Netflix’s Emily in Paris is a fun getaway with your most stressful friend

Emily Cooper (Lily Collins), the eponymous star of “Emily in Paris”, is not a terrible person. Cooper is just someone you would diplomatically describe in text messages as “a lot”. In the new Netflix series, you get to see Cooper inflicted on an entire nation. “Emily in Paris” is one of the most watchable new shows on Netflix, ridiculous in the way the best romantic comedies are, even if it is a bit short on the charm.

“Emily in Paris” starts with a dream job when Cooper’s boss at Chicago marketing firm Savoir discovers she is pregnant, she abandons her plan to move to the company’s Paris office. Instead, Cooper’s boss inexplicably sends Cooper. And so Cooper takes the assignment of a lifetime, moving to France to help bring an American perspective to the Paris staff of Savoir.

Equal parts a classic fish-out-of-water premise and a perfect encapsulation of why the show is hilarious, “Emily in Paris” spends its 10-episode first season maintaining a tension between earnestness and absurdity that lesser shows would buckle under. It helps that Cooper is surrounded by all the trappings of great television, breezy scripts and a charming cast of good-looking people. And the lifestyle porn that any good aspirational show has, lavish outfits, glamorous parties, and picturesque views.

Cooper has an extremely hot and kind neighbor, Gabriel (Lucas Bravo), a pair of amusingly effete co-workers, a hard ass boss to win over, Sylvie (Phillippine Leroy-Beaulieu), and a rotating cast of clients and other acquaintances who provide kindling for romantic and professional mishaps, sometimes both.

It is often unclear whether “Emily in Paris” is making fun of Cooper or not. Its funniest moments are when Cooper’s privilege runs amok and she is actually checked on it. The show’s charm does a lot of work to keep it from being grating. Cooper arrives in an office full of people she has never worked with and immediately tries to impose new rules, is frequently baffled by cultural differences, and stubbornly insists on doing things her way.

Things always work out for Cooper, because Paris is here for her and for you, a flaky pastry and a mouthful of wine to wish your troubles away with. “Emily in Paris” is light television meant to be devoured and mostly forgotten. But “Emily in Paris” also comes from Darren Star, a creator who has made a name for himself specializing in aspirational television, mostly geared toward white women.

“Sex and The City” defined an entire generation’s idea of making it in their careers and personal lives, and while not as monumental, Star’s “Younger” is a savvy update with a twist, where a middle-aged woman lies about her age to try and make it with all the young up-and-comers. Each had a very different perspective of work. On “Sex and The City”, work barely mattered. On “Younger”, work is one half of your life that threatens to entangle itself in the other.

In “Emily in Paris”, work is the point of everything.

When you think about this, “Emily in Paris” starts to look bleak. In an attempt to be of the moment, “Emily in Paris” reveals how demoralizing our moment is. Nearly all of Cooper’s waking hours are consumed by her job, and her job is not about helping people succeed, it is about helping brands. Cooper’s plucky American go-getter attitude means every romantic night or friendly getaway is an impromptu pitch meeting waiting to happen, every glimpse of Parisian charm is an opportunity to bolster her social media following, and every friendship another bit of networking.

Cooper is the person who you have to bully into taking a vacation and who, when she finally relents, sends daily emails with helpful ideas for ways you can continue to crush it while she is gone. In fact, Cooper would probably come back with great news from three meetings she had anyway. Cooper has a dream job and loves it, it just sucks that her job, like many of our less-glamorous jobs, is merely being a vessel for brands.

This is a drag, because “Emily in Paris” is an infinitely watchable rom-com. Cooper has a sweet and hot French neighbor, but instead of running off with him to get away from work for a weekend, “Emily in Paris” can only envision a world where the real stakes of said getaway are professional. The point of the dream job was supposed to be a check that allowed us to vacation in Paris whenever we wanted.

But now, the only way that happens is if Paris is the job.