(courtesy IMP Awards)
Ladies and gentlemen, and those who choose not to participate in traditional gender binary systems, of the televisual jury, I give you the perfect romantic comedy.
If not perfect, then it’s so damn close that it might as well be given such a gushing shot of appreication.
Nobody Wants This. is incredibly smart, rich with sparkling dialogue, witty banter, carefully wrought and beautifully formed characters and a premise that this is rom-com worthy but not so out there as to feel like some sort of unattainable Cupidian fantasy.
Starring Kristen Bell and Adam Brady as a seemingly impossible couple who shouldn’t have any kind of reasonable shot at happy ever after, Nobody Wants This. knows that love is rarely neat and tidy – hell, it almost never is which is part of its status quo-busting charm – and that rather than wafting along on a bed of roses and scented perfume, that some hard decisions need to be made in the midst of all the giddy thrill at finding, or possibly finding, true love.
Beginning like some sort of well-told and hackneyed joke, which is what Bell’s sassy podcasting character, Joanne, quips at one point during the initial rush of fecund flirting, Nobody Wants This. tells the story of a sex and relationship podcaster, one so successful with sister Morgan (Justin Lupe) that Spotify is sniffing around with a multi-million dollar offer, and yes, a rabbi, Noah (Adam Brody) who gunning for the top position at his temple but who is one of the nicest and smartest guys you’re ever likely to meet.
Coming across each other at one of the many dinner parties hosted by one of Joanne’s besties, and her agent, Ashley (Sherry Cola), their rapport is immediate, the witty back-and-forths flowing as fast and easily as the wine on the table, their nascent relationship culminating with Noah, ever the gentleman, walking Joanne back down the hill to the car where he says he is also parked.
He isn’t, of course, that kind and selfless gesture, is just one of the many the newly-single rabbi makes on his way to winning Joanne’s heavily-guarded and jaded heart; the only problem in the midst of all this promising future romantic bliss is that as a head rabbi in the offing, he absolutely has to marry a jewish woman and a shiksa aka gentile woman aka Joanne is absolutely is not someone he can or should consider.
The thing is that love doesn’t care; not one little bit.
Despite being fresh off a break-up with his very pushy sister-in-law Esther’s (Jackie Tohn) bestie Rebecca (Emily Arlook) with whom he realises he is not in love when she engineers, without his knowledge, an actual engagement – no, this is not a case of her asking him etc; rather she simply says to all and sundry they are engaged without telling Noah first – and knowing how complicated a relationship with Joanne could be, Noah is smitten, absolutely smitten and any and all sound rationalisation goes flying out the window.
He knows he is walking on dangerous ground, as does his wisecracking and much put-upon older brother Sasha (Timothy Simons), and there’s no chance in hell his characteristically domineering mother Bina (Tova Feldshuh) will even begin to countenance this relationship (his sad Ilan, played by Paul Ben-Victor, is more chilled about the idea but his has no choice but to defer to his wife) but he can’t help himself – love has struck and despite he and Joanne ducking and weaving around their undeniable attraction, they finally go ahead and see where all the chips land.
The idea of impossible opposites isn’t new at all, of course, but what makes Nobody Wants This. so supremely and brilliantly enjoyable is how well the show executes on its well-worn premise.
Created by Erin Foster, who converted to Reform Judaism prior to her marriage to Simon Tikhman, Nobody Wants This. is smart and ridiculously sassy right from the start.
There’s barely a scene, or part thereof, that is thoughtfully clever and vivaciously funny, every conversation liberally peppered with the kind of easy banter that all of wish we were capable of on a day-to-day basis.
In this seamlessly delivered world, everyone stands ready with clever lines that bubble with wit and fun and enthusiastic buoyancy, every conversation is purposeful and rich with meaning and intent, and all the sorts of things that would trip us mere mortals up are vanishingly rare to non-existent.
But here’s the thing – for all of the rom-com perfectionism, Nobody Wants This. feels very much the tale of flawed and broken people aka all of us in one way or another, who are trying to navigate an impossible situation because love demands it.
All ten episodes capture the dynamic of will they-won’t they-should they so beautifully that you are left gasping at how something this perfect could actually have made it out the other end of the production line.
It’s everything a Nora Ephron-level rom-com should be, serving up LOVE in all capitals with swooning neon and klaxons sounding, but doing it in a way that knows that the kind of relationship Noah and Joanne are contemplating is in no way got a snowflake’s chance in hell of making to anything like a long-term standing.
Grounded in a thorough understanding of both Noah and Joanne’s worlds – Foster, after all, has lived and does live, in each of these sets of circumstances so knows of which she speaks – and how the heart wants what the heart wants, rationality be damned, Nobody Wants This. is a rom-com with a heart and a brain, one that understands that sometimes the most wonderfully things come along in spiked and barbed packages.
When they do, you have one big question to ask – is the treasure within worth all the pain and discomfort and angst its outer layers of social convention challenging and romantic impossibility will inflict?
Joanne and Noah decide “YES!” but not after a lot of ups and downs and back and forths, and some very big questioning moments, triggered by everything from meeting friends and family to whether you can trust someone fully who’s from a world you know little to nothing about.
It’s a BIG ask – Joanne is a sex and relationship podcaster, Noah is a rabbi who, though he’s from a relatively relaxed branch of Judaism, has some big conservative hurdles to surmount, but much of the fun, and godo lord, it is FUN, of Nobody Wants This. is how it sees all these issues and dives on with thoughtfulness, empathy and ready lines of wit anyway.
Nobody Wants This. is everything you want a rom-com to be – impossible yet accessible, sassy and funny but affectingly heartfelt, and swoon-worthy escapist while feeling grounded and human, and it’s absolutely worth your time because you will love Noah and Joanne, you will love the banter and you will adore the tension and how it’s all navigated, but most of all, you will love LOVE because it’s messy and contradictory and doesn’t even remotely play by the rules we love to think life will observe (haha … NO) and who of us doesn’t want of that kind of heart-swelling chaos?
Nobody Wants This. streams on Netflix.