Nobody Wants This: Season 1

Turns out everybody wants this. This Los Angeles fairytale about a rabbi who falls for a shiksa who has lived in LA her entire life and somehow has never met a Jew, heard a word of Yiddish or seemingly never eaten a bagel. As a native Los Angelino and a member of the tribe, the conceit is absurd on its face. This is not Iowa. This is not Utah. This is West Los Angeles and our main character, Joanne (Kristen Bell), is in her mid-forties in the “media” business and she’s never met a Jewish person before? And seems completely surprised and confounded by the concept of a bar mitzvah? And that the rabbi she meets, Noah (Adam Brody), is also in his mid-forties and is not and never has been married. And even if we’re supposed to believe these two actors are considerably younger than they actually are, a mature, on-the-prowl bachelor rabbi is not a thing that exists. Yes, this is a fairytale — and not a very realistic one at that.

But, hey, let’s put all the unreality aside. Let’s pretend these two actors are… maybe in their late thirties? And that somehow Joanne (terribly unsexy name, by that way) grew up in some blonde bubble in West LA where Jews don’t exist? Which, honestly, growing up there is absolutely not a thing. But let’s pretend anyway. She’ll be like Harrison Ford in Witness or some shit. And let’s pretend Noah’s temple wouldn’t wonder what the hell was up with him that he’s the first rabbi in the history of rabbis not to have a wife and at least three children by the age of 25. Even though, again, he seems to be the rabbi at a conservative temple that most likely wouldn’t be into such things. So, basically this show becomes Mork & Mindy. Where I guess Kristen Bell is Mork? Because she’s oddball Robin Williams showing up to formal events in rainbow suspenders and saying out-of-pocket, outlandish things in front of prim and proper constituencies. She and her sister, Morgan (Justine Lupe), host a sex and relationship podcast after all. Hilarity!

There’s honestly not a whole lot to say about this series. It’s a straight-forward relationship sitcom in the most old-school sense of the word. The “situation” is that Noah has a stereotypical Jewish girlfriend (which is a little offensive in and of itself) who he breaks up with because she’s insensitive and maybe a little entitled. Soon after he meets his tiny, blonde dream girl at a party and she is confused by the fact he’s relatively young and hot an not a horned, crusty old bearded lech because she’s… antisemitic? I don’t know. There is an instant attraction between the two of them, but between his family and the temple it’s gonna be an issue when he shows up with this woman who talks about dildos for a living and clearly only eats ham and shrimp salad sandwiches. Yes, religion in 2024 is going to be this couple’s biggest issue! It’s so quaint.

For some reason they cast giant goonish goy Timothy Simons to play Brody’s put-upon brother (beside the fact he’s always very funny), pairing him with a constantly haranguing and controlling, stereotypical Jewess wife, Esther (Jackie Tohn). The podcast sister, Morgan, is supposed to be a party girl, flirtatious and, uh, sexy. Which is a role Lupe can and has played, but she was visibly pregnant during the filming and spends most of the show in pashminas and ponchos and hiding in giant sweaters and behind pillows, which kind of annuls the vibe I think they were going for with that character. She talks about sex and getting laid and whatnot, but is constantly taking off to meet some man for a date in a housecoat. It’s weird.

But, look, this is just me being nit-picky. If I were to look at the average sitcom on any broadcast network made over the past thirty years, I’m sure I could tear apart the realism and political correctness of it. This is meant to please a broad audience who maybe wouldn’t understand that it’s not that cool to portray every Jewish woman as an intense, bitchy version of Janice from Friends. Even if they are funny. I have to relax and understand that this is supposed to be a comedy and not social commentary. And that Jewish guys in sitcoms always end up with the blonde shiksa. It’s a tale as old as time. Shit, I ended up with a brunette one, so who am I to talk? The series is ultimately very light and breezy. The stakes are incredibly low. And Brody and Bell are both great on screen and compelling individually. I’m not sure I buy their sexual chemistry, but their banter is relatively entertaining and occasionally funny. The accompanying cast of friends and family is really where the comedy is, which is pretty typical for the rom-coms.

Like I said, Nobody Wants This feels almost throwback-y in its nature. The plot beats are super-obvious and some of the situations in this situation comedy are bordering on hacky. It’s most definitely a background show that can flow between online shopping and scrolling your favorite social media app. In some ways this may be what made this show so popular. There are no mystery boxes. No complicated narratives. It’s just a couple attractive people circling one another looking for love in a modern world that really doesn’t exist in the universe of this show. So, your girlfriend is agnostic? 1992 problems, am I right?