The Devil Wears Prada sequel hits different when you’ve actually lost a media job

(L-R) Anne Hathaway as Andy Sachs, Meryl Streep as Miranda Priestly and Stanley Tucci as Nigel Kipling in 20th Century Studios' THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA 2. 

The year was 2006 when I first started my job as an editorial assistant at an entertainment magazine in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It was also the same year that The Devil Wears Prada was released in the cinemas. Finally, perhaps my mother would actually understand what my job entailed (but no, she thought I answered the phone for a wage). At work, I was tasked with writing the TV guide and celebrity captions. At times, I was loaning fashion samples and delivering them to the photographer’s studio for a shoot. On top of that, I was also packing magazines after magazines into envelopes to be delivered to our readers. The manual load was a lot to handle but it was the best time of my life! Watching The Devil Wears Prada was like seeing a mirror, showing me that there are other “Andies” out there who dreamed big. See, I was told to work hard, move up the ladder and you’ll end up where you’re supposed to be. However, 20 years on, The Devil Wears Prada 2 tells me that that job that I loved is no longer aspirational and that the hustle culture and the model is already broken.

Anne Hathaway as Andy Sachs in 20th Century Studios' THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA 2. Photo by Macall Polay. 

The Devil Wears Prada 2 follows the journey of Andrea “Andy” Sachs (played by Anne Hathaway) who, after leaving Runway Magazine, is an award-winning journalist at The Vanguard. When she gets retrenched from her job, she decides to rejoin Runway as a features editor upon the invitation of Irv, the publisher. But now, the tide has changed. Miranda (played by Meryl Streep) is currently facing one of the worst fears an editor-in-chief can only imagine: budget cuts, clients strong-arming her into giving free editorial pages and the possibility of getting replaced, again.As someone who has worked in both traditional and digital publishing, I can only tell you that this situation is as real as it gets. Newsrooms’ budgets are shrinking so we can’t hire or raise the fee for freelancers. And we are expected to churn stories with thousands of page views without depth in reporting. Watching this scene on screen is unnerving and it hits close to the bone.My eyes damped and I felt like I was clutching my heart so tightly. I was retrenched two years ago as an editor-in-chief in my 40s at an online media behemoth, and losing something so deeply ingrained in your identity, was daunting. Watching this play on screen only confirmed all of our greatest fears: the decline of legacy media is due to the advancements of AI and shifting consumer habits. 

(L-R): Miranda Priestly (Meryl Streep) and Andie Sachs (Anne Hathaway) in 20th Century Studios' THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA 2. 

In this sequel, Andy’s character arc was something I struggled with. We see her return to Runway magazine, earning herself a spot at the table but is still seeking Miranda’s approval. But why should an award-winning journalist like herself dim her own light?

Simone Ashley as Amari in 20th Century Studios' THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA 2. 

Miranda, on the other hand, who was once feared by everyone and held on to her magazine with an iron fist, is now being constantly reminded by her first assistant, Amari (played by Simone Ashley) to adhere to HR rules. And when a boo-boo situation occurs at work and both Miranda and Creative Director Nigel (played by Stanley Tucci) have to go play nice with the fashion clients, this is when we see a play of power shift.

Emily Blunt as Emily Charlton in 20th Century Studios' THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA 2. 

Emily (played by Emily Blunt), Miranda’s first assistant from the first film, returns to fashion in a surprise twist which I totally loved. You can sense this push-and-pull factor with her character arc which makes you fall in love with her in the first place. Hands-down, she has some of the best and memorable lines written for her in the film, “May the bridges I burn light the way,” which is a similar nod to the scene in the first film when she was lamenting at her desk, “I love my job, I love my job, I love my job.”VerdictWhen the credits rolled, I tried searching for the word for this emotion I was sitting with: there was a sense of uneasiness then followed by messiness. Some parts I felt it was a lot to take in, while others felt like it was moving at a glacial pace (Andy’s neither-here-nor-there new romance).

Sure, the film leaned heavily on nostalgia and that was a recurring theme but to be honest, I went back home not thinking about the film anymore. There were some rushed scenes, some big cameos that don’t really serve a purpose and just characters that were overcrowding the plot that didn’t feel like they added much to the film. 

I would think if they run the sequel as a two-part film then we would’ve seen, say, Miranda’s new partner (played by Kenneth Branagh) shine more on screen. Or even the lovable Jin Chao (played by Helen J. Shen). And how about Lucy Liu’s warm character!