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There's nothing like the end of a good rom-com. The moment when Tom Hanks' Joe Fox appears before Meg Ryan's Kathleen Kelly in a New York garden overflowing with flowers as Louis Armstrong croons “What a Wonderful World” in the background. The moment when Colin Firth's Mark Darcy steps outside of a bookshop with a fresh diary for Renée Zellwegger's leopard-print underwear-clad Bridget Jones and they make out in the snow. The moment when Julia Robert's Anna is just a girl standing in front of a boy (Hugh Grant, naturally) asking him to love her. The moment when Adam Brody's Noah chases after Joanne, gives up his dream career just to be with her, and seals the deal with one of his signature great kisses. Swoon.
But what if that wasn't the end? It's rare for a good old-fashioned rom-com to give us a peek behind the curtain at what comes after happily ever after. In almost every case, the two romantic leads coming together is the finish line. But Nobody Wants This season 2, which comes out on Netflix today, dares to do things differently. It dares to show us the real day-to-day slog of a relationship.
The first series saw OC fave Adam Brody and the inimitable Kristen Bell taking on the roles of Rabbi Noah and agnostic sex podcaster Joanne. We watched as the two fell in love and tackled all (or at least some) of the complications that come with a cross-faith relationship. Based on Brody's OC co-star Erin Foster's own love story, the series was a quintessential rom-com in the best way. But in series 2, we find ourselves straying from familiar rom-com territory.
The Adam Brody and Kristen Bell rom-com series is a delightful binge, but veers into territory that's a bit too frustrating and predictable.
What comes after the sweeping romantic kiss in the street? Well, inevitably, the couple comes back down to earth and faces up to real life. Which is, spoiler alert, challenging. And Nobody Wants This season 2 isn't afraid to explore it in all of its gritty, thorny complexity.
First and foremost, the couple still has to deal with the little fact that they haven't actually talked about whether or not Joanne would consider converting. There's also another elephant in the room: Noah's disapproving family.
But aside from these big capital “I” issues, the couple also finds themselves dealing with all of the microscopic ups and downs that come from a long-term relationship: learning each other's communication pitfalls, dealing with each other's insecurities, managing each other's annoying habits, getting to know each other's differing opinions. It may sound dull – even downright dreary – for an audience expecting a rom-com fantasy. But Nobody Wants This season 2 is a reminder that the love story doesn't stop after the rom-com happy ending. It's also, thankfully, a reminder that “real life” can still be great territory for the genre. Although the wild passion of season 1 may have cooled just a little, the show is filled with just as much chemistry, humour and, yes, amazing kisses, as ever.
Nobody Wants This season 1 recap
Let's remind ourselves where we left things: After Joanne tells Noah she wants to convert to Judaism at Miriam's bat mitzvah, we see her coming to terms with the fact that she is in fact not ready to do so and may never be, bringing their future together into question again given Noah's ambitions to become head rabbi.
Though Noah wanted to talk through things with her, Joanne was insistent that they break things off, telling him "You can’t have both and I would never make you choose."
As the heart-breaking reality seemed to set in, when we see Joanne getting off the shuttle bus from the party following the interaction, who do we see waiting for her but Noah?
In the closing moments of Nobody Wants This, Joanne asks “So how does this work?”, with Noah responding “Well you were right, I can't have both,” before the two kiss.
Adorable! But we can't help but wonder, how will things work out for the pair long-term?
Will Noah be forced to give up on his hopes of becoming head rabbi? Will Joanne end up converting to Judaism or be forced compromise on her values for the relationship?
Erin Foster created the Netflix series after "falling for a nice Jewish boy" named Simon Tikhman. Here's their love story.
Nobody Wants This season 2 release date
Season 2 dropped on 23 October. Yes, you can binge it right now.
How to watch Nobody Wants This season 2
Head to Netflix and binge away.
Nobody Wants This season 2 cast and crew
Netflix have confirmed the following cast for Nobody Wants This season 2:
- Kristen Bell as Joanne
- Adam Brody as Noah
- Justine Lupe as Morgan
- Timothy Simons as Sasha
- Jackie Tohn as Esther
- Michael Hitchcock as Henry
- Stephanie Faracy as Lynne
- Paul Ben-Victor as Ilan
- Tovah Feldshuh as Bina
- Sherry Cola as Ashley
As if that wasn't enough, Gossip Girl fans were hyped to hear that Leighton Meester – who is married to Adam Brody in real life – was cast in a guest role. Netflix confirmed that Meester guest stars as a character called Abby, who is Joanne’s nemesis from middle school and is now an Instagram ‘mommy’ influencer.
Jackie Tohn – who plays Noah's sister-in-law Esther Roklov – was promoted to series regular for season 2. This means we get to see more of Sasha and Esther's relationship, as well as his friendship with Justine Lupe's Morgan. Will they continue to dance around the “grey area”? We saw Esther express her issues with both Joanne and Morgan in the season one finale, after Joanne and Sasha got a little too close.
The new Kristen Bell and Adam Brody Netflix series features hits by everyone from Rihanna to Dua Lipa.
Jenni Konner and Bruce Eric Kaplan, who previously worked on Girls, also joined the series as showrunners and executive producers.
Series creator Erin Foster whose real-life story inspired the series remains on the team as an executive producer. “Creating Nobody Wants This will forever be a career highlight for me,” Foster said in a statement alongside the news of the renewal. “The incredible cast, crew, producers and executives all made this into the show it is today, and to experience viewers’ reactions to this series now that it’s out in the world has been more than anything I could have dreamed. I’m so lucky to be able to continue this story, and to do it alongside Jenni Konner and Bruce Eric Kaplan, who I’ve been such a fan of since Girls… Justice for healthy relationships being the most romantic!”
