Nobody Wants This Is Somehow Both Boring and Obnoxious in Season 2

It isn’t just that Bell’s Joanne is a narcissistic whiner who doesn’t think her actions have consequences—her sister Morgan, played by Justine Lupe, literally tells her this season “I have to tell you something. But I have to give you a warning that it’s not about you”—this show has somehow also made Brody’s Noah, a rabbi whose whole thing is that he’s an empath who likes to listen to and help others, into a blindingly self-centered tool who doesn’t know when to stay out of others’ marital problems. Noah’s brother Sasha, played by the giant human Timothy Simons—I have both “Tim Simons height” and “Adam Brody height” in my cached searches, presumably from when I looked this up last season (if you’re wondering, Google says 6’4” and 5’11” respectively)—also tries to tell him something about his personal life this season only to be ignored.

Like any bored and self-obsessed person, the second season of Nobody Wants This is just looking to start drama when there really isn’t any there. Is Noah’s smothering mother, Bina (Tovah Feldshuh), the last holdout on the Joanne approval train? Sure, she is. Is even she unclear as to why that is? Seems so. Does Joanne exacerbate Noah’s request that they take a night off from each other so he can prepare for his new job, even though she just asked to spend part of Valentine’s Day watching a reality dating show? Uh huh. Does Noah feel emasculated when another, taller, rabbi (Alex Karpovsky; 6’3”) gets the job he feels was destined to be his? Yeah. Does he reflect on why all of this is and do some soul-searching on the roots of his discomfort? LOL no. 

Even the “evil” characters are glaringly obvious. One episode has a whole storyline about Morgan and Joanne waging war on a jerk driver in a parking garage. Naturally, the other person owns a Cybertruck: the car that West Coast liberals consider to be the primary mode of transportation for enemy combatants. 

Then Nobody Wants This goes and does the unthinkable. It turns my very favorite gimmick, stunt casting, against me by bringing in known talent to play even more annoying characters. Brody’s real-life wife, Leighton Meester, guest stars as a Try Hard influencer who desperately wants to be friends with Joanne and Morgan. Arian Moayed, who worked with Lupe on Succession, turns up here as Morgan’s new love-bombing boyfriend. And, also, Seth Rogen and Kate Berlant cameo as seemingly very nice people who just need to be clearer about lunchtime protocols and their office. 

It’s all so much and so one-dimensional that Nobody Wants This Season 2 has made the most annoying character from the first season, Noah’s sister-in-law Esther (GLOW’s Jackie Tohn), into this season’s most relatable one. After learning last season that her husband was hanging out with Morgan behind her back — with the insinuation that no heterosexual man would ever want to be in just a platonic relationship with someone who looks like Lupe — Esther really comes into her own this season. She stands up to Bina’s meddling in her marriage. She’s a good friend to Noah’s ex, Rebecca (Emily Arlook). She doesn’t just dare to go for bangs, she pulls them off. And when she gets pissed off, as Esther is wont to do, it is both justifiable and fun to watch. 

Like her namesake from the Purim story, a woman who got in bed with the enemy to save her people from slaughter, Esther is the only reason why this review gets as high a score as it did.

Look, I know that no one should be searching for meaning in Nobody Wants This. But it’s not like there weren’t opportunities to put substance and specificity in this story, especially since it’s based on creator Erin Foster’s own life and marriage. She and Season 2 showrunners Jenni Konner and Bruce Eric Kaplan know that there are more pressing concerns on Jewish Americans’ minds right now than whether a conservative-reform rabbi (honestly, it’s always unclear how religious Noah actually is) is dating someone from outside the faith. And, sorry to sound ageist, but how old are these people supposed to be? They’re talking about marriage and kids like it’s at some point down the road when both leads are 45. Last season, I was irked that they made Noah’s family rich by unspecified means. This season, it’s equally frustrating that Joanne can just up and quit her podcast with her sister — her main source of income — without any other job prospects.

Sorry, but I still don’t care about your relationship.

Nobody Wants This Season 2 premieres on October 23 on Netflix.

Whitney Friedlander is an entertainment journalist with, what some may argue, an unhealthy love affair with her TV. A former staff writer at both Los Angeles Times and Variety, her writing has also appeared in Cosmopolitan, Vulture, The Washington Post and others. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband, son, daughter, and cats.