Emily in Paris

I gobbled up the 10 episodes of the fluffy Netflix show, available on Friday. If nothing else, it’s an escape from, you know, everything, as well as a ravishing tour of the City of Light. It’s travel porn, with a plot. ... [Emily's boss] Sylvie is beautifully played by Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu, who steals the show with her hauteur. There are many, many scenes of Sylvie sighing with disgust over Emily, bemoaning the younger woman’s lack of subtlety. I savored each one.

Despite my mean-girl enmity toward the protagonist, Emily in Paris is strikingly watchable, an escapist confection brimming with easily digestible plots, costumes and characters. Turn off your brain and crank up Candy Crush.

Emily in Paris is a treat, a beguiling work of Netflix escapism. ... It is a Darren Star show, which means it’s fun and stylish and only partly steeped in reality. It is unabashedly on the side of its plucky heroine, played by Lily Collins, who dresses like Carrie Bradshaw and is self-involved like Carrie Bradshaw and is also charming, so you will root for her regardless of her flaws, like … Carrie Bradshaw.

As created by Darren Star (the mastermind of lush fantasies including “Younger” and, yes, “Sex and the City”), this series is a delight that poses the question of what it really means to grow up, against a truly inviting backdrop.

This 10-episode series has such a joie de vivre it’s easy to ignore its faults and savor its deliciousness. It’s the TV equivalent of a buttery, flakey croissant that you devour. Each episode leaves you wanting more—even if its airy plots are quickly forgettable.

What’s interesting about Emily in Paris is that Star seems to know that his heroine is très annoying. ... You'll wish you were watching Mindy in Paris. (Not too late for a spin-off, Mr. Star!) That’s not to say that Collins has somehow failed in her role. Emily is written as an irritating go-getter who relentlessly pursues her colleagues’ approval and believes wholeheartedly that she deserves it. If Collins delivered an Emily who was likable — well, that would be a failure.

While Emily In Paris seems to be a bit of a lightweight series, Collins is a winner in the lead role, and Star is a pretty dependable storyteller, so we’re hoping for the best.

The point is, Emily in Paris goes down a treat if you can set aside the myriad things it does badly or, perhaps worse, fails to do at all. ... Otherwise Emily in Paris is almost disarmingly pleasant and frictionless, free of real stakes beyond whether or not Emily will have to quit her burgeoning Instagram account to please her stern and stuck-in-her ways boss.

As travelogue and fashion inspiration, Emily In Paris makes for an enjoyable watch—but the familiar plights of its rom-com heroine are easily outshone by the gorgeous, glittering surroundings.

Even if Emily in Paris is a bit misguided and features familiar narrative beats to the point it is something we've all seen before — and it definitely is; hell, you can even argue it's the same show Star always produces — romance ultimately never goes out of style.

It’s TV chick lit, a rom-com in a foreign location where nothing bad ever happens and the cute protagonist gets laid a lot on her way to having it all. But the complicating thing about Emily in Paris—the best thing about it really, the thing that turns it from a trifle people enjoy into a curiosity they enjoy insulting—is how brittle its protagonist is.

So devoid of narrative tension that it barely qualifies as entertainment. ... The characters surrounding Emily are more intriguing than she is. ... Technically, “Emily in Paris” is well-made, but the show’s shortcomings—from its simplistic depiction of French culture to its paper-thin protagonist—make it more of an irritation than an indulgence.

The warm and goofy and topical camaraderie of that show [“Sex and the City”] is nowhere apparent here. Nor are any laughs. There are no actual laugh lines here, just lines that let you know they were supposed to be funny. It is, in essence, a romantic picture postcard comedy show without any comedy (or much romance for that matter).

“Emily in Paris” is like scrolling through Instagram. It’s a great way to waste time looking at pretty pictures with no depth, taken by beautiful people with the ability to do and call it a job. If that’s what you’re looking for, it’ll be for you. If you’re thinking this is the second coming of “Sex and the City,” sorry, no dice.

It's all very exhausting. This is a terrible show. Avoid it at all costs.

The first half of the season is an exorcism of all of the French cliches the writers could think of, spewed out as if they could not keep them in.