When you have that rare thing — a genuine comedy hit — it is easy to cock it up with the second series. Did you eat up all your best material the first time round? Have you deployed your best gags so you are doing a limp, repetitive imitation of your first rodeo?

Nobody Wants This, the sharply written rom-com about the love affair between a rabbi (Adam Brody) and his girlfriend (Kristen Bell) who is not only not Jewish but doesn’t believe in God, was a prime candidate for “difficult second album syndrome” (a bit like U2 and A-ha). Expectations have been raised, but it turns out that there is still much lead in its pencil, even if it does retread some old ground.

This is not a show that will give you deep belly laughs, but more a comedy of shrewd observation about relationships, human beings and the (attempted) blending of families. A handy recap at the beginning reminds us that in the previous series Joanne (Bell) decided to break up with Noah (Brody) because she didn’t want him to have to choose between her and his career (more of that later), then they snogged, leaving it open-ended.

But they are still together and planning their first dinner party to meld their friends and family, with Noah under the impression that Joanne will convert to Judaism. Cut to a stonily awkward dinner party vibe when it becomes obvious she thought they had agreed to “park” that idea. Hence the “will this break them up?” carousel begins. It will certainly have career repercussions for Noah, to the fury of his formidable mother, Bina (Tovah Feldshuh).

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This doesn’t sound like a barrel of laughs, does it? But it really is funny, if in a low-key way. Every scene is “relatable” (sorry, awful word) on a human level. And the humour is in the excellent characterisations, not just of Noah and Joanne (great chemistry between Brody and Bell), but also the rest of the cast members, not one of whom is weak.

Justine Lupe (Willa from Succession) is stand-out as Joanne’s self-absorbed sister Morgan, with whom she does a popular podcast and who believes she could have been Meghan Markle because she once saw Harry in a bar and thinks there was a “vibe”. Also a stand-out is Timothy Simons (Jonah from Veep) as Noah’s brother Sasha, who has a mullet hairdo and is terrified of his henpecking wife, Esther (Jackie Tohn), who is so controlling she makes him record his conversations with his ex (Morgan) and play them back to her. And mid-series we meet Seth Rogen, who belongs to another temple, but make the most of him — he is criminally underused. Maybe it was an availability thing.

It remains to be seen whether there will be enough juice in the tank for a third run, but based on this series, I’d go with “yes”.

All episodes of Nobody Wants This are available on Netflix

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