The Wrong Paris Is Netflix's Delightfully Ridiculous Answer to Everyone Who's Ever Hated The Bachelor

Look, I need to be honest with you: The Wrong Paris should not work. Like, at all. The premise is bananas, the Bachelor parody is so on-the-nose it hurts, and Miranda Cosgrove going from Nickelodeon princess to leading lady in cowboy boots feels like someone's fever dream. But here's the thing that's making me absolutely lose my mind: it works so well that it's currently Netflix's #2 movie globally with 12.8 million views, and I cannot stop thinking about it.

Let me paint you a picture. Dawn (Cosgrove) is a small-town Texas girl who dreams of attending art school in Paris — France, obviously. She gets accepted but can't afford it because she used her savings to help her grandma with medical bills (already crying). Her solution? Join a reality dating show called "The Honeypot" that's supposedly filming in Paris, get that appearance fee, then immediately self-sabotage and get eliminated so she can stay in the city and pursue her dreams.

Except — plot twist! — the show isn't filming in Paris, France. It's filming in Paris, Texas. Which is like an hour from her hometown. The producers basically catfished their entire cast, and honestly? That's the most realistic thing about this whole situation.

When Bachelor Nation Meets rom-com chaos

As someone who has watched entirely too many seasons of The Bachelor (don't @ me), I was prepared for The Wrong Paris to be a toothless parody that missed all the actual crazy parts of reality TV. Instead, it's like the writers actually watched the show and said, "You know what? This is already unhinged. Let's just lean into it."

The fictional show "The Honeypot" includes all the greatest hits: women fighting over group date roses, producers clearly stirring up drama, and that one contestant who's "not here to make friends." But here's what made me cackle — they actually address how weird and manufactured the whole process is. When Dawn tries to get eliminated by being intentionally bizarre (including an incredible scene where she eats a sandwich during a romantic dinner), the producers are like "This is great TV!" and keep her around anyway.

The Bachelor subreddit has been absolutely losing it over this movie, with users saying things like "I was in tears laughing within the first 30 minutes" and "It captures the absurdity often seen in The Bachelor." Former Bachelor fans are calling it "HILARIOUS" because it nails exactly how ridiculous the show can be while still being genuinely romantic.

Miranda Cosgrove's career glow-up nobody saw coming

Can we talk about Miranda Cosgrove for a hot second? Because this casting should feel like stunt casting but instead feels like... destiny? The woman who gave us iCarly's Spencer-level chaos energy has grown into someone who can handle both physical comedy (there's a scene involving a mechanical bull that will live rent-free in my head) and genuine romantic vulnerability.

"I've never been the lead in a rom-com in my whole life, even though I love the genre," Cosgrove told The Hollywood Reporter, and you can feel how much she wants this to work in every single scene. She's not just playing Dawn — she's playing someone who genuinely believes in the power of rom-coms to make people feel better, which is exactly what this movie needs.

The chemistry between her and Pierson Fodé (who plays Trey, the bachelor with the kind of abs that make you understand why reality TV exists) is surprisingly authentic. Their meet-cute at a Texas honky-tonk called Sossy's Saloon feels like something that could actually happen if you squint and ignore the film crew following them around.

The Texas of it all (even though it was filmed in Canada)

Here's where things get wonderfully weird: The Wrong Paris is set in Texas, features the actual Paris, Texas Eiffel Tower (complete with cowboy hat), and leans hard into cowboy aesthetics, but was almost entirely filmed in British Columbia, Canada. The "Texas ranch" where most of the action takes place? That's actually the Canadian countryside standing in for the Lone Star State.

But somehow this works in the movie's favor because nothing about this story is trying to be realistic anyway. The whole thing has this heightened, almost fairy-tale quality where Texas looks like a tourism board's fever dream and everyone is just a little too attractive and charming to be real people.

The production team did include quick shots of actual Paris, Texas landmarks, including the Grand Theatre and that famous Eiffel Tower replica, which shows they at least tried to ground the absurdity in something real. Plus, they actually flew to Paris, France for some scenes, because if you're going to be extra, might as well be extra extra.

The ending that makes it all worth it

Without spoiling anything major, The Wrong Paris does something really smart with its conclusion that shows it understands both rom-com conventions and reality TV better than it initially lets on. Instead of rushing into a reality-show engagement that we all know would end in a breakup announcement six months later, the movie takes its time with the relationship.

Dawn doesn't immediately throw away her dreams for a guy (thank god), and Trey doesn't expect her to. The ending acknowledges that these two barely know each other despite having "great TV chemistry," and it gives them time to actually figure out if they work outside the artificial bubble of a dating show. It's surprisingly mature for a movie that features a woman getting hosed down for a group date.

The credits reveal they eventually get engaged, but not until after Dawn goes to art school and they have a real relationship. It's the kind of ending that makes you believe these fictional people might actually make it, which is more than I can say for most actual Bachelor couples.

Why this ridiculous movie works

The Wrong Paris succeeds because it commits fully to its own absurdity while never making fun of the people who enjoy this kind of entertainment. It's not cynical about rom-coms or reality TV — it understands that people watch both for the same reasons: we want to believe in love, even when it's completely manufactured.

The movie also gets something that a lot of Bachelor parodies miss: the show isn't inherently bad, it's just a really weird way to fall in love that somehow occasionally works anyway. The Wrong Paris asks, "What if someone went on this ridiculous show for completely practical reasons and then accidentally found something real?" That's actually a pretty solid rom-com premise when you think about it.

Plus, Miranda Cosgrove eating a sandwich during a candlelit dinner while maintaining eye contact with her bachelor is the kind of chaotic energy I need more of in my entertainment.

The verdict: Stream it immediately

Look, The Wrong Paris is not going to win any Oscars. The dialogue is sometimes clunky, the plot is completely predictable, and there are moments where you can practically see the Netflix algorithm's fingerprints all over it. But it's also exactly the kind of comfort-food entertainment that streaming was made for.

If you've ever hate-watched The Bachelor, if you've ever wished rom-coms would acknowledge how weird dating actually is, or if you just want to see Miranda Cosgrove ride a mechanical bull while wearing a cowboy hat, this movie was made specifically for you. It's 105 minutes of pure "turn your brain off and enjoy" content, and sometimes that's exactly what we need.

The fact that it's already beating out most of Netflix's other releases suggests that maybe there's still room for earnest, silly romantic comedies that don't take themselves too seriously. In a world full of dark prestige dramas and dystopian futures, sometimes we just want to watch someone fall in love with a cowboy in the wrong Paris.