For @NewYorker, I wrote an essay about the empty glossiness of “Emily in Paris” and “Dream Home Makeover” and streaming’s embrace of TV that you don’t have to pay attention to: https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/emily-in-paris-and-the-rise-of-ambient-tv

Ambient TV like “Emily in Paris” is what happens when streaming is just a backdrop for looking at your phone: a series of pretty moving images, like screensavers, of Paris, tacos, animals, furniture

Do you like white people on white couches in white rooms? Try Netflix's “Dream Home Makeover”, a surreal Mormon fantasia of a reality design show https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/emily-in-paris-and-the-rise-of-ambient-tv

in the end I think ambient TV plays into the increasing passivity of digital media consumption, which TikTok is the king of. vibes > content

it’s always such a privilege writing for New Yorker and being allowed phrases like “media gavage”. The fact checkers (here @lfeldmanemison) and copy editors are a huge part of that