Young Millionaires Review
Director: Mohamed Chabane, Igor Gotesman, Tania Gotesman, and Théo Jourdain
Date Created: 2025-08-13 21:26
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Young Millionaires Review: This 8-episode French teen drama series on Netflix has been directed and written by Mohamed Chabane, Igor Gotesman, Tania Gotesman, and Théo Jourdain. Each episode runs for about 30 minutes, so it is a simple show to binge-watch. Abraham Wapler, Sara Gançarski, Malou Khebizi, and Calixte Broisin-Doutaz are four teenagers whose fortunes are forever altered after they win the lottery for 17 million euros. What appears at first to be fantasy soon becomes a whirlwind of lies, deceit, and unforeseen peril.
Young Millionaires Review
The setup of French teen drama Young Millionaires is promising in the beginning; a bunch of teenagers are suddenly wealthier but with no legal avenue to claim their winnings. The fact that they are minors means they have to appeal to an adult to assist them, but responsibility is in short supply when there’s money at stake. This is the beginning of a string of goofy schemes, each more outlandish than the last. The setup is promising and enjoyable, but the show far too often stumbles over its own shoelaces, depending too heavily on coincidental events and over-the-top reactions. There are moments when the goofiness is amusing, but moments when the absurdity itself shatters the suspension of disbelief completely.
The characters are endearing at the beginning. They exchange the sort of quick, quick banter and zing you’d find between friends who’ve spent decades cultivating in-jokes and tiny acts of subterfuge. They exchange nice, real moments with one another that make you understand why they stay together even when they’re behaving atrociously. The charm fades, though. The more selfish and irresponsible they become, the harder it is to stay on their side. By the later episodes, their constant blunders and questionable rationalising start to be more grating than endearing.
The acting is decent, and the leads do share chemistry. Abraham Wapler is wound-up and suave as David, and Sara Gançarski is rough-around-the-edges and fragile as Jess. Malou Khebizi is effective at bringing out the desperation of Samia, and Calixte Broisin-Doutaz is effective at bringing out the vacillations of Leo between confidence and uncertainty. If anything, it’s the script that fails to allow them to reach their full potential. Their personalities are reduced to rote traits at times, so the emotional payoff doesn’t quite ring true.
What makes the Young Millionaires series superior is the blackmail sub-plot introduced halfway through. The transition from simply concealing lottery wins to being blackmailed by an anonymous blackmailer does increase the tension. This aspect of the show I kept watching because it introduced an urgency and slight tension. While the eventual reveal of the blackmailer’s identity is clever as a premise, the execution veers too much into melodrama, and the emotional payoff is lost in the soap opera-esque drama. The tidy wrap-up in the last episode is too contrived, leaving you wondering whether all the angst was truly necessary.
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Nevertheless, it’s hard to blame Netflix’s Young Millionaires entirely. The show is on the right side of pacing — since each episode is only half an hour long, it’s easy to keep watching even when some of the scenes fail to hit. The show even has a certain French teen drama allure, with its fashionable atmosphere, occasional wit, and slightly rumpled, free-form feel. The romance between the lead characters, if all of the plotting is removed, has some of its moments that are warm and genuine. Those moments of humour and hope are the show’s best.
The issue is that these positives are lost in cliché and inconsistency. The “rich, reckless teens” cliche has been done to death, and French series Young Millionaires doesn’t do much to recontextualise it. The tone swings between comedy, mystery, and maudlin drama, but the transitions aren’t always smooth. As such, the emotional scenes can feel earned, and the comedic scenes sometimes short-circuit tension. By the time the finale wraps everything up, the series has little lasting impact. It’s a fun watch while it’s on the air, but it doesn’t stick with you for long.
Netflix Young Millionaires Review: Summing Up
Overall, my opinion is that the Netflix series Young Millionaires is perfect when you feel like something fluffy, funny, and not so intense. It has a great premise, some surprising suspense in the mix, and some cute moments, but it simply can’t work as the show that it might have been. If you’re feeling like a light teen drama with a quirky twist, it’s perhaps worth a take-it-or-leave-it watch.
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