I would like to briefly address the TV fan who clearly came up on CW programming back in the day and who has since overseen the casting of O.C. star Adam Brody and Veronica Mars star Kristen Bell in the new Netflix comedy Nobody Wants This. Do we need a new “opposites attract” romantic comedy story that’s been done 1,000 times already on both the big and small screen? No. That said, will I watch this 10-episode Netflix release when it hits the streamer later this month (on Sept. 26)?
My answer to that is: Obviously! And it’s largely because of the two leads here, who play an outspoken agnostic woman and an unconventional rabbi in a series that I’m pretty sure viewers will come to appreciate the same way people fall in love: Gradually, and then all at once. For me, at least, it’s like a return to the mid-2000s — back when we were still driving in the sun, looking out for number one — for the Veronica Mars–O.C. crossover I never knew I needed.
“I was always a very cynical writer because I was a very cynical person,” Nobody Wants This creator Erin Foster said in an interview with Netflix’s Tudum, “and that’s where all my comedy came from and where my comedic perspective came from — failing at dating and failing at relationships and things blowing up and finding the humor in it.”
As is so often the case, though, finding love changed everything. Including Foster’s realization that being fulfilled and happy could also be kind of, well, funny. Nobody Wants This, in which a Los Angeles podcaster meets the love of her life, represents the fun, beautiful, and cynicism-free attitude she says has toward love now. “This show is based on the only good decision I ever made: Falling for a nice Jewish boy,” Foster continues.
“But I realized that being happy is way harder than being miserable — there’s nothing to complain about. So, I created this show based on all the ways that finding the right person can be so hard.”
What I like about what Foster has created here is that the show doesn’t make any kind of grand statement about politics or religion or love. It’s two likable people realizing that their life might be better together, damn their obstacles and differences. Their realization is that love doesn’t have to be a Smiths song. It’s about contentment and slowing down enough to listen to your heart. Even if you’re a non-believer who falls for a rabbi.
