Erin Foster’s Nobody Wants This arrived on Netflix in September 2024 with a title that sounds like a shrug and a premise that sounds like a dare.
It is a rom-com about a secular podcast host and a rabbi who fall for each other against the loud objections of everyone around them. The show should not work. It is built on a culture-clash setup that has produced a thousand mediocre sitcoms, and its leads spend most of the first episode grinning at each other like they have already read the script.
And yet the series is the funniest and most emotionally honest comedy of the year. It is sharp, warm, and genuinely surprising. It earns every one of its 10 episodes.
The show follows Joanne (Kristen Bell), a sex-and-relationships podcaster whose entire brand is unfiltered honesty about dating. Noah (Adam Brody) is a modern Orthodox rabbi, charming and principled, who has just ended a long engagement. They meet at a dinner party, bond over a bad joke about God, and immediately fall into the kind of effortless chemistry that television spends years trying to fake.
The problem is structural. Joanne is not Jewish. Noah’s congregation, his family, and his ex-fiancée all have opinions about that. The series spends its first season watching the couple try to build something real while the world around them tries to tear it down.
Trailer, via Netflix.
Bell and Brody Carry the Show
The casting is the show’s masterstroke. Bell has spent two decades playing variations on the lovable mess, but Joanne is her best role since The Good Place. She brings a physical comedy and a frayed emotional edge to the part. Joanne is not just quirky. She is anxious, competitive, and occasionally selfish, and Bell never asks the audience to forgive her before she has earned it.
Brody, meanwhile, is a revelation. He spent his O.C. years as the brooding heartthrob, and he has since matured into a performer of real range. His Noah is warm and grounded, a man of faith who is also a man of the world. Their scenes together crackle with the rare sense that two actors are actually listening to each other.
The supporting cast is just as strong. Justine Lupe plays Joanne’s sister Morgan, her co-host and chief enabler, with a deadpan that rivals any current sitcom player. Timothy Simons is Noah’s brother Sasha, a fellow rabbi who is both the couple’s most vocal critic and its most loyal defender. Tovah Feldshuh, as Noah’s mother Bina, delivers a performance of such precise comic menace that she steals every scene she enters. The show understands that families are not obstacles. They are ecosystems, and every member has a job.
Inside the Podcast World
The series gets the podcast world exactly right, which is rarer than it should be. Joanne and Morgan host a show called Nobody Wants This, a title that doubles as the series name and a running joke about their romantic failures. Their chemistry is the engine of the show’s comedy. They finish each other’s sentences, mock each other’s exes, and treat their listeners like an audience of close friends. The podcast segments are not just filler. They are where the show does its thematic work, letting Joanne talk through her fears and desires in real time while the audience watches her fail to take her own advice.
The show also understands that podcasting is a business. Joanne’s producer is constantly pushing her toward more provocative content. Her ex-boyfriend, a rival podcaster, represents everything cynical about the medium. The series uses these figures to raise a genuine question: can a woman be both honest and happy? The show’s answer is complicated, and it is all the better for it.
Faith Gets Real Treatment
The religious element is treated with real respect, which is the show’s biggest surprise. Foster, who created the series and wrote much of it, is herself a convert to Judaism, and the show draws on her experience. The series does not treat Judaism as a costume or a punchline. It takes the faith seriously. Noah genuinely believes. He prays, he studies, and he struggles with the tension between his calling and his heart. The show’s best scenes are the quiet ones, where Noah explains his faith to Joanne and she listens without mocking.
The series also gives real weight to the objections of Noah’s community. His congregation is not portrayed as bigoted. They are portrayed as people who love Noah and fear for his future. The show’s central conflict is not between good and evil. It is between two legitimate ways of living, and the series refuses to pretend there is an easy answer. This is what elevates Nobody Wants This above the standard rom-com. It is not just about whether Joanne and Noah will get together. It is about whether they should.
Comedy Built on Character
The show is relentlessly funny, and its humor comes from character rather than circumstance. The jokes land because they are earned. Joanne’s attempts to impress Noah’s family go wrong in ways that feel true, not contrived. Morgan’s blunt advice is hilarious because she means every word. Even the show’s sillier set pieces, like a disastrous Shabbat dinner or a bris that goes sideways, are grounded in the characters’ genuine emotions. The show never punches down. It punches at hypocrisy, at pretense, and at the fear that keeps people from being honest with each other.
The dialogue is a particular strength. Foster has a gift for writing conversations that feel both natural and perfectly timed. The characters interrupt each other, talk over each other, and finish each other’s thoughts. The show is full of lines that are funny on their own but funnier in context, because the audience knows exactly what the characters are thinking. This is writing of a high order, and it is a pleasure to watch.
Ten Episodes, No Filler
The season runs 10 episodes, each around 25 minutes. That is a tight format, and the show uses it well. There is no filler. Every episode advances the relationship, the conflict, or both. The pacing is brisk, and the show trusts its audience to keep up. It does not over-explain. It does not spell out every emotional beat. It lets the actors and the writing do the work.
It works.
The show also knows when to slow down. A mid-season episode that centers on a single Shabbat dinner is a masterclass in tension and release. A later episode that finds the couple at a breaking point is genuinely painful to watch. The series is not afraid to make its characters suffer, and that is what makes the happy moments feel earned. The finale is a model of the form. It resolves the central conflict without tying everything in a bow. It leaves room for a second season, but it also works as a complete story.
The 9.5/10 Reception
The show was a hit with critics and audiences alike. It currently holds a 9.5/10 score on Rotten Tomatoes, with critics praising its chemistry, its writing, and its willingness to take its subject matter seriously. That popularity is deserved. Nobody Wants This is the kind of show that reminds you why romantic comedy can be a vital genre. It is funny, it is smart, and it is genuinely moving.
The show has also sparked a broader conversation about representation. Jewish viewers have praised the series for its nuanced portrayal of modern Orthodox life, while some critics have noted that the show’s casting of Bell, who is not Jewish, in the role of Joanne is a missed opportunity. The series does not directly address this criticism, but it does feature a number of Jewish actors and writers in key roles. The conversation is a sign of the show’s cultural footprint. It is a series that people are thinking about, arguing about, and recommending to their friends.
A Slow Watch Pays Off
Nobody Wants This is structured like a binge, but it rewards a slower watch. The show premiered all 10 episodes at once, and it is best consumed one or two at a time. Each episode is a complete unit, and the cliffhangers are mild enough that you can stop without pain. The show rewards attention. It is full of small details, running jokes, and callbacks that reward a second viewing.
| Episode | Focus | Approximate Runtime |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Joanne and Noah meet | 25–30 min |
| 2 | Their first date | 25–30 min |
| 3 | Joanne meets the family | 25–30 min |
| 4 | A podcast crossover | 25–30 min |
| 5 | First Shabbat dinner | 25–30 min |
| 6 | Rebecca returns | 25–30 min |
| 7 | Tension at a family meal | 25–30 min |
| 8 | Noah makes a choice | 25–30 min |
| 9 | The couple splits | 25–30 min |
| 10 | A resolution | 25–30 min |
The Verdict on Joanne and Noah
Nobody Wants This is not perfect. Some of the secondary plots, particularly those involving Joanne’s ex-boyfriend, feel underdeveloped. The show’s treatment of Rebecca, Noah’s ex-fiancée, is occasionally too one-note. And the series sometimes leans too hard on the will-they-won’t-they tension, dragging out a question the audience has already answered. These are minor complaints. The show’s strengths far outweigh its weaknesses.
The series is a triumph of casting, writing, and direction. It is a romantic comedy that respects its characters and its audience. It is a show about faith that is not preachy. It is a show about family that is not sentimental. It is a show about love that is not cynical. It is the best comedy of the year, and one of the best shows of the year in any genre.
The show is a rare thing: a comedy that makes you laugh and think. It is a series that understands that the hardest part of love is not finding it. It is keeping it. Joanne and Noah have to work for their happiness, and the show makes that work feel real. That is what makes the final episode so satisfying. The couple earns their ending, and so does the audience.
Nobody Wants This is a must-watch. It is a show that will make you believe in love again, even if you do not believe in God.
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