The Wrong Paris review (2025)
The Wrong Paris joyfully skewers the melodramatic goofiness of The Bachelor franchise while taking a moment to craft an unexpectedly sweet rom com.
Dawn (Miranda Cosgrove, Despicable Me 4) isn’t worried about love or final roses. Her sights are set squarely on Paris after being accepted to art school. The only problem is she used most of her Paris savings to help take care of her grandmother (Frances Fisher, Unforgiven) and two younger sisters, Emily (Emilija Baranac) and Maxine (Ava Bianchi).
Emily might have a workaround, which involves her favorite reality show, The Honey Pot. On this not at all similar to The Bachelor series, women vie for the heart of an eligible bachelor. When he makes his final choice, the woman can choose the romance or the prize woman for being the last woman standing. Wrong Paris throws a nice bit of subtle shade at the premise of The Bachelor/The Bachelorette from screenwriter Nicole Henrich.
By lucky coincidence, The Honey Pot producers Rachel (a scene-stealing Yvonne Orji, Vacation Friends 2) and Carl (Torrance Coombs) are hosting a casting call in Dawn’s area. Dawn doesn’t see the point in wasting her time until Emily clues her in that all participants get a $20,000 appearance fee after they get eliminated. That would be good enough for a second semester at art school.
Director Janeen Damian (Falling for Christmas, Irish Wish) is quickly becoming a reliable asset for quality Netflix exclusive rom-coms. Wrong Paris is another winner for her as she leans in all the admittedly low-hanging fruit of the romantic drama reality shows starting with the stereotypical cast of characters.
Jasmine (Christin Park) is the likable, sheltered nerd; Heather (Veronica Long) is the tomboy of the group; Cinderella (Madeleine Arthur) is the prim and proper pageant winner; Amber (Naïka Toussaint) is the flirty one and Lexi (Madison Pettis) is the high-end influencer. Rachel thinks Dawn has what it takes to go far in the show despite Carl’s protests and selects her for the cast.
The women are all set for their trip to Paris, but as The Wrong Paris title suggests, they’re not going to France. Instead, they’re going to Paris, Texas. Most of the contestants aren’t upset with this twist after meeting the bachelor Trey McAllen (Pierson Fodé). Dawn is annoyed about being hoodwinked especially since Paris, Texas is just an hour away from her home. Rachel talks her off the ledge and reminds her that quitting the show would cause her to forfeit her participation money.
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What Rachel and Carl don’t realize is that Dawn and Trey already had their meet-cute days before they ‘met’ on the show. While sparks certainly flew during that impromptu meeting, Dawn is focused on getting to Paris, not getting the final rose…er spur. The Bachelor nods can only go so far before the lawyers have to get called in.
Henrich also wisely spends some time showing the rest of the women — besides “bad girl” Lexi — bonding to make Wrong Paris less a series of scenes with women cattily going after each other but just enduring the various challenges to win Trey’s heart. It was nice to see Dawn and Jasmine become fast friends who look out for each other even if it’s a bit one-sided since Dawn is the star of Wrong Paris and not Jasmine. The idea of a mutual friendship at least exists.
Cosgrove and Fodé have surprisingly strong chemistry, which makes their slow burn romance more rewarding. Dawn is deliberately trying to do all the things Emily suggests to not survive the elimination ceremonies, but it’s not working as Trey is too intrigued to send her home. Orji and Coombs are also a lot of fun bouncing off each other as the producers who get overly invested in the participants’ love story and their need to craft an exciting reality show.
Damian fully plays into the fantasy world of dating reality shows while having Wrong Paris provide a behind the curtain look at how the shows are done. In a real sense, Wrong Paris is a rom com about a loosely scripted TV dating show with all the meta elements that result.
This allows gives Wrong Paris some freedom to stand out from other rom coms since it’s so busy spoofing dating reality shows that it can’t fall victim to too many rom com cliches. There’s not some far too familiar race to the airport for some dramatic love declaration, but Dawn does get some help from Jasmine and Rachel, who is essentially her reality TV fairy godmother.
The Wrong Paris offers a fun twist on the usual rom com and earns its highly dramatic happy ending.
Rating: 8.5 out of 10
Photo Credit: Netflix
For another spoof on dating reality TV shows, check out Burning Love on DVD on Amazon.
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