‘Nobody Wants This’ season 2 review: Everybody wants this

If Nobody Wants This Season 1 asked if people from two different worlds could get together, Nobody Wants This Season 2 asks: can they stay together? That’s the question plaguing irreligious relationship podcaster Joanne (Kristen Bell) and laid back rabbi Noah (Adam Brody) on Netflix’s hit series.

Determined to make their relationship work, Joanne and Noah find themselves in the middle of what building a life together really means. Some progress has been made in their lives. Joanne’s sister Morgan (Justine Lupe) is too wrapped up in her own complicated love life to object to the relationship as much as she once did.

Joanne’s parents adore Noah; his parents tolerate her to varying degrees of iciness. Noah’s brother Sasha (Timothy Simons) and acerbic sister-in-law Esther (Jackie Tohn) now consider Joanne and Noah part of their friend group. So, what’s the problem?

Everybody wants … something.

The problem is the future. Noah’s desire for privacy conflicts with Joanne’s very public career. Joanne’s lack of religious identity creates enough waves to make Noah’s congregants question his dedication to the Jewish faith. Joanne’s podcast, a Call Her Daddy-level phenomenon, makes her a public figure of sorts, and listeners want to know more about her elusive boyfriend.

Noah’s congregation questions the leadership skills of a rabbi whose partner isn’t a member of the faith. They compromise where they can — Noah goes on the podcast, Joanne participates in Jewish holidays.

Nobody Wants This explores the entanglement of their professional and personal lives, and the cost of trying to have it all when compromise could destroy their respective callings. It’s a great elevation of themes planted a season earlier, and the cast is more than up to the task. (As is series creator Erin Foster, on whose life the series is loosely based.)

Nobody Wants This Season 2 is bigger, in a fun way.

The casting levels up this season. Brody’s real-life wife (and Bell’s former Gossip Girl costar) Leighton Meester appears as Joanne’s childhood nemesis. Seth Rogen joins the cast as a rabbi at a progressive, unconventional temple. The writing is as much a love letter to L.A. (Courage Bagels and the Academy Museum, anyone?) as it is to love itself at all stages.

Joanne and Noah’s love lives aren’t the only ones in the spotlight. Morgan’s romance with an unlikely suitor (Arian Moyed) creates conflict among Morgan and Joanne. Esther and Sasha revitalize their marriage on the heels of Sasha’s platonic-but-complicated friendship with Morgan. It’s a rom-com grounded in real life despite the unconventionality of its heroes.

Overall.

Nobody Wants This Season 2 more than lives up to its hype after Season 1 created a sensation. A series built on a very specific premise can only sustain it so long.

The conflicts presented here are a natural progression for what you would expect from a premise about an irreligious podcaster and a laid back but devout rabbi.

It’s funny, heartfelt, and real, blending rom-com-dreamy romance with palpable stakes. It’s an obvious joke to make, but we’ll make it all the same: everybody wants this.

Nobody Wants This Season 2 is available to stream on Netflix

Claire Di Maio

Claire was once asked in elementary school why her go-to question was always, “Watch anything good lately?” It’s still her go-to question, because she loves hearing what other people are passionate about. She often sacrifices sleep in the hopes that she will one day clear her to-watch and to-read lists (a futile effort so far).