{"id":653709,"date":"2026-10-22T10:36:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-22T10:36:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/653709\/"},"modified":"2026-10-22T10:36:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-22T10:36:11","slug":"nobody-wants-this-season-3-review-netflix-rom-com-returns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/653709\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Nobody Wants This’ Season 3 Review: Netflix Rom-Com Returns"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tIf nothing else, give Nobody Wants This<\/a> credit for allowing itself a tiny bit of growth: After two<\/a> seasons<\/a> of exhaustingly circular conflict about whether a good-boy rabbi like Noah (Adam Brody<\/a>) could ever really be with an agnostic Gentile sex podcaster like Joanne (Kristen Bell<\/a>), season three begins not only with the couple moving in together, but Joanne starting Jewish conversion classes.<\/p>\n

\n\tFinally, we\u2019ve graduated from asking if to asking how. For a show whose very dithering had previously seemed to reflect Joanne\u2019s fear that \u201cno one wants to listen to happy,\u201d it\u2019s a welcome step forward. But as lifelong flake Joanne has learned many times over by now, wherever you go, there you are. Nobody Wants This might be on its way to becoming a sweeter, more even-keeled version of itself, but it can\u2019t completely shake the bad habits that have made it nearly as exasperating as it is endearing.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tNobody Wants This\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\tThe Bottom Line<\/p>\n

\tAs endearing and exasperating as ever.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAirdate: Thursday, Oct. 22 (Netflix)
Cast: Adam Brody, Kristen Bell, Justine Lupe, Timothy Simons, Jackie Tohn, Tovah Feldshuh, Paul Ben-Victor, Stephanie Faracy, Michael Hitchcock
Creator: Erin Foster\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\tAdmittedly, it does feel good to bask for once in what feels right about Joanne and Noah\u2019s relationship rather than fret over what might be wrong about it. The lovebirds are so giddy they wake each other up in the middle of the night just to coo: \u201cHey. We live together.\u201d Nothing can pierce their romantic bliss, not even minor annoyances like Joanne\u2019s inability to ever shut a cabinet door (\u201cIt\u2019s like living with a ghost,\u201d Noah complains adorably) or bigger ones like her almost sabotaging their first trip as a couple when she runs into a desperately needy fan (creator Erin Foster<\/a>) at the airport.<\/p>\n

\n\tNot, at this point, that there\u2019s anyone or anything trying to ruin them anyway. With Joanne\u2019s no-seriously-this-time decision to convert, previously insurmountable obstacles have melted away. Noah\u2019s old temple is only too relieved to bring him back for a trial run, now that they\u2019ve been reassured his life partner will soon become part of their tribe. His disapproving mother (Tovah Feldshuh) is all too happy to throw herself into turning her possible future daughter-in-law into the perfect rebbetzin (rabbi\u2019s wife). There\u2019s nothing at all standing between them and happily ever after, or so it seems.<\/p>\n

\n\tBrody continues to excel as a romantic lead, combining the patience of a saint with the goofiness of a guy you could actually imagine meeting and falling for in real life. Bell gets to soften her character\u2019s more abrasive edges; oh-so-kooky Joanne might still do obnoxious things like publicly brag about her and Noah\u2019s sex life in an embarrassing attempt to one-up an ex (Avan Jogia), but at least she\u2019s secure enough to be self-aware about it. And while I remain slightly underwhelmed by their chemistry, it turns out to matter much less when we\u2019re not needing to be convinced every few episodes that theirs is a passion fiery enough to overcome every reasonable objection.<\/p>\n

\n\tTheir newfound sense of chill does not come without narrative cost. Nobody Wants This season three tones down its exploration of Judaism and Jewish culture significantly \u2014 like, to the extent that Christmas traditions get a more elaborate episode spotlight than any Jewish holiday does. (It makes some sense in context, but still.) With Noah\u2019s career back on track, the congregation itself mostly fades into the background. Joanne\u2019s conversion classes mainly function as a backdrop for simmering yet undercooked tension with guest stars like Sarah Silverman as Rabbi Eden and Andrew Rannells and Keyla Monterroso Mejia as fellow students.<\/p>\n

\n\tPerhaps this is a response to critique<\/a> of the show\u2019s treatment of Jewishness in earlier years, or perhaps it simply reflects the fact that this is no longer a driving issue in the central romance. But given that Joanne\u2019s will-they-won\u2019t-they with Noah has doubled as a will-they-won\u2019t-they with the religion, it comes as a disappointment that we don\u2019t get more insight into her evolving understanding of the faith, the culture and her place within them \u2014 give or take a late-season speech about purpose and meaning that\u2019s performed movingly enough by Bell to make you wish she\u2019d had more material like it.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the absence of any real and obvious issues for Joanne and Noah, the burden of dramatic tension falls more heavily this season on the ensemble around them. Primarily, this means digging into the connection between her chaotically self-absorbed sister, Morgan (Justine Lupe<\/a>), and his endearing lug of a brother, Sasha (Timothy Simons<\/a>).<\/p>\n

\n\tOn one hand, the chemistry between Lupe and Simons is undeniable enough (more so than the chemistry between Bell and Brody, for my money) that the show was always going to have to address it eventually. On the other, the series approaches it with a characteristic lack of subtlety, barreling over what should have been a poignant storyline about the very fresh separation between Sasha and his wife (Jackie Tohn, still excellent and still sadly underserved as brusque, brittle Esther).<\/p>\n

\n\tAt least it\u2019s possible to understand what the series is trying to do with this plotline, which is more than can be said for some of the other elements that make up the narrative. Some missteps are deeply silly but easy to forgive \u2014 seriously, the absolute carelessness with which the show treats Joanne\u2019s podcasting \u201ccareer,\u201d which seems to consist of her randomly waving around a microphone while flopping about the couch, has to be a bit at this point.<\/p>\n

\n\tOthers are more grating. I\u2019ve come to understand by now that the writers (led by showrunners Jenni Konner and Bruce Eric Kaplan) and I have vastly different ideas about where the line falls between \u201cendearingly messy\u201d and \u201coff-puttingly toxic.\u201d Where I, for example, see Joanne\u2019s passive-aggressive sniping any time Morgan gets even the tiniest shred of good news as a cruel and unpleasant reaction, they apparently see it as a cute and relatable expression of sibling rivalry. <\/p>\n

\n\tIn fairness, the performances (especially by comic MVP Lupe) are charming enough to almost pass it off as such, and the script so airy it never dwells on any wound long enough for it to fester. With its tight 30-minute episode run times, postcard-pretty L.A. backdrops, and an inherently lovable cast of actors you\u2019ve loved in other things, this series has always gone down as a quick, easy binge, and that hasn\u2019t changed in season three.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut as a romantic like Noah or Joanne would tell you, there\u2019s an ocean of difference between settling for good enough and daring to dream of something magical. Nobody Wants This can certainly offer the former. It\u2019s still got a ways to go before it can deliver the latter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If nothing else, give Nobody Wants This credit for allowing itself a tiny bit of growth: After two…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":653710,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[30649,146,30650,85,46,62782,19392,30652,62783,411],"class_list":["post-653709","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-adam-brody","tag-entertainment","tag-erin-foster","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-justine-lupe","tag-kristen-bell","tag-nobody-wants-this","tag-timothy-simons","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653709","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=653709"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653709\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/653710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=653709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=653709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=653709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}