Nobody Wants This

There’s plenty to enjoy about the new episodes besides. Yet beneath its delightful surface, Nobody Wants This remains an uneven show—one that relies too heavily on its effervescent stars and, despite treating them with more kindness this time around, still struggles with its Jewish women.

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.

It’s still bingeable in a way that feels purpose-built to scratch a mid-thirties brain. It’s just equally clear that the show, having arrived at its final act showdown, is wandering in the wilderness. Sometimes, you just need to have a bit more faith in your premise.

As someone who cherishes an artfully executed romantic comedy over almost any other genre, it’s irritating to see so many missed opportunities amid so many promising parts.

In the process of expanding the profile for several supporting players, Brody and Bell are left playing often identical beats of uncertainty and insecurity to the ones that worked well in the first season. In the process, the chemistry and overall appeal dwindle dramatically.

“Nobody Wants This” is a more refined version of itself in Season 2. The self in question is just fundamentally slight and not especially ambitious.

Season 2 picks up with the couple still at an impasse over whether Joanne will convert … and pretty much camps out there all season. The last episode, incredibly, retreads many of the elements of the first season’s finale. .... It turns out the only thing more irritating than an extended love triangle might just be an extended will-they-or-won’t-they between a girl and a religion.

If Nobody Wants This was more focused on the mechanics of its comedy, maybe the flimsiness of these dilemmas would be fine—comforting, even. But the show seems to want to be about the hard parts of relationships without providing much insight.