Spoilers below for the first season of Netflix's Nobody Wants This, so be warned if you haven't yet watched.
I'll be honest, I didn't expect anything hitting the 2024 TV schedule to cause me to declare, "Well that's a fantastic romantic comedy series that I'm so glad I binged across three days." And yet Kristen Bell and Adam Brody's beyond-adorable relationship in Netflix's hit new series Nobody Wants This had me hook, line, and sinker.
At least, it held me right up until the end of the Season 1 finale, "Bat Mitzvah Crashers," which seemed to turn its own title from describing the show characters’ reactions and opinions about Joanne and Noah’s relationship to describing how I felt after watching the very last scene. Let’s dive into a few ways the name Nobody Wants This applied directly to my thought process while watching.
Nobody Wants A Stereotypical Rom-Com Ending, But There It Was
For the majority of the time I spent watching Nobody Wants This — not long at all considering the spisodes' short runtimes — I found myself loving just how well the show avoided common tropes that even the best rom-com movies of all time can be guilty of. Or, in the instances where stereotypes did crop up, the characters directly addressed them logically or self-awarely. (Joanne's friend squad literally hit on the same talking points that I spoke aloud while watching.)
Noah's struggle to balance his faith-based, set-in-stone lifestyle (and mother) with the spontaneous whimsy of a rebound relationship with Joanne was a solid arc for that character to follow. It was similarly satisfying to watch Joanne realize that she was capable of finding an alternate to her free-wheeling behavior, and that at least temporarily, she felt comfortable enough to theorize a life after converting to Judaism.
Ideally for me, Noah and Joanne being catalysts for life changes in the other person was justification enough to have watched their rapidly evolving romance for a 10-episode season. Kristen Bell perfectly delivered the line about leaving so that she didn't make him choose. Loved. It.
Then came the big sigh. For all that it was well-telegraphed story-wise (though I have no idea what kind of timeline this bat mitzvah was adhering to), it still bothered me immensely that the Season 1 finale ended with Noah having run to meet Joanne by her car to reveal that he seeming to be choosing her instead of his literal lifelong dream to be head hot rabbi. Er, just head rabbi.
Adam Brody portrayed Noah's excitement about his faith quote convincingly to me, and he was downright adorable peppering Hebrew into their conversation earlier in the day. And while I also believed in his romantic feelings for Joanne, the last scene of the show is the one moment where Nobody Wants This felt like every other rom-com. And I didn't want that.
Nobody Wants Sasha And Morgan To Start A Needless Romance, And They Didn't!
For all that Nobody Wants That left a vaguely sour taste in my mouth due to Noah's last-second rebuttal to Joanne's break-up speech, I have to applaud and ovate while standing over how happy I am that showrunner Erin Foster didn't unnecessarily taint Morgan and Sasha's burgeoning kinship by making it romantic in the slightest.
I absolutely treasure both Justine Lupe and Timothy Simons, and did not initially suspect that they would end up having any sort of chemistry, much less the intentionally platonic kind. Considering he's a "California sober" semi-stoner dork with limited ambitions and she's a woman of the world who doesn't have time for watching Dune, much less watching Dune 2 sans the context of watching the first one. (Per their text conversation that Sasha's wife Esther seeks out without his knowledge.)
SImilar to the way Joanne and Noah inspire the other to reach a middle ground in one way or another, Morgan and Sasha's impromptu friendship addresses things missing from both of their lives. Sasha isn't allowed to have female friends, due to Esther's seemingly unwarranted strictness, while Morgan isn't accustomed to having male friends where the end game isn't sexual gratification for one or both.
By all means, Foster & Co. may choose to go the unfortunate direction in a theoretical Season 2 by having Esther's jealousy ironically inspire sparks of genuine attraction between Sasha and Morgan, or some other likeminded outcome. But for now, I'm extremely happy that this was one of the annoying tropes that was avoided entirely.
Nobody Wants A Kristen Bell Show Without Ryan Hansen, And He Appeared!
For those who miss seeing The Good Place characters in the afterlife, this Netflix show allowed the pleasure of watching Kristen Bell and D'Arcy Carden share the screen again, albeit in far different contexts. But Bell fans are far more used to seeing her and longtime buddy Ryan Hansen popping into each other's projects, with Veronica Mars as their first shared modern classic.
So it was indeed cheer-worthy when Joanne took a moment in Episode 3 to call one of her exes to get his take on Noah not immediately responding to her messages, and that the ex was played by Hansen. But get this, he wasn't just playing a random ass dude, but rather (unofficially) reprising one of his most beloved characters.
As Joanne points out, Hansen is playing a character named Kyle who just so happens to be wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with the name Karma Rocket. For those who aren't immediately picking up on those hints, this is a direct reference to Hansen's character Kyle Bradway in Starz's beloved caterer comedy Party Down. He was one of the main returning cast members for the 2023 revival, so it's fitting to think that he'd have clothing merch from his fictional band.
Also worth noting is that Kristen Bell appeared in two episodes of Party Down as the milatant rival caterer Uda Bengt, but if there were any direct references to that character in Nobody Wants This, I am sorry that I missed them. But I'm not sorry the Hansen-Bell connection remains strong!
Despite my issues with the ending, I can easily see myself rewatching Nobody Wants This, which anyone can do with a Netflix subscription while waiting for Season 2 updates.
