‘Nobody Wants This’ Review: A Rabbi and A Podcaster Walk Into a Party . . .

A quirky rom-com pairing Kristen Bell and Adam Brody is something of a millennial fever dream. After all, the actors played Veronica Mars and Seth Cohen, two of TV’s most quick-witted and fast-talking teen characters, and have been beloved in everything they’ve done since. And in a lot of ways Nobody Wants This scratches the itch to see the pair together, satisfying any curiosity about what their onscreen chemistry could be like. The 10-episode comedy series, created by Erin Foster, casts Bell as Joanne, an agnostic, sex-obsessed podcast host living in Los Angeles. She’s unlucky in love, but her career, which she shares with her free-spirited sister Morgan (Justine Lupe), is on the rise. One night, at a party, Joanne encounters Noah (Brody), a hipster rabbi who has recently broken up with his perfect Jewish girlfriend Rebecca (Emily Arlook). Sparks fly, but is it a meet-cute or a potential rebound for Noah?

Either way, the series propels forward under the age-old premise of opposites attract, particularly as Joanne has no concept of Judaism or what it means for Noah to be a rabbi. She’s keen to learn, even showing up to one of his services, but she’s a blonde shiksa out of water. And like a good Jewish boy, Noah is close to his family, including his stoner brother Sasha (Timothy Simons) and Sasha’s uptight wife Esther (Jackie Tohn), and everyone has an option about whether he should date Joanne. His mom Bina (Tovah Feldshuh) is particularly opposed—hence where the title of the series comes in—but Noah as curious as we are to see where this could go. The snappy, entertaining episodes unfold like a network sit-com, with each chapter giving us more insight into Joanne and Noah’s relationship and its many obstacles. We get a visit to the requisite Jewish summer camp, a hilarious glimpse at Noah and Sasha’s amateur basketball league, and even an invitation to a New York-themed bat mitzvah, where all of the drama eventually blows up.

Nobody Wants This stumbles a bit early on, perhaps because not a lot of depth is offered to the characters, but after a few episodes it’s hard to press “stop” on the remote. You really want to know what’s going to happen to Noah and Joanne. Are they going to stay together despite Bina’s best efforts to break them up? Will Esther, who is Rebecca’s best friend, ever be nice to Joanne? Does Joanne care enough about Noah to consider converting, something she read about for five minutes on Google? While the characters themselves aren’t as complex as they could be, the conflict is real and complicated. It’s also something real couples have faced themselves, including Foster, who converted for her now-husband Simon Tikhman.

The creator, thanks to her own experiences, clearly has understanding of modern Jewish life, which is refreshing to see on TV. The religion isn’t used for jokes, but instead as a pivotal backdrop for the story. Which isn’t to say Nobody Wants This isn’t funny—it is. Simons, a key supporting player on Veep, is endlessly entertaining as Sasha, a dad and husband who doesn’t always get it right but wants to try, no matter how stoned he gets. Lupe, too, is a standout, playing Morgan with a carefree enthusiasm that is a good foil to Joanne’s constant need to overthink everything. A few actors from Bell’s past shows, including Ryan Hansen and D'Arcy Carden, have small, funny roles. It’s not a perfect series, but you immediately want more episodes when it’s over. It may not be the Veronica Mars–The O.C. crossover we’ve always dreamed of, but it’s a good consolation.