'Mr. Wrong' Marries IOWest, Babelgum and Keeping It Short

As web television toys with being a breeding ground for high production value, TV-ready content, occasionally its forefather, short-form bite-sized content is easily overlooked. Mr. Wrong is one such example. The very simple talking-head style show is easily watchable as most episodes clock in at under 2 minutes.

Mr. Wrong is just as it sounds—one woman goes on many dates with some shady and crazy characters who all turn out to be just that, Mr. Wrong. These Mr. Wrongs rattle off their various philosophies on life, love, technology, poetry and more.

The show is the brainchild of Frank Chindamo and his wife Lynn Chindamo via their Fun Little Movies outfit for video site Babelgum. Frank says the show comes from his wife Lynn’s honest dating experiences. “She met so many Mr. Wrongs before she met me she thought it would be funny to spoof them in a web show.” No stranger to web production Frank Chindamo is the former Comedy Publisher for Babelgum and producer of Turbo Dates, a show with a similar setup that goes for both the male and female perspective .

Watching Mr. Wrong, it’s tough not to draw a comparison to perhaps the most successful talking head dating show of late Secret Girlfriend. While Mr. Wrong has a bit less sex and mystery than the Comedy Central pick-up,  it’s anchored in intriguing characters all pulled from its creative partnership with the IOWest. The series was cast solely from the theatre. Of the partnership, Frank Chindamo says, “the idea was to create a partnership with an improv company to promote both Babelgum and the improv company and to attract users from IO and from the Babelgum space.”

The Chindamos gave all the actors a scenario and let them do what they do best, improvise. While the show seems a bit tempered to keep it safe for work—or on Chinadamo’s new area of expertise, streaming on your cell phone, the performances are solid and watchable. And while Mr. Wrong is certainly not exactly forging any new ground here, it is delivering marketable short form pieces easily consumable across a bevy of platforms. In a world where many web series have begun to deliver in more epic and particularly lengthy territory, there’s something to be said for that.