If there’s one thing that defines a great romcom, it’s a simple yet compelling premise. Two friends fight to keep their relationship platonic through the years; a bookseller has a chance affair with a movie star; love sparks between strangers via a radio call-in show. And you could very easily add “gentile host of a sex podcast falls for a rabbi” to that list. So it proved, with the first season of Netflix’s Nobody Wants This. But you know something else that unifies those great romantic comedies? They don’t have sequels. With that in mind, Nobody Wants This returns this week for its second season, battling valiantly against the tide of history.
After Joanne (Kristen Bell) made her grand romantic gesture – breaking things off with Noah so he could take up a gig as head rabbi – Noah (Adam Brody) has thrown away his professional shot for love. For Joanne, this is “a big, beautiful, healthy relationship with a real-life adult man”, but the compromise they’ve muddled towards leaves a lot to be desired. Will Joanne convert to Judaism? Will Noah reconcile his ambition with the realities of his relationship? Can their lives, and particularly their insubordinate chorus – Joanne’s hot-mess sister Morgan (Justine Lupe), Noah’s self-possessed brother Sasha (Timothy Simons), and Sasha’s droll wife Esther (Jackie Tohn) – satisfactorily commingle? “The honeymoon phase is over,” Morgan warns Joanne. “Now the real relationship starts.”
