“Nobody Wants This” opens on a first date that should not work. Joanne, an agnostic woman who co-hosts a relationships podcast with her sister, sits across from Noah, a young rabbi just out of a long relationship with a Jewish woman. He is hoping to be promoted to chief rabbi of his synagogue. She is not Jewish, not observant, and not quiet about any of it.
The show knows exactly how thin that premise is, and it does not care. Erin Foster built a romantic comedy on the oldest engine there is — two people who fit and a world that does not — and then cast it so well that the machinery disappears.
Trailer, via Netflix.
Kristen Bell and Adam Brody
Bell plays Joanne as a woman who has turned self-protection into a personality. She is irascible, funny, and allergic to being told what she wants. Brody’s Noah is the harder part, because a rabbi in a rom-com can easily become a symbol instead of a person. Brody refuses that. He plays the pull between his congregation and this woman as a daily, practical problem, not a crisis of faith.
The two of them talk over each other in a way that reads as history rather than banter. That is the whole show working.
Morgan and Sasha
Justine Lupe plays Morgan, Joanne’s sister and podcast co-host, and she gets the show’s sharpest lines. Timothy Simons plays Sasha, Noah’s brother, and he is the release valve whenever the central romance gets too heavy.
The sibling pairs are not decoration. They are the argument the show is actually making: Joanne and Noah each arrive with a family that has opinions, and neither family is wrong to have them.
A podcast, a promotion, a long ex
The mechanics are simple and they are listed plainly. Joanne hosts a podcast about relationships. Noah wants to run his synagogue. He has just ended a long-term relationship with a Jewish woman named Rebecca, a role Emily Arlook took over in May 2024.
That is it. No twist, no gimmick, no high-concept hook. The obstacles are a job, a faith, and two sets of relatives who mean well.
The cast around the couple
The bench is deep, and it kept getting deeper. Jackie Tohn was promoted to series regular in February 2025 after recurring in season one. Leighton Meester and Miles Fowler came aboard as guest stars for the second season. Arian Moayed and Alex Karpovsky joined in recurring roles in March 2025. Seth Rogen and Kate Berlant were cast as second-season guest stars in September 2025.
- Kristen Bell as Joanne
- Adam Brody as Noah Roklov
- Justine Lupe as Morgan
- Timothy Simons as Sasha Roklov
- Jackie Tohn, recurring in season one, promoted to series regular
That is a lot of names for a show that lives or dies on two people. It works because each addition is a pressure, not a distraction.
Three Emmy nominations for season one
The first season earned three nominations at the 77th Primetime Emmy Awards: Outstanding Comedy Series, plus acting nominations for both Bell and Brody. It did not win in any of those categories. That is the correct shape for this show. It is not a writing showcase or a directing flex. It is a performance vehicle, and the academy named the two performances that carry it.
It also received several accolades beyond the Emmys, and critics responded positively across the board.
Why the romance holds
“Nobody Wants This” is not interested in whether interfaith romance is hard. It assumes you know. What it does instead is show two adults negotiating in real time — badly, then better — and it trusts the audience to find that interesting.
The show’s real subject is not religion. It is the cost of being known by people who love you and still want you to be someone else.
The series premiered on Netflix on September 26, 2024, and has run 3 seasons and 30 episodes. Netflix renewed it for a third season in November 2025, and that season is expected to premiere on October 22, 2026.
Key facts
- Premiere: September 26, 2024, on Netflix
- Last aired: October 23, 2025
- Seasons: 3
- Episodes: 30
- Created by: Erin Foster
- Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer: 9.5/10
- Emmy nominations, first season: 3
- Renewed for season 3: November 2025
- Expected season 3 premiere: October 22, 2026
The one thing worth watching is not the will-they. It is Brody, playing a man who has to choose between a job he has wanted his whole life and a woman he just met, without the script ever telling him which one is correct.
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