Nobody wants this

[EachandEveryone]

I can’t wait that’s tonight’s tv sorted. https://amp.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2024/sep/26/nobody-wants-this-review-kristen-bell-and-adam-brodys-joyous-romcom-is-as-funny-as-when-harry-met-sally

Yeah I was so confused by the drink driving. I thought it was really strict over there (as it should be!).

I love it. Am Jewish and love it, particularly the use of yiddish and taking the mickey out of the stereotypes, particularly the anti-semitic tropes of what Jews like, something even Jewish can, and often fall into. (Although when Jews do it, it means you don't look like me/my family/Jew I know).

I also love how LA-centric it is. It's making me miss LA big time.

I didn't see what Noah would find so attractive about her that he would risk his career etc

It's the shiksa thing. She doesn't have to be anything other than not Jewish. But at the same time, she's attractive, witty, successful, and there's that all important spark, something that Noah seems to be missing with his girlfriend.

The blonde-haired, blue-eyed shiksa luring Jewish men has been a thing forever. Read Portnoy's Complaint. Gosh, even in Judith Krantz book Scruples, the Jewish lawyer is lured from his Jewish wife by a non-Jew although she is red-haired, irish/french rather than blonde!

I am also hung up on the drink driving question.

I’m always getting distracted by drink driving in American tv shows and movies. The Holiday is absolutely full of it.

Just finished this. It was an easy watch, really liked the first few episodes but then Noah and Joanne started to grate on me a bit. He needed to ‘grow a pair’ which made me think he would actually have irritated her in irl and she just needed to stop trying so hard to be cool. There were some funny bits, some cringey bit, but I particularly liked Morgan, Noah’s brother and his wife. They made it for me. Definite Sex and the City vibes. Overall I enjoyed it.

Great entertainment - without having to resort to rampant shagging and bare arses. Nice for a change.

Just finished this. Agree about the drink driving, Joanne being irritatingly shallow and clueless (no way would she not know what prosciutto was) and I think both leads are about 10 years too old, am presuming the characters are meant to be in their thirties otherwise surely the massive elephant in the room is not that she isn’t Jewish but that she’s too old to have kids if she is the actress’ age (44). You could believe any other type of man might not want kids but he is a rabbi and characters in the show talked several times about Jews wanting to continue the Jewish people. I think that they went too far when they made the character a rabbi, makes it too unrealistic that he’d fall for a gentile. The real-life inspiration is a music exec or something.

Joanne’s shallowness/cluelessness was very Carrie Bradshaw, especially with the sex podcast. No idea what he saw in her. Her total lack of research about converting was pretty insulting to him.

However the main thing I am surprised nobody has noticed is that the sister was in the Marvelous Mrs Maisel- playing Astrid, Mrs Maisel’s sister-in-law who was…a gentile who had converted to Judaism! The running joke was that she cared more about Jewish traditions and holidays than Mrs Maisel’s own family and they laughed at her being a zealot.

Sasha was in Veep, very similar comic character. Agree that “does my brother not look like he could control the media?” was a brilliant line.

WTF is Vemo? It was like some weird product placement.

I quite enjoyed it though. I am an actual shiksa. Had a Jewish boyfriend for 5 years in my late twenties, lived together and he asked me if I’d consider converting. I was a bit blindsided as he’d told me when we met that he was not religious, but it clearly got more important to him the older and closer to settling down he got (though he was an accountant not a rabbi!). I loved him but did not even consider it, as I am a staunch atheist. I went to a lot of Friday night dinners and Bar/Bat mitzvahs and weddings with people being lifted on chairs, all a bit less glitzy in North London than LA but much of it was familiar. We eventually went our separate ways, semi amicably; he married a Jewish woman a few years later and I eventually married someone with a very similar atheist outlook and cultural background to me.

I thought the script made more sense for characters in their early thirties, not mid forties.

Yes, this part was the most distracting and confusing. The script was definitely written for younger characters, then they cast older actors but kept the story the same. It results in these holes that make no sense.

Venmo is an American money transfer system, a bit like PayPal I suppose. You can't just do free instant bank transfers in the US like you can here.

I watched it too - being Jewish I did find it funny - some great lines! But you have to completely suspend any reality 😆
i really liked Sasha!

Agree also about the age thing - it completely perplexed me. The storyline was as though she was in her early 30s, happy, single, sex podcast. Not really what you’d be doing at 44.

You could of course be single and childless and happy at that age but the vibe would have been different in the story.

Even the meeting of the mother - in your mid 40s with not much chance of kids, the mother would surely have been less bothered.

@Cattyisbatty But you have to completely suspend any reality

Exactly, I'm not sure why people are picking holes in everything. It's not a documentary, it's basically a romcom. It's also not unusual for actors to play younger roles, I mean Adam Brody was playing a 16 year old when he was mid 20s. Still, it's LA. If the Joanne character has decided she doesn't want children, I can't see why she wouldn't still be living that lifestyle at 44. I quite like the fact they didn't clarify their ages. Times are changing, I don't think it'll be that unusual for people to still be living a similar lifestyle in their 40s to their 20s now more people are choosing not to have children.

Even in this day and age and in a very liberal synagogue it must be pretty unusual for a rabbi not to want children though?

The Noah character actually talked about continuing the Jewish people. He said as much to Joanne and later it was put to him by the chief rabbi that if he married the shiksa without her converting his children would not be Jewish, and then everyone else would think that was OK and the Jewish people would die out. Exaggeration for comic effect of course, but same result if he has no kids at all and everyone else follows suit. I think we are just meant to pretend they are mid thirties. Kristen Bell looks great, not mid thirties great though.

I was more talking about Joanne's lifestyle. Noah probably was on the traditional path to kids. He was with Rebecca for however many years, she was Jewish, his family loved her, he was all set to propose and presumably have children with her (as she looked a bit younger, although apparently the actress is 34 - I didn't think she looked that young)... And then she ruined it/it turned out it wasn't right. Probably in reality he'd have married her anyway as it was the right thing to do for his duty, his family etc. Again though, let's not read into it too much. It would have been a crap programme if he'd found her with the ring on and proposed and they all lived happily ever after.

It's been renewed for season 2, so I imagine this might be one of the challenges they face next season.

I really loved Esther, she felt very real and like the amazing women I know. It's refreshing to see a strong woman who manages her family, is a good mother, shoulders all the responsibilities of a difficult MIL, is in charge of finances, an active participant in her community but also has her own life. People rely on her: she's a good and loyal friend, she supports her friends' business ventures, her daughter turns to her for help. She is competent and doesn't take shit, but she's absolutely not a "nagging wife" like so many female married side characters. And she's funny as hell.

I loves the scene where she's out of the club beeping her horn yelling "you're pretending not to hear me?? Are you INSANE???" Because yes! Her husband told her he was going to sort a family thing out, and then goes drinking with random women without even telling her? Good for her.

I really wanted to love it, and will definitely watch season 2 but but found both Joanne and Noah self centred and unlikeable. Joanne's neurotic insecurity is such a tired cliche, like there's no other way for a female character in her 30s to be interesting! Noah showing up at her house at 2am was creepy AF, then rocking up to her important work dinner like his need to apologise is more important than her career. Also inviting her on a weekend where he knew he wanted to hide their relationship was a bum move - who does that, publicly humiliate the woman you're with. Just one of those guys who repeatedly does dodgy things but makes grand gestures so you don't realise he's a walking red flag.

Also, when Noah alludes to how he and Joanne have these meaningful conversations - I couldn't see any of that outside of forced 'tell me your secret' snippets. Outside of hot sex they didn't seem to have much in common - hobbies, interests, film, music, faith, family, social life. I think he just wants an audience (like he said, he enjoys attention), and Joanne is insecure enough to give it to him at personal expense because she thinks he's better than she is (all because he's a rabbi). I don't see him giving up his promotion (just convincing her to convert) but maybe that's the twist next season

My SIL and I are binging this today and loving it. DH & BIL have taken kids out for the day so perfect opportunity. Loved Adam in The OC back in the day.

All the actors were great. I watched it all. But what renoLeno says is all true. I wanted it to be a bit more modern. They didn’t need to make it all about her pursuing him but that’s basically what ithey did.
Like having a potential MIL who is super hostile to the partnership and the DP says nothing to defend the relationship. That is a huge red flag. If Joanne was on here she’d be told she doesn’t have a MIL problem, she has a DP problem.
Also he rocked up into the Spotify meeting and everyone behaved like it was cute (as if they would!) I was shocked that this was so all about him. Her income and job was suddenly all a bit disposable because she was hoping she would be getting married or something.
Imagine if she had interrupted his job interview for Head Rabbi in a Board meeting at the Synagogue. No way would that happen. In fact the whole central plot arc is about big decisions he needs to make to do with his job. All seen as really valid and important, She says things like I love you so I won’t make you decide a certain way, she says I would do anything for you. He doesn’t say anything like that to her. He doesn’t give her the same respect or options and it isn’t acknowledged that this is what’s happening.

You're right - interrupting her work meeting wasn't cute and romantic, it was overstepping and minimising the importance of her work because it isn't a big moral calling, like his work!
And yes, he ought to have nipped his mother's rudeness in the bud. It is a bit of a warning sign when men allow their families to be openly rude to a person who's done nothing wrong to them, just isn't who they would choose themselves.

I'd imagine it's a big thing to marry a rabbi or any religious leader, when you'd be expected to actively support his work in your own life. Especially if you don't share the faith or have a job yourself that would not be approved of. Wonder if season 2 will address how her career would be received.

Yes. Be good if season 2 touches explicitly on all these qus. I did really enjoy the script so I hope they can do the bigger issues justice as well.

What about Bells face? There's no way on earth that is her natural face.

i think her face stopped her from looking like the character she was trying to act. If you see what I mean.

I’m not sure how I’m feeling about the second season. I’ve only watched two though.