(Credits: Netflix)

With the first part of its fourth season dropping on Netflix last week, Emily in Paris is back at the top of the global charts on the platform. The newly single American fashionista is engrossing audiences once again with her Instagram-filtered soap stories against an airbrushed Parisian backdrop.

Will Emily get back together with local chef Gabriel or English banker Alfie? Or will she find new love, perhaps sharing a bottle of fine wine and a baguette, in some bistro with period decor on a street straight out of a postcard? Despite the extra layers of character development and more nuanced narrative arcs worked into seasons three and four so far, it’s clear that this flagship title from the world’s biggest streaming service still has little to offer beyond lazy stereotypes about the City of Love and gossip column storylines.

And why not? It’s the formula that brought Emily in Paris to 58 million households across the globe when it debuted in 2020, and made it the most watched show on Netflix in 2022. Something about the show seems innately appealing. Whether it’s the surface-level sightseeing tour of one of Europe’s most visited city, Emily’s complete indifference to learning French, her immersion into a world of high fashion beyond the paycheques or pretensions of most viewers, or her messy romantic entanglements with men straight out of luxury watch ads on the back pages of glossy magazines.

Those of us who wouldn’t call ourselves fans of the show might be scratching our heads, but is it really so different from the way stories go in fantasy, crime and history dramas like Game of Thrones, Peaky Blinders, Bridgerton or Vikings? The costumes might be different, but scratch beneath the surface and there are still flawed, often impetuous heroes with questionable aims, supporting characters jostling for position in the social pecking order, and beautified, hyperbolised versions of worlds bearing little resemblance to their basis in reality. A reality that may be historical or mythical rather than contemporary, still the world-building principles are the same.

But what sets this show apart?

Most online forums discussing the show are in agreement that there are several key reasons for its success. And they all seem to centre on its aesthetically pleasing presentation of the high-life in Paris, along with the minimal amount of effort required to watch it. Some people suggest that they put it on in the background while doing other things, given the lack of time they have available in their day for more serious TV. Another viewer agrees that it’s a silly show but says that’s exactly why they like it. One resident of Paris thinks it makes for a great “hate watch”.

Netflix doesn’t care if some of its viewers watch Emily in Paris with condescension, contempt or little concentration, however. Views are views, and in that sense the show is their ultimate commodity. They’re even looking to monetise it further by working with Google to turn the series into a “shoppable experience”.

This phenomenon brings to mind the New York-based show Sex and the City, which enjoyed enormous popularity during its run two decades ago, and continues to attract viewers in syndication. Carrie Bradshaw’s life as a men-obsessed columnist living in an impossibly expensive Manhattan apartment mirrors the glitzy existence of adopted Parisienne Emily.

Only, unlike Bradshaw Emily has moved across the Atlantic to a foreign capital with a different first language from her own. As one fan puts it, this fundamental aspect of the show creates an additional fish-out-of-water dynamic. Perhaps more importantly, it allows the show’s producers to exoticise Emily’s life abroad, presenting a sanitised version of Paris that entices millions of young wannabe travellers.

According to Travel Daily Media, the number of young people travelling abroad has more than doubled during the past two decades, to almost 400 million. For this generation, Emily in Paris offers the same escapist fairytale of luxury city life as Sex and the City, with the added bonus of a faraway land and culture that they themselves aspire to experience.