
Nobody Wants This (2024) Netflix Review | The Show That Revives the Rom-Com Era
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Both mums don’t agree with it; her sister doesn’t want it, nor does his boss: nobody wants this relationship. Even Joanne (Kristen Bell) and Noah (Adam Brody) have plenty of doubts about what could go wrong, but they’re also sure they are attracted to each other since the first time they meet. And therefore, nobody else’s opinion matters.
Created by Erin Foster and aired by Netflix in 2024, Nobody Wants This represents the rebirth of romantic comedy. The show casts two early 2000s teen drama stars, who have now turned adult and are playing the part of the couple everyone wishes to become. It received great appreciation from the audience, and The Guardian even compared it to When Harry Meets Sally. It also gained three nominations at the Golden Globes and three at the Critics’ Choice Television Awards. It owes part of its success to the narrative choice of portraying a relationship for what it was: a real mess.
From two different worlds
Joanne is a single, agnostic young woman with apparently no interest in a serious relationship. She works with her sister Morgan (Justine Lupe) at a podcast about the taboos surrounding sex and relationships. Despite a slightly rebel spirit, Noah is a rabbi who aims to become the leader of his religious community and has just broken up with his longtime girlfriend (whom he nearly married). They met by chance at Ashley‘s (Sherry Cola), Joanne’s best friend, and their connection is immediate, even though they both know they are very different from each other. That night, while Noah walks her to her car, they joke about each other and their origins. They are even explicit that they’re attracted to each other, increasing the tension until they reach the car….and then nothing happens.
Everyone keeps saying that their relationship can’t work. And yet, somehow, an increasing attraction pushes them to try. Desperately looking for someone who could heal their wounds and hoping for the love they’ve always dreamt of.

A necessary normality, at last
The main point of Nobody Wants This lies in showing the beginnings and development of a realistic relationship. There aren’t extreme events nor excessive reactions, but somewhat more familiar experiences. Looking at the story’s development between Joanne and Noah, the audience can reflect on this portrayal of something that could have happened to everyone.
They both come from a very present (if not intrusive) family that sometimes they can’t stand. Although in very different ways, they both went through unsuccessful love stories that left deep scars on them, even more profound than what they admit. Scars and traumas that, as in real life, affect their choices and subsequent relationships. Moreover, they constantly waver between the self-fulfillment and safety of the couple: on one hand, they’re ready to do anything to stay together, but on the other, they don’t want to give up what they have achieved.
So, inevitably, they make mistakes and try to fix them to be able to try new chances. Similarly to Eastsiders, Nobody Wants This portrays a love far from fairytales: an endless honeymoon, two soulmates that share the same opinion about anything, constantly have butterflies in their stomachs and never quiver nor fight. Yet, this isn’t how it works in reality, where feelings are complex, and love’s a matter of rationality besides feelings. Humans are complex and imperfect: they have flaws, do their best, and fail anyway. Relationships are also made up of compromises, patience, and efforts to grow together.

Absurd as a shiksa and a rabbi
The two lovers come from two very different backgrounds, too, and as a result, they face many obstacles. Many TV shows also built romantic storylines on the old motto that opposites attract: from the physicist Leonard and the (apparently) silly blond girl Penny in The Big Bang Theory to the moral philosophy professor Chidi and the troublemaker Eleanor in The Good Place (that also starred Kristen Bell). Though those shows use the attraction of opposites to build up the tension, in Nobody Wants This the relationship works despite it.
Joanne and Noah’s main difference doesn’t come from their education, nor their personality, but rather their religion. Noah isn’t only Jewish but is a rabbi: if Joanne’s family retains some doubts, Noah’s one immediately labels Joanne as a shiksa (a dismissive Yiddish word to refer to non-Jewish women). If Joanne’s family represents a very modern (also LGBTQ+) family, Noah’s relatives give an insight into the American-Jewish community.
The show plays with irony with the hypocrisy of the observants who uphold traditions but secretly long to break the rules: Noah’s mother secretly eats prosciutto in her kitchen, so as Woody Allen in many of his films demands a pastrami sandwich with white bread and mayo (despite Kosher rules, which command to eat it with rye bread and mustard). An intolerance toward religious precepts seems to grow stronger in the younger generation insofar that Noah’s niece doesn’t hesitate to cut her bar mitzvah dress shorter. While her mother, who firmly defended the tradition, prays her to save the appearance.

The throwback we didn’t know we wanted
Nobody Wants This signs a nostalgic narrative pact with its audience, particularly the Millennials. The presence of Bell and Brody establishes an immediate connection to The O.C. and Veronica Mars, teen dramas that most of them used to watch. It is as if the grown-up versions of the beloved teenage characters met in a parallel universe to stay with their grown-up audience again. Some researchers noticed that, compared to other generations, Millennials preserve an optimistic perspective on relationships. Despite some troubled familiar experiences, this generation still seems to believe in the possibility of an endless love that could survive conflicts and divergences: a love story similar to Joanne and Noah’s. The show answers the Millennials’ needs to find a confirmation of the kind of love they long for.
Nobody Wants This also proves that today’s audiences sometimes love a down-to-earth plot that mirrors the humans we are and the lives we would like to experience. Just with a hint of melancholy and misery, but never losing hope in happy endings. After all, that’s why everyone still wants to listen to love stories.
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