It hasn't exactly been a banner year for Israeli public diplomacy. Israel's image, and perhaps that of the Jewish people as a whole, has sunk to an almost unprecedented low. And what does Netflix decide to do at precisely this moment? Bring back one of our more annoying ambassadors, Joanne (Kristen Bell), a sex podcaster from Los Angeles, along with her charisma-free romantic partner, whom nobody wants, Noah (Adam Brody), the rabbi of some random congregation in the City of Angels.
After spending much of last season struggling to commit to the Vipassana retreat that is Reform Judaism, Joanne is now fully on board. To that end, she enrolls in conversion classes so that one day she can take on the demanding title of "rabbi's wife" without embarrassing her husband. Yes, Joanne and Noah have somehow managed to make things even more boring than they were in season two. They move in together and grapple with such complex challenges as household clutter, kitchen cabinet doors left open and a truly heartbreaking disagreement over bedspreads.
Yes, the dialogue is still fast-paced and witty, and yes, there are occasional jokes that actually make you laugh out loud. Creator Erin Foster never lets her actors go a moment without something happening. But what can you do when the central couple's storyline has become little more than a wedding checklist, complete with dilemmas over who will DJ and how many flower arrangements to order? To fill Netflix's rigid 10-episode format, Foster resorts to so many episodes built around deviations. If only they were deviations of the interesting kind. Instead, they're merely detours from the plot, taking us into such thrilling territory as a Los Angeles heat wave, a surprise marriage proposal, one last Christmas before the Jews shut it all down and other mind-numbing concerns. Don't worry, though. Not for a single moment is there any danger that these two will end up apart. They may be Jewish, but at heart, they're Catholic.
If this season teaches us anything, it's that nothing can revive the lifeless chemistry between Noah and Joanne. Sorry. It doesn't help that Noah may be the most spineless character ever written for a romantic comedy, a golden retriever in a kippah. He has no desires, no flaws, no dark side. All he wants is to please his mother, and now his future wife, too. And that dripping sound you hear? That's Brody's sex appeal slowly draining away.
As if that weren't enough, reality came along and made things even worse. In a recent interview with GQ, when asked whether he wanted to comment on the war in Israel, Brody replied: "Put me down as thinking it's a genocide. Put me down as wanting a free Palestine."
As far as I'm concerned, escapist television belongs in a separate compartment, one where politics has no business intruding. But now I can't even watch him delivering a sermon in a synagogue without wanting to spit three times, and that, well, takes some of the magic away. What can I say, Seth Cohen? You've let me down.
But it's not all doom and gloom. Here's something to celebrate: The outright miracle of this season of "Nobody Wants This" is its supporting storylines, a far better series unfolding alongside the main one and finally getting much more screen time. I'm talking about you, Sasha and Morgan. The wonderful Timothy Simons ("Veep") and the brilliant Justine Lupe ("Succession") have taken the loser-sibling roles and turned them into the real treat of "Nobody Wants This," complete with perfect chemistry and a romantic storyline crafted just as God intended. With an episode devoted largely to their connection, set in New York and paying homage to the 1990s film "Before Sunrise," it's impossible not to wonder why the series wasn't written about them in the first place. And since we're talking about love triangles, Jackie Tohn, who plays Sasha's sensible wife, Esther, finally gets a storyline of her own, complete with romance, a career and a deliciously vengeful finale best enjoyed with popcorn.
From 'Nobody Wants This' season 3
(Photo: Courtesy of Netflix)
Season three of "Nobody Wants This" doesn't stray from the formula prescribed by Netflix, the queen mother herself. If anything, the dialogue has actually improved, becoming sharper and more polished. But the show's driving force, the romance between Joanne and Noah, is slowly withering, looking more and more like your neighbors' marriage and less and less like the fun, lively relationship it was meant to be. "This is the champagne season!" declared Bruce Eric Kaplan, one of the series' showrunners, at the start of work on the season, emphasizing that it would be light, romantic and bubbly. Well, yes, champagne, and plenty of it, might indeed help you make it through this season. Am Yisrael Chai!
First published: 08:00, 10.24.26