Ukrainians outraged with Emily in Paris

The new season of 'Emily in Paris' infuriates the Ukrainian culture minister: 'This is unacceptable'. Petra, embodied by Ukrainian actress Daria Panchenko, steals from the store, has a bad sense of fashion, and is terrified of deportation.

Ukrainian Culture Minister Oleksandr Tkachenko complained to Netflix about the way their hit TV series "Emily in Paris" featured a character from Ukraine.

According to the BBC, in one of the episodes, Ukraine's Petra steals from the store during a trip with the protagonist Emily, which Tkachenko called "offensive".

Petra, embodied by Ukrainian actress Daria Panchenko, is also portrayed as a person with a bad sense of fashion, and in addition, she is terrified of deportation. Meanwhile, the popular Netflix series follows a young American woman, played by Lily Collins, who travels to the French capital for work.

- The portrayal of a Ukrainian in the series is unacceptable and offensive. Is that how Ukrainians abroad are perceived? - reacted Tkachenko, who immediately sent a letter to the streaming service, complaining about their portrait of Petra.

A Ukrainian woman with a Paris address agreed with the minister's criticism.

- The way you portrayed Petra is a cheap trick, an absolute scandal, and a disgrace, Yevheniya Havrylko posted on Instagram.

A different opinion, however, was expressed by Ukrainian film producer Natalka Yakymovych: "So, in a TV series, negative characters can be anything but Ukrainian? Obviously, we all wish he was the bad guy from Moscow, but we don't always get everything we want."

"Emily in Paris" has already been criticized several times for its depiction of different nationalities. When the first season was announced, the French complained about promoting stereotypical images of the city and its inhabitants, which were portrayed as rude people wearing berets and often cheating on their partners.

The new, second season features Alfie, a stereotypical Brit, who spends his time drinking in pubs and watching football.

- I'm not sorry I didn't see Paris exclusively through a glamorous lens. Creating the series, I relied on my own experiences when visiting the city. I wanted to present Paris in a really beautiful way, I wanted to encourage people to fall in love with the city the way I fell in love, said series creator Darren Star defending his project.

"At the end of season 2, there is only one choice"

At the end of season 2, Emily will be asked to choose which path she wants to take, both personally and professionally. Answers that fans could have in a season 3, not yet confirmed by Netflix, but already in the pipes for Darren Star, the creator of the series. Indeed, the one to whom we owe in particular Sex and The City is already thinking about the following adventures of his heroine, who " ends up with a choice where there is no good choice ". " There is only one choice ", he tells Collider.com, while Emily will have to choose in her work between Madeline (Kate Walsh ) and Sylvie ( Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu ). “ When you live in a foreign country, one of the questions is where is your heart. Is that where you come from or where you are right now? Emily is going to struggle with that, too. ", adds the screenwriter.