Television Review | Netflix’s new hit series is both funny and romantic

Nobody Wants This. Netflix.

★★★★

Romantic a comedy usually needs something to pull the main couple apart and prevent them from getting together too easily and quickly. Well-known options are misunderstandings, scheming enemies, prejudices, and backgrounds that are too different.

In Netflix’s excellent new series, this role is given to a somewhat rarer factor, religion.

Ten partset in Los Angeles Nobody Wants This bringing together a rabbi and an agnostic podcaster. Rabbi Noah (Adam Brody) and relationship podcast host Joanne (Kristen Bell) fall in love with each other quickly and strongly. Joanne is skeptical, sarcastic and outspoken and talks openly about sex. Noah has just ended a relationship and is still reeling from the breakup.

Dating as a rabbi is not easy. Noah is the leader of his own faith community, whose life is of wide interest. A romance that crosses religious boundaries also arouses opposition. Noah’s mother, Bina, who tends to order, is worried about the matter (Tovah Feldshuh), as well as many other members of the faith community.

On Joanne’s side, the question arises whether the new love affair will hinder the success of the podcast, which is on the verge of a breakthrough. At least Joanne’s sister and collaborator Morgan (Justine Lupe) fear like this. Morgan also feels jealous of her sister’s happiness.

Joanne’s close circle is also suspicious of the romance. Picture: Adam Rose/Netflix

Series the characters are generally well written. Comic diction is pleasant and fast.

In fact, it is humor to some extent that glues the parties of the romance together. The main couple fall in love with each other while joking, and the joking deepens the romance. You can really say that a shared sense of humor is the basis of a relationship.

At the same time, Kristen Bell is able to throw sarcastic, even cynical comments and embody sensitivity and vulnerability. Something similar was already in his breakthrough role in the youth series Veronica Mars (2004–2007) as the main character.

Adam Brody also made his breakthrough in the zero youth series, in OC (2003–2007). His rabbi character, on the other hand, is devoid of cynicism, kind and optimistic.

Both actors are currently 44 years old. Undoubtedly, the casting choices aim for exactly that, among other things OC’s and Veronica Mars middle-aged viewers.

Nobody Wants This is an exceptionally natural and unforced romantic comedy that quietly moves forward. There are some farcical passages, and in them the humor is not always at its best.

Instead, one of the most important ingredients of a romcom, the chemistry of the main couple, works perfectly. Brody and Bell are both funny and romantic in their scenes together. It is easy for the viewer to wish happiness and success to their characters. It wouldn’t be a surprise if they were seen acting together again.