Kristen Bell, Scarlett Johansson walk the 2025 Emmy Award red carpet
The 2025 Emmy Awards red carpet welcomed Kristen Bell, Scarlett Johansson, Bowen Yang, Cate Blanchett and Jennifer Coolidge.
Entertain This!
“Nobody Wants This” is an unfortunate name for a TV show. It’s even more unfortunate when the show starts living up to that unflattering moniker.
But while everybody wanted a piece of Netflix’s electric romantic comedy starring Adam Brody and Kristen Bell when its first season debuted to acclaim in 2024, Season 2 falls distinctly short. In fact, the new season of “Nobody” (now streaming, ★½ out of four) fizzles that spark right back into nothingness.
The comedy about shiksa podcaster Joanne (Bell) and her rabbi boyfriend Noah (Brody) navigating religious and relationship drama took Netflix by storm last fall, leading to high viewership and Emmy nominations. But it left some with a poor taste in their mouths, particularly at what some considered its offensive depiction of the Jewish female characters. A behind-the-scenes creative team shuffle and a year later, the comedy has made strides in that particular area, but seemed to forget what made the show tick otherwise. Its quirky characters have jumped the shark into cartoonish annoyance, its plots gone from heightened to outlandish, and worst of all, it has lost the palpable romance that was the crux of the series’ appeal. All that’s left is some hopeless cringe, stunt guest stars and unfunny jokes.
Season 2 picks up where Season 1 left off, with Joanne and Noah together but uncertain about how to navigate their future with a religious barrier between them. In the Season 1 finale, Joanne tried to break off their relationship because she wasn’t ready to convert to Judaism, but Noah insisted they could make it work. Viewers will be pretty shocked (and probably annoyed) to discover in the premiere that instead of that big romantic finale resolving the problem, it just stuck a pin in it: Noah expects Joanne to convert eventually, but Joanne is unsure if she will ever be able to, and assumed (incorrectly) Noah had agreed to an interfaith relationship permanently.
So we’re back at square one, never an encouraging narrative place. But the writers, like Noah and Joanne, are ignoring that fundamental fork in the road in favor of inane high jinks from the couple and their increasingly irksome friends and family. In particular, Joanne’s sister Morgan (Justine Lupe) has become a goofy caricature, keying Cybertrucks and generally acting like a child. Noah’s sister-in-law Esther (Jackie Tohn), the Jewish character portrayed most insultingly last year, has thankfully been softened and refined, and has somehow become the lone voice of reason amongst a group of immature idiots. But while Esther’s portrayal and characterization is vastly improved, the writers can’t think of a story to give her that isn’t base and tired for women in TV: She contemplates pregnancy. What a new and different idea!
But perhaps the biggest sin of “Nobody” Season 2, at least in the first five episodes made available for review, is that it completely lacks the effervescent romance, that magical chemistry between Brody and Bell, that made the first season so irresistible. In Season 2, they settle into a relationship that infuriatingly has not resolved any of the issues from Season 1, and as a result their sizzle evaporates. The drama between them is no longer real and relatable, but contrived and silly. It’s hard to imagine why they are together at all.
It’s quite the disappointment, particularly after the mountain of hype and high-profile behind-the-scenes creative changes as “Girls” scribes Jenni Konner and Bruce Eric Kaplan joined the team alongside original creator Erin Foster. “Nobody” has such potential as a romantic comedy, not only for highlighting religion, which Hollywood so often ignores, but also for exploring a mature romance about people in their 40s. Yet the new season seems to ignore Brody and Bell’s real ages (they are both 45) and pretends they are each a decade or two younger: They contemplate children and a picket fence lifestyle. Certainly people can and do have kids in their 40s, but this plot development feels like a wasted opportunity. Why make Joanne baby-crazy when there are so few modern romantic heroines whose age and sensibility lie between “Love Is Blind” and “The Golden Bachelor”? What if there was another path women could take?
The problem is that “Nobody” began with a nuanced, thoughtful premise, but now features characters who hire cellists for Valentine’s Day breakfasts, while Brody’s real-life wife Leighton Meester shows up as a social media influencer who names her baby “Afternoon.” Nobody wants to deal with life’s thornier questions. What matters most: my faith and career or my heart? Where do relationships go if not to the suburbs? What does our family really value for the future?
It’s hard work to figure out those answers. The man- and woman-children of “Nobody” certainly aren’t going to put in the effort.
And in the end, that might mean that nobody wants to watch.