This New Netflix Rom-Com Was Made For Millennials

Kristen Bell as Joanne and Adam Brody as Noah in "Nobody Wants This."

Millennial hearts, be still. Adam Brody is returning to TV as an endearing Jewish man, Noah, who loves a very non-Jewish woman, Joanne (Kristen Bell), in Netflix’s new romantic comedy series, “Nobody Wants This.”

The premise of the show is as simple as the title makes it sound. Noah, a junior rabbi, and Bell, a podcasting shiksa (a Yiddish insult that essentially means “hot, blonde, non-Jew”), meet at a dinner party. They are immediately drawn to each other, but “nobody” wants them to be together.

Over the course of the season’s 10 half-hour episodes, Noah and Joanne try to figure out if their relationship is a realistic possibility in a world where he is supposed to find a good Jewish woman to play the role of a rabbi’s wife, and she is supposed to be gathering dating fodder for the relationship podcast she co-hosts with her sister.

The will-they-won’t-they and should-they-even-bother-trying premise that drives “Nobody Wants This” is fun from the start, and it helps the show find its balance as both a romance and a comedy, a balance that is rarely achieved in most rom-com series. However, it’s not the humor or swoon that makes the Netflix show stand out. Instead, where the rom-com really shines is in its casting. From leads Brody and Bell to their siblings Sasha (Timothy Simmons, known for “Veep”) and Morgan (Justine Lupa, known for “Succession”), the cast is a tableau of millennial fan-favorites.

Also, as someone who grew up watching both “The OC” and “Veronica Mars,” the teen dramas that catapulted the careers of both Brody and Bell, respectively, I can admit that I am unquestionably the target audience for this show. I will watch Brody play a Jewish man with a bagel in a kitchen who exudes a specific brand of Seth Cohen-esque sincerity all day long. Simultaneously, I truly appreciate the joy of seeing Bell return to her roots as a snarky character navigating life on the outside of a community. And, while enjoyable in their scenes alone, seeing the chemistry of Brody and Bell’s two personas together is pure millennial magic.

This magic is so potent that it was enough to compensate for the show’s short fallings. Did we really need another LA-based story about older millennials struggling with what they should be doing and balancing their needs with their family’s expectations for what their adult lives are supposed to look like? Probably not. Is the show full of tropes like the overbearing Jewish mother and eye-rolling eccentric single mom? Absolutely. Does the show tell us that Joanne is a bad person so many times that we find ourselves believing it even if she never does anything that bad? Yes. Are there some inconsistencies in the plot that don’t add up? Definitely. Do Brody, Bell, Simmons and Lupa’s performances differ dramatically from some of their most beloved roles? Not really.

Kristen Bell as Joanne and Justine Lupe as Morgan "Nobody Wants This."

Did I care about these things while I was watching? Nope.

The show is a romantic comedy. It is supposed to be fun and watchable, and the kind of thing I want to text my friends about as we all stream it from our separate couches on the night it comes out while our kids are asleep. “Nobody Wants This” delivers that experience. Also, for millennial viewers like me, the back and forth between Bell and Brody’s characters manages to be both new and nostalgic, which makes it highly enjoyable.

From watching Joanne cross herself in a synagogue to seeing Noah set down their cups of ice cream on the sidewalk so they can kiss, the show strings together moments that are pleasant at their core even when the surrounding scenes, characters or dialogue aren’t working. I felt this most acutely in many of the scenes with both Noah and Joanne’s families, and Joanne’s larger friend group, which tend to be the moments where the tropes and predictable dialogue are the most exaggerated.

However, there are also tropes that feel less trope-y and better executed, such as Sasha struggling to parent his teen daughter, Miriam (Shiloh Bearman), and Miriam’s bat mitzvah having a terrible theme. There’s also some drama with Noah’s ex-girlfriend that isn’t as predictable as it seems at first.

Ultimately, despite tropes, characters and dialogue that weren’t always working, I found myself still watching because I couldn’t wait to see the next moment between Noah and Joanne. I similarly looked forward to their interactions with their siblings, and that’s really where the show succeeds. It is new and original content that leans into the dynamics and chemistry of its four main characters by playing off millennial nostalgia in a way that only reboots and sequels have been able to accomplish.

By the end of the 10th and final episode, I felt as shocked as when the trailer for the show first dropped. Then, it was because I couldn’t believe that Brody and Bell were starring opposite each other in a rom-com. At the end of the last episode, it was because I didn’t expect the final exchange to so clearly foreshadow a second season, and my millennial heart is already waiting for the Netflix announcement.

“Nobody Wants This” is streaming on Netflix.