Joanne (Kristen Bell) and Noah (Adam Brody) are committed to each other, but still dealing with old (and new) bumps in their relationship – as are the couples around them.
Streaming on: Netflix
Episodes viewed: 10 of 10
The first season of Nobody Wants This kind of came from nowhere. It had a seriously starry cast, yes, in two leads Kristen Bell and Adam Brody especially, and its basis in the real-life experience of creator Erin Foster gave it a certain amount of intrigue – but it was word-of-mouth and its viral romcom moments that propelled the show to the top of the Netflix charts, leaving fans excited to see what happens next after Noah (Brody) followed Joanne (Bell) out of that bar mitzvah.
Season 2 picks up shortly after, with the couple happily figuring out what living a life together looks like, as they start to move out of the ‘honeymoon phase’. Things are good, but they continue to clash – over Valentine’s Day plans, over Noah’s patterns in relationships, over Joanne’s reluctance to engage in family traditions. The biggest thing of all hanging over them is whether Joanne will convert to Judaism – the key thing Noah needs, but something neither of them wants to rush into. It’s good to see a show getting into the ups and downs of what comes after a big romantic gesture, but it’s undeniable that without the will-they-won’t-they? thread from Season 1, a lot of the tension is gone.
Not quite the highly recommended viewing of the first season.
Relationship troubles abound aside from the central couple, too. Noah’s brother Sasha (Timothy Simons) and his wife Esther (Jackie Tohn) are trying to rebuild some trust and spontaneity after Sasha became close with Joanne’s sister Morgan (Justine Lupe) in Season 1. Morgan is as chaotic and fabulous as ever, but feeling the pressure to keep up with Joanne’s apparent progress into the happy-ever-after stage. None of these threads are explored quite as deeply as the ones between Joanne and Noah, but all are interesting, and serve to flesh out Nobody Wants This into a show with a full ensemble of inter-connected characters, all facing different challenges in their romantic lives. There are some fun guest stars too, including Seth Rogen as the laid-back head of an unconventional synagogue, Leighton Meester (Brody’s real-life partner) as slightly unbearable smoothie influencer Abby, and Girls’ Alex Karpovsky as Noah’s rabbi rival.
The first season shone brightest because of its grounded, authentic-feeling dialogue between Joanne and Noah as they tried to tackle their issues in a healthy, communicative way. That’s all still present here – despite sub-30-minute episodes, when something comes up for the pair, screen time is always dedicated to them talking it out, and expressing themselves in a way that doesn’t always take the expected route. Nobody Wants This isn’t looking to give the audience a neat, wrapped-in-a-bow conclusion (and that’s great) – until it is. Until it falls into a more conventional pattern of big epiphanies and people running towards each other and a sense of repetitiveness, which is always watchable, but not quite the highly recommended viewing of the first season. It would be far too harsh to say nobody wants more Nobody Wants This, but a little more evolution would be great, next time around.
Less memorable than its first outing, the second season of Nobody Wants This still delivers an emotionally intelligent exploration of the complexities of inter-cultural romance – and Kristen Bell and Adam Brody remain eminently charming together.
