When Erin Foster’s “Nobody Wants This” premiered last year, it felt like a rare rom-com revival. By following the budding relationship between Adam Brody’s Rabbi Noah and Kristen Bell’s agnostic podcaster Joanne, Foster mined her own life experience—she married a Jewish man and converted—in a way that hit familiar beats yet still felt fresh. When the first season ended, Noah and Joanne tabled any talk of conversion to simply make a go of it. It was the perfect rom-com ending: the leads found love, and the audience got closure.
READ MORE: Fall 2025 TV Preview: 45 Series To Watch
But there’s a reason most stories stop there. Domestic bliss is great for the characters, less so for the drama. Once the tension evaporates, so does the urgency. That’s why so many sitcoms rely on will-they-won’t-they tension for years. So kudos to “Nobody Wants This” for giving viewers what they wanted early and trying to move forward. With new co-showrunners Bruce Eric Kaplan and Jenni Konner (of “Girls” fame), Foster steers the series toward something more grounded and mature—even as it leans harder on its central hook.
Season two revolves around the same question that has hovered from the start: will Joanne convert to Judaism? The couple is still together, still happy, but not quite ready to fully commit. The headlong romantic energy of season one gives way to something slower and more episodic. One episode finds Joanne spiraling when Noah asks for a night to himself; another centers on Valentine’s Day. These half-hours are breezy, funny, and lightly observant—pleasurable in the moment, if not especially memorable.
But is that what we want from “Nobody Wants This”? The first season’s spark suggested something sharper and more emotionally alive. Here, the writers seem to be stalling, circling back to the same questions without finding new ones.
Supporting players who once gave the show texture fade into the background. Justine Lupe’s manic sister, Morgan, tumbles into a relationship with her therapist, Arian Moayed’s Dr. Andy—a subplot that appears out of nowhere and never convinces. Timothy Simons’ Sasha, still nursing the awkward aftermath of his flirtation with Morgan, barely registers. His wife, Jackie Tohn’s Esther, fares slightly better this season—perhaps a nod to last year’s criticism of the show’s portrayal of Jewish women—but her sudden marriage crisis feels random and underdeveloped.
Much of this stems from how completely Noah and Joanne dominate the screen. They dote, bicker, break up, reconcile, and repeat the cycle. Joanne’s headstrong personality now verges on shrill, as she unravels over minor misunderstandings. Meanwhile, Noah still can’t reconcile his traditional Judaism with their relationship—a thread that could deepen the show but instead feels like a regression, even as his rabbinical career expands in intriguing directions.
That’s not to say season two is a misfire. It’s enjoyable—warm, relatable, and well-performed—but it’s also safer and more anonymous, the kind of comfort viewing you half-watch while making dinner. If the first season aimed to both embrace and subvert rom-com conventions, Foster, Kaplan, and Konner now seem content to play the hits. We get self-contained episodes, a few guest stars, and a finale cliffhanger just intriguing enough to bring you back for more. Sustaining a TV romance is tricky, and “Nobody Wants This” proves how hard it is to keep love interesting on screen. Still, one hopes that when Noah and Joanne finally settle down, the show finds a fresher way to keep us invested. [B-]
