Nobody Wants This

A rabbi and a podcaster walk into a party

Joanne and Noah vibing at synagogue - “Shabbat shalome”

In the new Netflix series, Nobody Wants This, a cynical LA podcaster and a sweet, hot rabbi meet at a party and a romantic entanglement ensues. It’s one of the best new rom coms I’ve seen in years and I have a lot of thoughts.

The psychosexual hold Adam Brody has over the generation of young Jewish women who grew up on The OC makes his Noah the perfect leading mensch and Kristen Bell is funny and adorable as Joanne.

The show’s creator is Erin Foster who hosts The World’s First Podcast with her sister Sara and converted to Judaism in order to marry the man she fell in love with so there is a strong autobiographical element at play.

As my friend Lisa noted, “Brody is the dream male rom com protagonist. I particularly loved seeing him handle himself so brilliantly when she was being neurotic and anxious - an example to all men!”

The chemistry between them is wonderful and totally convincing. Bell does the jaded, damaged heroine thing while remaining completely sympathetic and Brody does sensitive and emotionally available without it feeling mawkish. The scene where he walks her back to her car after their meet cute at the party is utterly charming. Oh and their first kiss is one of the best all time rom com first kisses.

In a brilliant scene where Noah and Joanne are in the car with their sidekick siblings - Joanne’s sister, Morgan, is played by the excellent Justine Lupe, Willa from Succession while Noah’s bother Sasha is the fantastically irritating Timothy Simons, Jonah from Veep - Morgan inadvertently notes that Noah “doesn’t look that Jewish” and Sasha replies, “Does my brother not look like he could control the media?” and “There are some very attractive Jews! Ever seen a young Mandy Patinkin?”.

In another scene when Sasha’s daughter is complaining about the lame theme for her upcoming bat mitzvah, her mum says,

“Just because your friends dress like tiny sex workers and their theme is Magic Mike, does not make it ok.”

There are lots of very funny Jewish jokes but alas, there are plenty of horrible Jewish stereotypes too. The general consensus is that Jewish men are hapless schlubs while the women are humourless and domineering.

I discussed this with Lisa who had lots of thoughtful things to say on the subject. Like the fact that even the names of the Jewish women made her cringe. “Rachel, Rebecca, Leah and Esther like we’re only allowed biblical names.” The supporting cast’s proliferation of schnozes felt a little on the nose (so to speak) for me too.

Noah’s menacing mother, Bina, who is allegedly Noah’s “favourite person in the world”, possesses precisely no redeeming features, attempting to thwart their relationship at every turn. In one scene where Joanne has mistakenly brought a platter of prosciutto as a gift to brunch, Bina treats her horribly at the table and leaves the room, only for Joanne to find her eating the discarded pork out of the bin, as if every Jew is just desperate to snaffle forbidden treyf when no one is looking.

Lots of it isn’t offensive, it’s just stupid. Like the way Noah’s dad says “putz”, “shvitz” or “Mazeltov” in every sentence or how everyone wears their massive Magen David over their clothes. I can also confirm that Jews do not light their menorah in the summer or exclusively read Jewish cook books.

Essentially, they could have dialled down the Jewish shtick by about 60% and still got the message across.

Having said all of that, this was the best rom com dialogue I've seen on screen for a really long time and Brody and Bell are absolutely delightful.

Have you watched? Am I kvetching too much? Not enough? Share in the comments.

See you next time!

Hannah