Nobody Wants This: Nobody Wants This!
October 7, 2024 4:44 AM - Season 1 (Full Season) - Subscribe
An agnostic sex podcaster and a newly single rabbi fall in love.
There's an excellent article dealing with this show and how the 'hot clergy person' trope is generally problematic.
posted by hanov3r at 12:54 PM on October 7
posted by hanov3r at 12:54 PM on October 7
I watched the first episode and really liked the humor and chemistry. Then I listened to Pop Culture Happy Hour. I’m sharing the link because it was an interesting and well-informed perspective, but the discussion suggested, at least to me, that Nobody Wants This was way off base in representing the beliefs and actions of a real rabbi.
Fortunately, the show already had me hooked, so I watched all ten episodes. It’s a romcom, of course it takes liberties with reality, but it made me swoon and feel heartbroken and hopeful. I might gripe that the female characters were frequently snarky, petty, and cruel; that the banter was unrealistically hilarious and clever; and the ending implies a season 2 (why can’t Netflix just give us one perfect season with a solid finale?). But still, I loved it and will probably watch it again and will absolutely tune in for season 2 if/when that happens.
posted by kbar1 at 1:21 PM on October 7 [1 favorite]
Fortunately, the show already had me hooked, so I watched all ten episodes. It’s a romcom, of course it takes liberties with reality, but it made me swoon and feel heartbroken and hopeful. I might gripe that the female characters were frequently snarky, petty, and cruel; that the banter was unrealistically hilarious and clever; and the ending implies a season 2 (why can’t Netflix just give us one perfect season with a solid finale?). But still, I loved it and will probably watch it again and will absolutely tune in for season 2 if/when that happens.
posted by kbar1 at 1:21 PM on October 7 [1 favorite]
I had a lot of feelings about this one! I enjoyed it and thought the cast was so great, but also did notice a lot of potentially problematic things like everything linked above. I am married to a religious leader (Christian) so I think I may have stronger bias than most on ways in which the whole thing was really bizarre. We know a lot of other religious leaders and I would certainly have my judgey-pants on if one of them dumped their almost-fiance and immediately brought around someone incongruent with the faith.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 1:43 PM on October 7
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 1:43 PM on October 7
Bridget loves Bernie?
posted by Mogur at 1:57 PM on October 7 [1 favorite]
posted by Mogur at 1:57 PM on October 7 [1 favorite]
Watched this because I needed something for a plane ride. Really stupid low-effort show and had me wondering if they've begun using AI in the writers room. Am I seriously to believe a grown woman who lives in LA, works in media, goes to dinner parties, dates a ton, is going to be asking questions like "'Shalom'...? What does that mean?" C'mon man.
Very substandard not funny NetflixCore, 5.5 out of 10 in that it was watchable but too many distracting bad decisions to keep me engaged. There is a good show buried in here somewhere about a woman who has to seriously consider converting to Judaism for a man she falls in love with and struggling with how she could reconcile this with her identity as an Independent Empowered Sex Podcaster, and it could even still be funny, but it trades in too much silly cartoon bullshit like ha ha religious guy's CRUEL family and friends are so overbearing and nosey! How will she win these judging HARD ASSES over this time?
posted by windbox at 2:04 PM on October 7 [1 favorite]
Very substandard not funny NetflixCore, 5.5 out of 10 in that it was watchable but too many distracting bad decisions to keep me engaged. There is a good show buried in here somewhere about a woman who has to seriously consider converting to Judaism for a man she falls in love with and struggling with how she could reconcile this with her identity as an Independent Empowered Sex Podcaster, and it could even still be funny, but it trades in too much silly cartoon bullshit like ha ha religious guy's CRUEL family and friends are so overbearing and nosey! How will she win these judging HARD ASSES over this time?
posted by windbox at 2:04 PM on October 7 [1 favorite]
I've heard that the depiction of the rabbi's friends and family as narrow-minded and judgmental goes far enough as to tread into offensive-stereotype territory. That may be true, but this...
how the 'hot clergy person' trope is generally problematic.
Hoo boy. I guess the tumblr generation has finally hit the age to write these kinds of articles. "Don't sexualize the kind of authority/power differential that people have been sexualizing since the dawn of time in a comedy because...Bad Things Will Happen!", I guess. "Don't sexualize religious figures whose religion permits them to get married! Everyone knows that rabbis are supposed to remain pure even while having a whole family!" (Yes, sexual abuse by religious authority figures is and has always been a big problem, and it's not uncommon for such figures to have to manage attempted boundary-crossing by congregation members. But the connection between these issues and a romantic comedy with a hot religious figure is so clumsy and confused, it ends up boiling down to "don't talk about stuff that might have some connection to Bad Stuff, even in a story, because that's endorsing the Bad Stuff and you might summon it.")
posted by praemunire at 2:24 PM on October 7 [5 favorites]
how the 'hot clergy person' trope is generally problematic.
Hoo boy. I guess the tumblr generation has finally hit the age to write these kinds of articles. "Don't sexualize the kind of authority/power differential that people have been sexualizing since the dawn of time in a comedy because...Bad Things Will Happen!", I guess. "Don't sexualize religious figures whose religion permits them to get married! Everyone knows that rabbis are supposed to remain pure even while having a whole family!" (Yes, sexual abuse by religious authority figures is and has always been a big problem, and it's not uncommon for such figures to have to manage attempted boundary-crossing by congregation members. But the connection between these issues and a romantic comedy with a hot religious figure is so clumsy and confused, it ends up boiling down to "don't talk about stuff that might have some connection to Bad Stuff, even in a story, because that's endorsing the Bad Stuff and you might summon it.")
posted by praemunire at 2:24 PM on October 7 [5 favorites]
I enjoyed this show, which was kind of dumb but charming all the same, but it was constantly inexplicable to me how widely known aspects of Judaism were treated like the shiksa was encountering an alien species, a completely foreign culture. Maybe it's just growing up around a lot of jews, but people know about these things right, especially if you live in a major city. Or hell, if you watch television. Like has Joanne never even watched Seinfeld (since she's an elder millenial/late gen x person, it's entirely implausible that she did not watch Seinfeld).
The jewish wives in this show are kind of absurd caricatures of the controlling termagants of a woody allen fever dream and are probably offensive. Still, I laughed.
posted by dis_integration at 7:28 AM on October 19
The jewish wives in this show are kind of absurd caricatures of the controlling termagants of a woody allen fever dream and are probably offensive. Still, I laughed.
posted by dis_integration at 7:28 AM on October 19
I really enjoyed this show. I'm a millenial whose in the perfect age bracket to appreciate a Seth Cohen x Veronica Mars RomCom.
Apparently the creator of these series based this on her own relationship, only in her case she was dating a Jewish man, not a rabbi, which makes a really big difference.
A female rabbi dating an agnostic man seems like it would make more sense - the kids would still be Jewish. But a male rabbi dating an agnostic woman who doesn't want to convert seems like it would be a much bigger deal.
But at the same time, I don't really care that much. It was funny and cute and a very good escapist show that went down nice and easy when I binge watched it the other weekend.
If they do a 2nd season, I'll probably watch it, but I also think a 2nd season is a bad idea - b/c it will likely just get even harder to overlook the reality that this is not a match that is likely to lead to a happy long term relationship.
posted by litera scripta manet at 10:28 AM on October 23 [1 favorite]
Apparently the creator of these series based this on her own relationship, only in her case she was dating a Jewish man, not a rabbi, which makes a really big difference.
A female rabbi dating an agnostic man seems like it would make more sense - the kids would still be Jewish. But a male rabbi dating an agnostic woman who doesn't want to convert seems like it would be a much bigger deal.
But at the same time, I don't really care that much. It was funny and cute and a very good escapist show that went down nice and easy when I binge watched it the other weekend.
If they do a 2nd season, I'll probably watch it, but I also think a 2nd season is a bad idea - b/c it will likely just get even harder to overlook the reality that this is not a match that is likely to lead to a happy long term relationship.
posted by litera scripta manet at 10:28 AM on October 23 [1 favorite]
Um, I loved it? I know all the handling of Jewish stuff is problematic, lots of bitchy Jewish ladies, why Noah is into being a rabbi is vague, etc. but DAMMIT THEIR RELATIONSHIP IS SO CUTE!!!!! He fucks up and apologizes and improves! She keeps it real! They are very sweet together! I'm so jealous! I seriously want to be all, girl, I don't care if you're not into Judaism or being the rabbi's wife, this guy is awesome and do whatever you have to do to keep him. Also, Judaism is pretty interesting. But seriously, there are very few guys like that and don't throw him away over a religion. I know, I know I shouldn't say that, but you don't see guys like that these days. They are so adorable and besherty that I plotzed.
posted by jenfullmoon at 6:15 PM on October 31 [1 favorite]
posted by jenfullmoon at 6:15 PM on October 31 [1 favorite]
Okay, I'm rewatching this and you know what stands out?
(a) Noah wants to get deep and real. What's your biggest fear? He unabashedly goes with "hey, let's go get an Oblitorator." He broke up with Rebecca because they never got real with each other.
(b) And even though Joanne's scared to get deep and real, she also goes for it and with it.
Who does that any more?
These two should really do the 36 Questions. Hell, I wish I could do that with someone.
posted by jenfullmoon at 7:00 PM on November 3
(a) Noah wants to get deep and real. What's your biggest fear? He unabashedly goes with "hey, let's go get an Oblitorator." He broke up with Rebecca because they never got real with each other.
(b) And even though Joanne's scared to get deep and real, she also goes for it and with it.
Who does that any more?
These two should really do the 36 Questions. Hell, I wish I could do that with someone.
posted by jenfullmoon at 7:00 PM on November 3
The Messy Behind-the-Scenes Drama on One of Netflix's Most Popular New Shows
posted by jenfullmoon at 1:32 PM on November 5 [1 favorite]
posted by jenfullmoon at 1:32 PM on November 5 [1 favorite]
I liked this as well, although I feel like that is a triumph of casting over writing. Bell and Brody have good chemistry, as do Bell and Lupe, and Brody and Simons.
I know people found the portrayal of Jewish women as stereotypical, and I am not going to argue with that - but Jackie Tohn and Tovah Feldshuh are both such fun to watch, I did not come away with negative impressions of their characters. And Rabbi Shira was only a bit part, but clearly the true hot rabbi of the show. I enjoyed this 2 part discussion of the show on Hey Alma and Kveller - note that it is a transcribed slack chat type of discussion, so if that tone is not your media criticism preference, you can probably skip it. There's a discussion in the first half about whether Noah is supposed to be Conservative or Reform that I think kind of summarizes the shallowness of the writing - I’m not sure the show thought about what denomination he is as much as we are thinking about it now.
The writing was thin, so most of the characters came off as pretty cartoonist written, but there was some fun dialogue. The degree to which Joanne and Morgan were entirely unfamiliar with the concept of Judaism as women born and raised in LA was the weirdest part for me. I guess the creator wanted to turn the cultural differences up to 11, but it made them seem weirdly out of touch.
I doubt this would hold up great to repeat viewing, but I will give the 2nd season a chance if/when it eventually airs. But I would prefer a Rabbi Shira spin off, if I were a Netflix executive.
posted by the primroses were over at 6:45 AM on November 10
I know people found the portrayal of Jewish women as stereotypical, and I am not going to argue with that - but Jackie Tohn and Tovah Feldshuh are both such fun to watch, I did not come away with negative impressions of their characters. And Rabbi Shira was only a bit part, but clearly the true hot rabbi of the show. I enjoyed this 2 part discussion of the show on Hey Alma and Kveller - note that it is a transcribed slack chat type of discussion, so if that tone is not your media criticism preference, you can probably skip it. There's a discussion in the first half about whether Noah is supposed to be Conservative or Reform that I think kind of summarizes the shallowness of the writing - I’m not sure the show thought about what denomination he is as much as we are thinking about it now.
The writing was thin, so most of the characters came off as pretty cartoonist written, but there was some fun dialogue. The degree to which Joanne and Morgan were entirely unfamiliar with the concept of Judaism as women born and raised in LA was the weirdest part for me. I guess the creator wanted to turn the cultural differences up to 11, but it made them seem weirdly out of touch.
I doubt this would hold up great to repeat viewing, but I will give the 2nd season a chance if/when it eventually airs. But I would prefer a Rabbi Shira spin off, if I were a Netflix executive.
posted by the primroses were over at 6:45 AM on November 10
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posted by joelhunt at 8:11 AM on October 7 [4 favorites]