At first glance, the glossy rom-com series set in Los Angeles might be mistaken for being just another superficial and vacuous escapism hole, but Nobody Wants This turns out to be surprisingly self-assured.
★★★★☆
In the name of full transparency, I initially only pressed play on the recent Netflix release to serve as background noise for a self-commiserating cold-ridden study session curled up on my sofa. I expected a sort of Emily In Paris escapade which I could smirk wryly at in between blowing my nose. Five hours later, I was utterly transfixed by the story of a millennial podcast host, a conflicted rabbi and their equally eccentric siblings.
Kristen Bell and Adam Brody have palpable chemistry as career-driven Joanne and newly single Noah when meeting for the first time, yet their unlikely relationship faces countless obstacles. These can be comedic, with Joanne having to convince a gang of mean-girl-mums to like her during a basketball game, and sometimes consequential, with Noah’s internal conflict between his Jewish faith and his feelings for Joanne causing rifts that spread far beyond the two of them.
My initial response was lukewarm; the first episode threatens to border on saccharine levels of sweetness at times and I found myself cringing more often than not. The pilot’s plot and execution remains the most contrived; one of its final scenes sees a starry-eyed Bell gaze at Brody’s character as he delivers an inspirational sermon, all to a backing track reminiscent of some oddly exhilarating tech product announcement video.
While its tone veered perhaps too far towards sentimental, the first episode does manage to pull off the mammoth task of establishing every single plotline, character and theme of the series. We are briefly introduced to Joanne’s sarcastic sister Morgan (Justine Lupe) and Noah’s hapless, off-putting brother Sasha (Timothy Simons). Before their meet-cute has even begun, Joanne vows to start being more open-minded after yet another disappointing date, while on the other side of town, the morally upstanding Noah has just broken up with his long-term partner, Rebecca (Emily Airlock). These instances are the first two hints that Nobody Wants This is not a simple will they won’t-they romcom, but rather a more in-depth exploration of what shapes a person’s behaviour and their sense of right and wrong.
As Joanne and Noah embark on a relationship to the ire of his traditionalist Jewish family, the show’s heavier moments feel more earned as the emotional stakes inevitably rise. However, where the show tends to shine is when it leans into its comedic side; in one such moment, Joanne and Noah encounter a member of the latter’s congregation in a sex shop. In another, a spiritual healer informs Joanne that she simply doesn’t have an aura. At all.
When it comes to what makes this show great, one thing that can’t be over emphasised is the casting of Justine Lupe and Timothy Simons as quirky duo Morgan and Sasha. At first, both characters embody the classic romcom archetype of the protagonist support act—a comic relief figure who’s there to make you relate to the principal couple. Yet, where a feature length movie may cast these characters as mildly irritating one-liner machines, the format of the ten-episode show allows time and space for them to stand on their own two feet, resulting in fully fleshed out character arcs that, intriguingly, involve each other.
Ironically, I found myself enjoying the show the most when these two were on the screen. While initially difficult at first to separate Simons from his role as the iconically diabolical Jonah from Veep, the actor has mastered transforming an objectively unlikeable side character into one that is inexplicably endearing. Similarly, Justine Lupe brings an incredibly realistic sisterly dynamic to the relationship between Morgan and Joanne, a complex mix of comparison, bickering and fierce love. The two also feed us some fantastic lines (among which lie “you are a problematic weirdo but goddammit you’re a movie star” and “no, no, no, grandmothers die, that’s like, their thing”).
While the second season of Fleabag remains the best comedy-drama about the perils of falling in love with a religious leader, Nobody Wants This offers a version of the rom-com that we might not have seen before; one that’s firmly grounded in maturity, empathy and respect. In Erin Foster’s creation, the romance is convincing, the conflict deftly constructed and its themes meaningful. But what makes this show so easy to like is the slick polish of its script, the skillful wit of its entire cast and the affection it shows for all of its characters. It also doesn’t hurt to have an expertly delivered line like: “Have you ever seen a young Mandy Patinkin? I’m getting a half sandwich just thinking about him right now.”
Words by Elise Barry
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