Is this love I feel for Emily in Paris, or just Stockholm syndrome?

Emily in Paris season 4, Netflix from August 15★★★★

Maybe it’s nothing more than Stockholm Syndrome, but I finally feel like this thing between Emily and me just might be the real deal.

Halfway through the fourth season (which is being dropped in two batches of five episodes, with the second tranche coming on September 12), I feel rather like the French people in the show: assailed by the relentless charm of American marketing tyro Emily Cooper (Lily Collins), I at first resisted, then wavered, and now have totally succumbed. I’ve even begun hoping for her to find happiness with the hunky French chef Gabriel (Lucas Bravo). In gallantly Gallic fashion, I swear I can make room in my affections for a third.

Lilly Collins as Emily Cooper, seemingly the first person in Paris ever to master social media. Credit: Courtesy of Netflix

For Emily, though, three is barely enough. Season four opens in the immediate aftermath of last season’s bombshell ending: Gabriel’s on again-off again girlfriend Camille (Camille Razat) having announced at the altar that she can’t marry him because he loves Emily, and Gabriel having told Emily that Camille is pregnant. Of course, Camille neglected to mention that she was actually in love with her Greek artist friend Sofia (Melia Kreiling).

As season four starts, Emily is still trying to convince herself that she loves Alfie (Lucien Laviscount), the miserably cynical Englishman she’d met in a French language class. Then, briefly, she decides she doesn’t want to be with either of these problematic fellows, and suddenly she notices that her adopted city is just choc-a-block full of les Hunks.

Never mind ménages a trois, quatre or cinq. Could our American in Paris be about to tuck in at the all-you-can-eat buffet de l’amour? Hell no. She’s going to have to decide once and for all which of these chaps she really wants.

Though it’s first and foremost a romcom, Emily in Paris has always been about the clash of cultures. A remorselessly upbeat American teaches a bunch of stuck-up Frenchies what you can do with a bit of can-do attitude and a refusal to take no for an answer.

This Audrey Hepburn-inspired ensemble is one of the highlights of the season.Credit: STEPHANIE BRANCHU/NETFLIX

And our heroine’s chutzpah is never more evident than in the season opener, when she decides to cook for aspiring Michelin chef Gabriel in his apartment, then displays her even greater ditziness by abandoning the whole thing as soon as she gets a pressing text message.

Of course, the show is also all about the clothes. Emily’s wardrobe budget would eclipse the GDP of many a small nation, and in episode three she dons an outfit inspired by Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady starring a hat that could eclipse a small planet. It is absurd, fabulous and an image you’ll likely never forget.

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By the midway point of the season, Camille, her girlfriend, Gabriel, Emily and her rich-kid friend Mindy are all living within metres of each other, in the same hotel building. It’s as if creator Darren Star has taken the best elements of his back catalogue (Melrose Place, Beverly Hills 90210, Sex and the City), tossed them in a bowl, and served a perfectly seasoned piece of frippery – quelle salade! – that’s bound to keep everyone happy.

Well, those of us who’ve fallen a little in love with our captor, anyway.

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