day one, Paris’s most qualified babes have swooned in front of Emily Cooper, while real girlfriends are pretty honest enough to admit that no one wants to date them…yet.
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