The new romantic comedy from Netflix is satisfyingly binge-worthy, but falls into some problematic tropes with its Jewish characters
Netflix’s new Jewish-flavoured attempt to cash in on the romcom revival of the past year comes in the shape of Nobody Wants This. Frenetic lead Joanne (Kristen Bell) is very blonde, very LA, very single and very non-Jewish. She co-hosts a successful podcast with her sister Morgan (Justine Lupe), in which she openly discusses her (mostly failing) dating life.
Then one night, at a trendy dinner party, she meets Noah (Adam Brody). He’s sexy, he's charming and he’s single after recently ending a long-term relationship. Sparks fly straight away. There’s just one hiccup. Noah is Jewish. And not just Jewish – he’s next in line to become head rabbi at the large local synagogue. As the pair’s relationship develops, they must decide what’s more important: their feelings for each other or the life they imagined for themselves before they met? As Joanne says to Noah: “You can’t have both.”
Although well-intentioned, the series leans into a lot of problematic tropes from a Jewish perspective – particularly its portrayal of women. Every female Jewish character in Noah’s life conforms to the tired old stereotypes of being controlling, nagging and up-tight. It doesn’t help that the show deliberately contrasts these women with Joanne and Morgan, the self-proclaimed blonde shiksas (gentile women), who represent breezy sexual liberation and confident self-expression.
The show also cops out when it comes to Noah’s dilemma over his relationship with Joanne. It’s complicated by his desire to be promoted to head rabbi, but the reasons he even wants to be a rabbi are vague. He doesn’t seem to take his faith particularly seriously, playing basketball on Saturdays and going to a bar after delivering his Friday night sermon. He sees his role purely as a job, referring to the current head rabbi as his “boss” and complaining about “always being on call”. There’s no internal crisis of faith with this ‘Hot Rabbi’, something that made Fleabag’s ‘Hot Priest’ such a memorable character. All the pressure to break up with Joanne, or to at least ask her to convert to Judaism, come externally from the Jewish community around him. Even Joanne seems to understand the complications of their relationship better than Noah himself.
Having said that, Nobody Wants This is easy viewing. A few episodes can quickly turn into binge-watching the entire series. There’s a tangible chemistry between the two leads, who are funny and charming. The show’s commitment to teaching audiences about the beauty in Judaism is also refreshing. At one point, Noah puts together an impromptu Shabbat dinner for Joanne at a wine bar, teaching her the bracha (blessing) over candles and breaking a piece of bread.
It’s great to see a series that at least tries to portray Jewish life in a positive way, rather than through the depressing lens with which we’ve all become wearily familiar of late. Unfortunately, Nobody Wants This also misses an opportunity to depict nuanced, fully-rounded Jewish characters.
By Barney Pell Scholes
Nobody Wants This is streaming now on Netflix. netflix.com