Old School. Biblically Independent.
By Jen Maravegias | Film | September 18, 2025
Netflix knows two sides of Jen: the Perpetual Spooky Season side and the How Far Can I Turn Off My Brain side. That side watches stuff like Hot Frosty and Irish Wish when everything else feels like it’s too much.
I was looking for something dumb to watch last night that would pair well with the apple cider donuts I was stress-eating (EVERYTHING IS FINE! WHY DO YOU ASK?) and Netflix recommended The Wrong Paris.
Miranda Cosgrove plays a simple, country girl living on her grandmother’s (Frances Fisher) farm with her two younger sisters. I can’t remember her character’s name, so I’m just going to call her Miranda because referring to her as iCarly feels disrespectful to her growth as an actress (/s).
Miranda is a sculptor who works with metal and looks cool welding in the barn. She’s been accepted into the prestigious Academie D’Art De Paris. No no, not Académie des Beaux-Arts. Just D’Art.
Anyway, everyone is very excited and proud. But oh no, Miranda spent all of her meager Parisian art school fund helping her grandmother pay down her medical debt, and now she can’t afford to go. What’s a girl to do?
Well, if you look like Miranda Cosgrove, you let your sister talk you into auditioning for a reality dating show called The Bachelor, which is filming its next season in Paris. Oh no, wait. I’m sorry. It’s called ‘The Honey Pot.’ But it’s The Bachelor. Just with more cash prizes? I don’t know. I don’t actually watch The Bachelor. Do those ladies do challenges and win money?
It doesn’t matter. Miranda plans to go on the show and get eliminated as quickly as possible, and then take advantage of the fact that she’s already in Paris, France, to go to school. I guess she’ll just eat cake or something to keep herself alive. Her plan for elimination is simple: do the opposite of every other contestant. Don’t flip her hair and make meaningful eye contact with The Honey, don’t be the first contestant he kisses, and eat like no one is watching. “No flippin,’ no lookin,’ no longin,’ no kissin.’”
She gets past the producers who are cool on her Small Town Girl shtick with the help of Insecure’s Yvonne Orji, who plays her fairy godmother, Rachel, through the movie.
Before she can get on a plane to Paris, Miranda has a meet-cute with a very handsome, very fancy-dressed cowboy in a pool hall. Don’t worry about him. I’m sure he won’t be important to the story later.
All of the women board a private jet in Dallas and then apparently spend nine hours circling until it lands in Paris … Texas! Surprise! Suckers. All of the contestants are mad, but they get over it real quick once the cameras start rolling. Except Miranda. She needs to be in France for her plan to work!
The ranch where The Honey lives is very fancy, and the contestants descend upon it with the same energy as 30-something-year-old white ladies descending on a wedding gown sale. They’re all caricatures of the type of women who participate in these sorts of shows. It’s mean but kind of funny. The Wrong Paris is trying to be satire but isn’t really smart enough to pull that off, so you end up laughing at how ridiculous everything is.
Lo and behold, The Honey turns out to be the meet-cute from earlier (Pierson Fodé), and he hasn’t been able to stop thinking about Miranda since he met her. She tries to convince him to cut her loose immediately, but he refuses. She’s mad about it until … well, Fodé shared this pivotal scene to Instagram. Once you watch it, I’m sure you’ll understand why Miranda suddenly became OK with staying in the competition.
It’s OK if you want to go back and watch that again. We all deserve something horny as a treat.
Yadda yadda yadda Miranda and The Honey truly fall in love over the course of … a week? Maybe. It might have only been a few days. Obviously, it’s real real though, and The Honey is all set to make Miranda the winner/his fiancée until one of the other contestants reveals to him that Miranda only participated to get to Paris, France, so she could go to art school and doesn’t really love him.
Oh, the betrayal! How dare she hurt this beautiful, rich, fancy cowboy? He boots her from the show just before the big finale, which is coincidentally set to be filmed in Paris, France. All hope seems lost when Miranda’s fairy godmother reappears and convinces her to shoot her shot by showing up at the finale.
So here’s the deal. The finale of ‘The Honey Pot’ presents the women with a choice. They can accept The Honey’s proposal, or they can take a cash payment of $250,000. Miranda won some of ‘The Honey Pot’s competitions for cash. If she forfeits those winnings, she can make an appearance during the finale to try to win The Honey back.
That plan obviously works, and The Honey convinces her to take the $250,000 instead of his proposal. She’ll be able to go to Academie D’Art and live in Paris. He’s rich, so he can hang out in Paris for as long as he likes. And then they’ll both live happily ever after on his fancy ranch in Paris, Texas.
Cue the sparkling lights of the Eiffel Tower as they kiss, the end.
I won’t lie. Miranda Cosgrove is good at this. Very good. And Yvonne Orji is having a good time, looking great in some fantastic outfits. (So many coats to covet.) But it’s a silly movie that travels well-worn fairy tale paths to happily ever after. Nothing is challenging about the story, and there are no social justice messages in it. It’s actually pretty regressive, what with all of the tokenism in the casting, and there’s a mud wrestling scene.
It’s awfully popular, though, and it might be the brain break you need this weekend. I’m pretty sure there will be at least one sequel in the future. It will probably be about meeting the fancy, rich cowboy honey’s parents. Or, you could just go back and watch that Instagram post again.
The Wrong Paris is streaming on Netflx.
