2024-09-27 12:15:03
A raunchy podcast host and a hot, newly single rabbi walk into a lesbian dinner party … stop me if you’ve heard this one before. What happens next, naturally, is the beginning of a complicated romance. The new Netflix series Nobody Wants This may start off like a bad joke—even the characters jest about the wacky setup—but it ends up being a surprisingly good watch. Considering that the show stars two of America’s sweethearts as the lovers—Kristen Bell plays podcaster Joanne, and Adam Brody plays rabbi Noah—I’d even go so far as to say that this is the next great rom-com we’ve been waiting for.
Romantic comedies begin and end with chemistry. Luckily, Bell and Brody have that in spades, along with charm aplenty. Fans of both actors (a Venn diagram that I’m sure more closely resembles a single circle) can attest that these Hollywood darlings, who first captured the hearts of audiences on teen shows, excel at a specific type of humor. They imbue their characters with a well-balanced mix of endearing snark, light self-deprecation, and understated charisma. This quality, of course, makes them perfect scene partners for a comically tortured fling. Their chemistry sizzles on-screen—when Joanne and Noah have their meet-cute at the dinner party, which is hosted by their mutual friend Ashley (Sherry Cola), they immediately ease into a tennis match of sarcasm.
But it’s more than that: We know, having already seen glimpses of their lives, that they’ve both suffered through dating partners who can’t keep up with their rapid-fire quips, and they find in each other an immediate kinship, a rare mutual comprehension. Though they’ve just met and are trading jokey lies about their lives, their banter, their energy, feels honest. And it’s honest in a way that Brody and Bell were destined to embody: When Noah explains that he knows Ashley through a neighborhood-watch program, making them “basically both Karens,” Bell’s delivery of a simple “Oh, wow” is tonally perfect. It’s clear that some Hollywood exec should’ve cast these two together years ago.
Beyond its stars, Nobody Wants This succeeds in attaining what is key to a good rom-com: a cast of delightfully funny supporting characters. Cola offers funny quips as Ashley, but Joanne’s life is even more enlivened by her sister Morgan (Succession’s Justine Lupe) and by the complex dynamic between their parents, whose marriage ended when their father, Henry (Michael Hitchcock), came out as gay, leaving their mother, Lynn (Stephanie Faracy), single and still very much in love with her ex-husband. Meanwhile, Noah’s life is monitored not only by his acutely overbearing Russian mother, Bina (Tovah Feldshuh), but by his self-proclaimed “loser sibling” brother Sasha (Veep’s Timothy Simons) and Sasha’s wife, Esther (Jackie Tohn). Noah’s in a predicament at the show’s start: He just ended a long-term relationship with a Jewish woman whom his family adored (and who also happens to be Esther’s best friend). Naturally, his family is against him dating Joanne, a gentile, and specifically one who openly discusses, for public consumption, sex and dating. But the deeper wrinkle is that the optics of his relationship might jeopardize his play to be head rabbi of his synagogue. Similarly, Morgan worries that Joanne’s being in a relationship with Noah will make her too boring to host their tell-all podcast.
If this sounds like a series full of stereotypes of varying degrees, well, maybe. But within this wackadoodle cacophony of people trying to control Joanne and Noah’s formidable journey to love is a deft comedy—one that investigates the possibility of co-existing with loved ones, even as you actively test their long-held belief systems. With so many comedy veterans on its cast, the show easily sails through fun bits: Joanne’s attempts to get on Esther’s good side with a strategy reminiscent of Mean Girls’ Cady Heron scheming to win over Regina George; Bina and Joanne waging a silent war over whether Joanne and Noah’s coupling will go the distance; and, in one episode, Noah having to overcome giving Joanne “the ick” while meeting her parents (and her father’s surprise new boyfriend) for the first time. Meanwhile, against the backdrop of all these characters who want different things for them are two people who waffle between wondering if this will finally be the relationship that survives and believing that it will—all before they’ve even mustered up the courage to say “I love you.”
However, despite the show’s occasionally farcical tone, the thing that really makes Nobody Wants This special is that it feels like it takes place in the real world. The series may not tackle awards-bait-level complex conversations, but it does explore genuine questions: What does it mean to be religious today? What are the effects of divulging all parts of your life to the public? What does it mean to be an interloper into someone else’s culture or community? At what point does it make sense to give up an idea of what your career should be for the possibility of a life that’s already in front of you? Religious differences, familial disapproval—these things have ended many a couple. The stakes should feel high because they are. But instead of staking some grand moral claim by answering those questions, the show uses these relatable moral quandaries as a playground. It risibly exaggerates “what if?” scenarios and lets us watch love blossom in a circus of incongruent circumstances without constantly fearing the worst. With 10 episodes under 30 minutes each, Nobody Wants This goes down smoothly, and the only thing it does leave us wanting is more of it.
