A History of the Gay Best Friend in Film and TV

There is nothing nuanced about the GBF character in Netflix’s workplace comedy Emily in Paris, but the entire series is so full of clichés about Paris, French people, Americans, fashion, love triangles, sexism, and social media influencers, it’s hard to get too worked up about it. Julien (Samuel Arnold), an employee at the boutique marketing agency where Emily (Lily Collins) works, exists purely to wear fantastic outfits, take three-hour wine lunches, and mock Emily to her face about her ignorance of French culture — all things we can get behind.We don’t really know much else about Julien; in fact, aside from his mannerisms and his love of fashion, we don’t even have conclusive evidence that he’s gay. (Maybe he’s just extremely French!) But the show has been renewed for a second season, so we could soon find out.

Original Article on The Advocate
Author: Christine Linnell