Netflix released a new series on Thursday, Sept. 26, called Nobody Wants This. Despite the ironic title, EVERYBODY wants this, as Variety Magazine reports that within the first four days of streaming, there had already been 10.3 million views. This series portrays a love story between two characters: Kristen Bell plays Joanne, a single woman who cannot seem to hold on to a real relationship. She is very close to her family and isn’t necessarily seen as the perfect woman by many. She also runs a podcast about all things relationships with her close friend, and sister, Morgan, played by Justine Lupe. Adam Brody plays Noah, a Jewish man on track to become a rabbi. He just got out of a serious relationship with a family friend’s daughter, so when he is surprised at his church, by Joanne, in front of his highly wealthy and respected Jewish parents and all of the members of his church, they begin to resent him for his choices.
The first episode is when Joanne and Noah meet at a mutual friend’s dinner party and immediately hit it off. The story begins to spiral from there when Joanne meets his family and the community within his church when she surprises him as he leads his first sermon as a rabbi. When his family sees Joanne, they call her a “shiksa”, which is seen as a negative term alluding to “abominable” or “impure” for non-Jewish women. Noah doesn’t listen to his family though, he sees Joanne and falls in love with her.
The entire series revolves around their love story, which is very complex. The primary conflict within their story includes Noah’s entitled mother, his insensitive, snobby sister-in-law, and also his religion. Since he is a Jewish rabbi, he cannot marry a woman who is not Jewish. It is also problematic that Noah has to worry about his past relationship with his family’s close friend’s daughter, who he believes his family is still in love with, which therefore makes them resent Joanne for taking Noah away from his past love and perfect candidate for marriage. Joanne attempts to fix this by trying to convert to Judaism, but as she gets closer to converting, she begins to feel more and more nervous, so she doesn’t entirely commit. Noah had grown up with a well-off family, but has very traditional values and views on their families’ lives.
Noah’s family and background completely contrasts with Joanne’s past. Joanne’s family is quite comical, as her father is gay but her mother is still in love with him and does not hide any bit of her compassion for her ex-husband. The family has much more progressive views on life, and they do not show any religious values. Even though they are not all living together because Joanne and her sister are grown up, her family is still very much involved in her life, they appear to do a family dinner every week, and they do “Vanderpump Sundays”(where they watch the show Vanderpump as a family), and the sisters work together, so they are very tight knit, and as they have heard about Noah and met him they enjoy him and believe that he should be with Joanne, as long as it makes her happy.
I personally enjoyed this show, it was a show that I could not stop watching, and I ended up completely finishing it the very first night I watched it. I felt that the episodes only being about 20-30 minutes was the perfect length for a series and I never felt bored, there was always an engaging scene with very comedic lines that were delivered perfectly. One thing that I loved was the casting. I felt that these actors were perfect for the roles that they portrayed. I felt that it was a mix of well-known celebrities, and some not-so-well-known actors, and this series shed light on the talent that may not have otherwise been discovered. I also felt that before watching the show, I had been worried as many shows made now are quite cheesy and do not seem to have the best writing, but after watching it, I would highly recommend it, especially to anyone looking for a light-hearted show. Since so many people had enjoyed this series, it was approved for a second season as well.
