A disclosure: I’m not sure how much critical distance I can have from the Netflix comedy “Nobody Wants This,” since the entire show seems to have been filmed within five miles of my house. The feather-light romance, starring Kristen Bell and Adam Brody as an oversharing podcaster and the sensitive rabbi who sweeps her off her feet, was inspired by the life of creator Erin Foster, former star of “Barely Famous” and current co-host of “The World’s First Podcast” with her sister Sara. But it’s also a throwback to a TV micro-trend that peaked about a decade ago: low-stakes series that chronicle the emotional and romantic lives of self-involved “creative” types in a small handful of neighborhoods in the northeast corner of Los Angeles. (The mere presence of Bell and Brody evokes millennial touchstones like “Gossip Girl” and “The O.C.,” though those parallels are more superficial than stylistic.)
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Yet “Nobody Wants This” is to “Transparent,” “You’re the Worst” and their ilk what the so-called “indie sleaze” revival is to The Strokes and LCD Soundsystem: a faint echo that’s content to echo the aesthetics of its influence without much in the way of substance. (Bring in the heavyweights of TV-as-extended-rom-com, like “Catastrophe” and “Fleabag,” and the comparison is even more unflattering.) I suspect this will be more of a boon than an impediment to its success. Netflix has made megahits of shows as shiny and frictionless as “Nobody Wants This” in the past; after downing 10 episodes in two sittings, I entered a thought-free state of mind I’ve come to think of as “Emily in Paris” Syndrome. The sugar high nonetheless wears off. Despite the name, plenty of people will want to watch “Nobody Wants This.” I just doubt they’ll have lasting memories of it.
Not that there’s much to remember, in terms of either conflict or depth of character. Joanne (Bell) chronicles her chaotic dating life with her sister, Morgan (“Succession’s” Justine Lupe), on their indeterminately successful chat show. (As a former Spotify employee, I have some serious qualms with how this show portrays the audio industry.) Yet when she meets Noah (Brody) at a dinner party, the obstacles in their path seem practically to remove themselves. Conveniently, Noah has just ended a serious relationship, though he seems to have few hangups about diving headfirst into his next one.
The good news is that the sine qua non of “Nobody Wants This” is firmly in place. Bell and Brody have easy, warm, infectious chemistry, lapsing into casual and convincing banter from the moment they lock eyes. In fact, their rapport might be too easy. Noah is funny, kind, commitment-friendly, wealthy by way of his family and more easygoing than his vocation might suggest. The most serious fault Joanne can find in him is that he’s too eager to impress her parents. The wish fulfillment is sweet, but a barrier to fleshing Noah out beyond the fantasy, let alone depicting his relationship with Joanne as a pairing of two equally complex individuals.
In theory, the primary roadblock to the couple’s happily ever after is that Noah is Jewish and Joanne isn’t. This supposed tension, however it manifests, strains credulity. When played for laughs, it’s unbelievable that an adult Angeleno has never heard the terms “shalom” or “Shabbat.” When mined for drama, Noah’s spirituality isn’t taken seriously enough to serve as its own center of gravity. And when refracted through Noah’s mother (Tovah Feldsuh), sister-in-law (Jackie Tohn) and ex (Emily Arlook), “Nobody Wants This” paints Jewish women with a discomfitingly broad brush, casting them as clannish harpies who practically start spitting when a shiksa enters the premises. The Haim-heavy soundtrack suggests all this plays out in the 21st century, but sometimes I had to check.
“Nobody Wants This” fares better when it sets the bar lower. The show is a sitcom at heart, and is plenty proficient at, well, situational comedy. Noah and Joanne run into a congregant at a sex shop! Noah’s brother Sasha (Timothy Simons) has to help his teen daughter with a boy problem whilst stoned! These scenarios appear and dissipate within 25 minutes, the better to press forward in a binge unencumbered by weightier emotions.
But “Nobody Wants This” seems ideologically opposed to cultivating deeper connections to and among its protagonists. Lupe is a gifted comedian, yet Morgan remains little more than Joanne’s quippy sounding board. Apparently, she’s divorced, but it’s never explained why her marriage ended or what effect it had on her. It’s briefly teased that Noah may have issues standing up to his overbearing mother on Joanne’s behalf; before they can become a recurring problem, they’re swiftly overcome. Initially, the late-in-life coming out of Joanne and Morgan’s father (Michael Hitchcock) is deployed as a gag. Only toward the end of the season do we learn valuable familial context for Joanne’s romantic dysfunction —and even then, it’s an exposition dump from another character.
Charisma and nostalgia are powerful lures, and they’ll take “Nobody Wants This” far. Frankly, there’s so little to the series’ nominal stabs at interfaith culture clash that one wonders why it bothers with them at all. If “Nobody Wants This” can’t make Joanne and Noah a lived-in partnership, it at least gives us Bell, Brody and a pleasant-enough time.
All 10 episodes of “Nobody Wants This” are now streaming on Netflix.
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