Just out on Netflix is a first-class romantic comedy called Nobody Wants This. The thing nobody wants is supposed to be a marriage between a Jew and a non-Jew. In spades. Between a rabbi and a blond Los Angeles shiksa so clueless about Judaism that she has apparently never heard the word "shalom" before - a bit of a stretch for anyone living in modern America.
The young couple who fall in love are Joanne, played by Kristen Bell and Noah, played by Adam Brody. Joanne makes a living working on a podcast called Nobody Wants This, hence the title, with her sister, Morgan. The two girls have an antagonistic rivalry which they let play out on the podcast and which makes their dialogue interesting. Noah is a cool with-it modern-day rabbi with ambitions to become head rabbi at a major synagogue. The two meet at a party and have an instant, totally convincing, attraction to each other.
The dialogue is hilarious. Really witty. The supporting characters really support the plot, moving it along by contributing additional incongruities: Bina, Noah's mother isn't quite the smothering Jewish mother type, although she plays out the stereotype by trying to pull this "shiksa" and her son apart. Sasha, Noah's brother, is a natural comedian and you can't wait to hear what he's going to say next.
It helps that the Noah character seems to have it all in spades. He's handsome. He is smart, generous and understanding to a fault, compassionate and never ever appears to lose his cool. You can't not like Noah. Joanne is, with her total cluelessness about Judaism, less appealing, but the pairing seems to work. The actors are friends in real life, and that no doubt helps make them believable as a couple.
Less believable is Noah's willingness to allow himself to let a non-Jewish girl into his life, given his lifelong ambition to have a successful career as a rabbi, and it is this existential struggle for Judaism to survive that is the elephant in the room nobody wants to pay attention to, except on the obvious superficial level.
It is unfair of me, and unrealistic, to expect a rom-com to confront the issue of anti-semitism on an existential level. Elise Foster, the author, herself a convert to Judaism, takes it as far as it can go without getting too far into the weeds and asking the real questions: can anybody in the modern world support a group that believes it cannot survive without closing the door to the outside world? And can Jews survive as a people if they don't? Can one suggest that it's individuals who need help surviving and not ethnic or cultural groups without sounding - or being - anti-semitic?
I'll leave it there. To say more is to spoil the plot ending, and it's too good a production for me to risk doing that. Does Joanne get her man? Does Rabbi Noah fulfill his lifetime dream of becoming chief rabbi?
You'll need to watch the series to find out.
You won't be sorry; it's a first-rate comedy with characters you're very likely to fall in love with.
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