Alfie

Alfie is a British banker posted to Paris, more interested in football and pints with mates than in wine tastings or French lessons. Blunt, easy-going, and a little contemptuous of the city's pretensions, he meets Emily in the French class neither of them wants to be in, and their sniping quickly turns into flirtation.

Lucien Laviscount gives Alfie a dry, unbothered charm that cuts through the show's glossy excess — he's the one character who finds Emily's earnestness funny rather than charming, and the friction is the point. It's a performance built on timing and reluctance, which makes the eventual warmth land.