OOH LA WHA?

Hate-watchers fuel epic ratings for ‘Emily in Paris’

‘No one learns, no one grows’

Sacré bleu!

When the Netflix dramedy “Emily in Paris” became a hit, reportedly seen by 58 million households when it came out in October 2020 — even going so far as to garner Emmy nominations for Best Comedy Series and Production Design — some questioned all the attention it was receiving. Was it really a good show?

Or was it the ultimate hatewatch, where viewers tuned in despite not actually enjoying it?

Vocal critics on social media dismissed the Gallic-themed romp as unrealistic, fluffy, escapist, poorly written and full of cultural stereotypes. Many viewers were outraged that a silly, fantastical show was seeing real success alongside prestige dramas and thoughtful comedies.

“Twitter is making me want to hate watch ‘Emily in Paris’ just so I can experience how bad it is for myself. Must. Resist,” podcaster Hannah Witton tweeted last fall.

So, what’s the deal with viewers watching “Emily in Paris” just to dump on it? Now in its second season (released yesterday), the dramedy follows Emily (Lily Collins), a 20-something from Chicago who moves to the City of Love to work at a French marketing firm. As she adjusts to her glamorous new life, she also navigates her job, culture clashes and a bevy of love interests.

“It simply isn’t a good show, and the protagonist isn’t someone we are rooting for,” Alyssa Jennette, 33, a Season 1 viewer and a literary agent in Harlem, told The Post. “But [audiences] do enjoy watching pretty people in extravagant clothes do high jinks in beautiful locations, and if we can gleefully hate on that incredibly lucky, feckless protagonist at the same time from the isolation of our apartments, all the more fun.”

Brooklyn sports writer Greg Wyshynski, 44, agreed.

“Remember that scene in ‘Goodfellas’ where they slice the garlic with the razor so it just melts away in the pasta sauce? That’s how thin the characters, plots and stakes are for this television program,” he told The Post. “No one learns. No one grows. Emily is less a protagonist than a passenger in the back of a Parisian taxi . . . But it’s a good hate-watch because it’s not aggressively bad or infuriating. It’s just pretty and it’s there.”

Alexandra, a 23-year-old artist from Manila in the Philippines, tweeted last month, “will i willingly hate watch the new season of emily in paris this december? . . . yeah probably.”

Alexandra, who declined to give her last name, told The Post that she considered the series a hatewatch because “there was not a single point of the show where I didn’t despise Emily. She was always selfish in every situation.”

However, Alexandra still got enjoyment out of the show because of its over-the-top fashion, she said. “Emily doesn’t dress ‘American.’ She dresses as an American cosplaying as a French person.”

For Jennette, “Emily in Paris” started out as a great hate-watch, but it wasn’t enough to hold her attention — and she said she’s unlikely to stick with it for Season 2.

“At first it seemed like a sort of fun, fluffy show that me and my friends would be able to text about and watch together,” she said. “And based on initial tweets reacting to the show, I knew that I was in for a pretty laughable portrayal of ‘French culture.’ However, once I got started, I realized this was . . . just a bland, badly written show.”

So bad it’s actually good

A hate-watch is a different animal from a “guilty pleasure,” said Jennette. The former gets old quickly, while you stick with the latter, despite having to suspend disbelief.

For Wyshynski, on the other hand, the show began as a hatewatch, but he soon became a genuine fan.

He said he and his wife first tuned in because she’d heard buzz about it. “We binged the first couple of episodes, and the series chugged along with thin characters, cultural indecorum and idiot plots, but with lovely settings and an undeniable undercurrent of innocuous watchability.”

Then, he said, something changed. “I don’t know what happened. I was captivated. I was laughing with the show. I was caring about where things were headed for the characters. It was working for me, in an entertaining if ultimately disposable way. I did not think I’d end up interested in a second season . . . But seriously, is she going to end up with hunky chef or what?”

Not all of “Emily in Paris” viewers hate-watched it, however, even though its genuine fans are well aware of the criticisms.

Jenny Marston, a blogger in London, is not a hate-watcher and enjoys the show in earnest, though she knows it’s not exactly “The Wire.”

“It’s definitely quite problematic in parts, hugely stereotyped and highly unrealistic,” Marston told The Post. “Particularly in the way that Emily’s Internet fame took off almost literally overnight! All of these things are enough to make you inwardly cringe, but because it was such a quirky, fun and light-hearted watch, that’s what kept people tuning in.”

Even though she acknowledges its faults, she said the timing of the frothy first season also worked for her.

“When I watched it during the pandemic, it was exactly the type of easy watch I needed at that time when the world outside felt too heavy,” Marston said.

Does she care if hate-watchers find her genuine investment in Emily questionable?

“I don’t resent the fact that people hate-watch a show I liked . . . As long as you’re enjoying it, that’s all that matters.”