The romcom is as easy to love as ever, as it returns for a second season. Stupid jokes, emotional depth, one of the best comic creations on TV, Seth Rogen: it’s so easy to buy into this show
T
he course of true love is notoriously unsmooth, but for Noah and Joanne – protagonists of charming LA-set romcom Nobody Wants This – it has been especially rough. The problem? Noah is a religious leader and Joanne is an agnostic sex podcaster. The real problem? Noah is a rabbi and Joanne is – as his disapproving mother puts it – a “shiksa”. Otherwise known as Not a Jew.
Is that a dealbreaker? Season one seemed to suggest so. After finally getting together with Noah (Adam Brody), Joanne (Kristen Bell) pledged to convert to Judaism. But then she changed her mind, coming to the realisation that adopting a faith for logistical reasons wasn’t the most morally upstanding thing to do. So she dumped him. This was also an admirable decision, ethically speaking; Joanne didn’t want to force Noah to choose between her and his life’s calling.
True love, however, is also notoriously hard to rationalise away. The last time we saw the pair, Noah had just sprinted after a downcast Joanne and admitted it was true, he couldn’t have both – before leaning in for a big old snog. This wasn’t just a classic romcom climax, it was also a cliffhanger. Our couple had both just agreed their relationship had no future; could this turn out to be Netflix’s most nihilistic romantic comedy to date? If not, how was the show going to write itself out of this dead end?
