Netflix’s new romcom series Nobody Wants This has hit the sweet spot while many others have failed to make a mark. Like the romcoms of yore, the series created by Erin Foster is dripping with cuteness, ridiculously funny and utterly romantic. Luckily, it has been renewed for a second season because by the time the series ends, you will be wanting more of it.
The 10-episode show stars Kristen Bell as Joanna, a snarky 30-something agnostic who hosts a popular sex and relationships podcast with her sister, and Adam Brody (yes, he is back!) as Noah, an earnest, soulful junior rabbi who dreams of being the head rabbi of their temple one day. From the moment of their meet-cute — they meet at a party where she has no idea he is “the rabbi” she is curious about and the sparks fly — you are hooked to this completely mismatched couple.
What draws you in from the first moment is Brody and Bell’s easy yet electric chemistry. Right from the beginning their back and forth will put a goofy smile on your face — “Can you have sex?” she asks while he walks her to the car, “Yes. That’s priests. We are just normal people,” he replies without missing a beat. And to be honest that is the best part about the show’s half-an-hour episodes. Both Bell and Brody are effortlessly natural, giving us a couple one can actually root for. Even if the show sags a bit while they are off the screen, when they are back they more than make up for it.
But it is not what the other characters on the show believe. Bell’s sister, Morgan (Justine Lupe, who starred in Succession), is anti-Noah because of a number of reasons, being left behind and the future of the podcast — she feels “relationship Joanne” is boring — being two of them. Bell’s bickering friendship with Morgan feels natural and extremely relatable even if it’s a bit over the top. Noah’s family, especially his domineering mother Bina, dislikes the shiksa (a Hebrew insult for a non-Jewish girl) who is corrupting their golden boy and is still hung up on Noah’s perfect ex and hoping for a reconciliation.
The only person who seems to support them is Noah’s brother Sasha (Timothy Simons of Veep), a delightfully earnest man caught between loyalty to his brother and his scary wife Esther (Jackie Tohn), who he is totally in love with and totally in terror of. His wife also happens to be best friends with Noah’s ex, Rebecca. Noah and Sasha’s interactions are also some of the best moments of the show.
The cultural differences between Noah and Joanne lead to predictable situations — Bell crosses herself inside a Jewish temple and unknowingly brings pork to a family meal — which are funny in a nostalgic way. You are so caught up in the “will they-won’t they” and “is it at all possible” conundrum that you keep tapping the next episode button and end up binge-watching Nobody Wants This over one weekend.
Are there loopholes in the paper-thin story? Sure. Do some of the characterisations border on caricaturish? Absolutely. Do you care about any of this? Not a bit. Because when the show reaches the “one has to change their life for the other” point in the final episode you are right there, on the edge with Joanne and Noah. This is one couple you would not mind seeing on screen again because everybody will want this to end happily ever after.
