Nobody Wants This Review Actually, Everyone Should Want This

The charming, complex, and perfectly cast sitcom Nobody Wants This proves that mainstream comedy doesn’t have to be soulless and simplistic to succeed. A genuinely ambitious tweaking of the rom-com formula spun off from creator Erin Foster’s podcast, Nobody Wants This takes two performers with previous track records for making viewers want to fall in love with their characters, plays to their strengths, and – most importantly – gives them something substantial to do. Sharply written, intelligently paced, and striking a nice balance between sentimental, sarcastic, and silly, Nobody Wants This reinvigorates a genre that has been quietly wheezing away unnoticed for quite some time.

Joanne (Kristen Bell) hosts a successful sex and relationships podcast with her sister, Morgan (Justine Lupe). Their enterprise takes off and starts to gain more traction with streaming services, thanks in no small part to Morgan’s promiscuity and Joanne’s aversion to commitment. Noah (Adam Brody) is a rabbi in line for a major promotion, but his romantic life is in shambles. He has just broken up with a clingy, overzealous woman (Emily Arlook) that his doting, traditionalist mother (Tova Feldshuh) and forthright sister-in-law (Jackie Tohn) think is perfect for him. Agnostic Joanne meets Noah at a party thrown by a mutual acquaintance (Sherry Cola), and the chemistry between them is immediate and palpable. In spite of their obvious differences and backgrounds, Joanne and Noah start laying the foundation for a loving relationship, much to the chagrin of his family, who think he’s throwing his livelihood and faith in the gutter for a shiksa.

The tone of Nobody Wants This is replete with laid back So-Cal vibes, but while it goes down easy, the series is anything but breezy. Foster’s team of writers and directors know the formula for this type of show well, but each episode contains a pleasing and thoughtful number of layers. There’s always a “situation” that each instalment of Nobody Wants This revolves around, but they’re always in service of strengthening the characters and their relationships. Although some characters float in and out of the conversation, the show ensures the viewer gets to know all of them in rich detail, making some of the more bittersweet and emotionally complicated developments down the road hit all the harder.

All of the characters in Nobody Wants This have strong opinions and mindsets; never scared to say what’s truly on their mind. Instead of building the comedy around people keeping secrets from their partners, a lot of the awkwardness in Nobody Wants This plays out in the open. The show wears its heart on its sleeve at all turns, but there remains a degree of unpredictability because the overarching concept is fraught with possibility and consequence. It might not be as pointed and downtrodden as this year’s other noteworthy project revolving around a lovesick rabbi (Nathan Silver’s brilliant film Between the Temples), but Nobody Wants This exudes confidence and clarity of thought.

Episodes about accepting a partner’s off-putting quirks and tics, tenets of religious faith, moving on from exes, friendly relationships between married people and single people, and dealing with eccentric families (not just Noah’s, but also Joanne’s new-agey and floundering mother and recently out of the closet father, played by Stephanie Faracy and Michael Hitchcock, respectively) have a lived in quality that’s never forced or inorganic, despite their obvious adherence to an established comedic and dramatic formula. The pop culture and trendy references are kept to a tasteful minimum, and the characters are allowed to converse like witty, intelligent human beings rather than static banter machines. The writers for Nobody Wants This deserve a massive amount of credit for taking such a concept, shaping it for a wide audience, and creating something that’s genuinely worth their time and emotional investment.

Casting Brody and Bell in the leads is another gift that keeps on giving back to the viewers, and Nobody Wants This is certain to reignite a lot of early-2000s crushes from Seth Cohen and Veronica Mars stans. Both have razor sharp comedic instincts and exude confidence, but never to a point where either of them feels untouchable or closed off. The chemistry between them is boundless, both as romantic partners and comedic foils because they can dish out loving jabs at each other as much as they can take them, and neither is afraid of showing deep currents of vulnerability. Noah and Joanne have the capacity for brutal honesty, and the reluctance within their relationship is made very understandable and relatable through the performances of the show’s leads. He’s not ready to confront all the questions that will be raised once it comes out that he’s dating a gentile, and she understands going in that the relationship dynamics will be messy because of his faith and family, and messy is the last thing she wants after a lifetime of failed partnerships. Brody and Bell make the viewer feel every bit of their joy, pain, and confusion, making them effortlessly easy to root for.

They’re also backed up by a supporting cast that has been given a lot of substance for their own characters. Timothy Simons generates a lot of laughs as Noah’s loyal and caring, but often aloof brother, exhibiting great chemistry and tension with Lupe (with whom his character starts an unlikely friendship) and convincingly complicated martial dynamics with Tohn. For her part, Tohn plays one of the show’s more openly villainous roles with an increasing amount of heart and conviction. Tohn’s Esther hangs over Noah and his brother like a rain cloud, quick to point out their faults, but she’s also a loving mother and loyal friend to her brother-in-law’s ex, which makes her difficult to detest. Paul Ben-Victor gets some nice moments as Noah’s easy-going father, and Feldshuh creates a commanding presence as his devout, often underhanded, guilt tripping mother. Nobody Wants This is a show with no bad or small parts, and the cast assembled fits together like perfectly aligned puzzle pieces.

While it’s ostensibly a romantic comedy made to be an easy watch, Nobody Wants This is also a story about how difficult personal growth can be, and how the chances to evolve as an adult become increasingly fleeting as one grows older. The show works well even when the romantic angle is taken out of the equation, and that’s the sign of something truly special. It’s not perfect, with some bits of cringe comedy landing awkwardly and a bit more obvious product placement than advisable (from the likes of Apple, Spotify, and Uber, in particular), but Foster’s series is solid in the ways that matter most. Early on, viewers will be able to clue in that things won’t be perfectly wrapped up by the end of Nobody Wants This, with plenty of seeds being sown for future seasons. But that’s a positive and not a negative. If they can keep producing episodes and seasons of the show that are this accomplished, thoughtful, and hilarious, this team can should go on making Nobody Wants This as long as they can or want to. That’s the best compliment anyone could give to a sitcom.

Nobody Wants This streams on Netflix starting Thursday, September 26, 2024.