Nobody Wants This Wants Feeling Jewish to Be Enough

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Spoilers ahead for “When Noah Met Joanne,” the season-two finale of Nobody Wants This.

In the season finale of Nobody Wants This, Joanne (Kristen Bell) reveals to her friends that her boyfriend, Noah (Adam Brody), has asked her about converting to Judaism, and she’s considering it. However, she soon realizes that Noah can’t maintain his religious beliefs while also being with her if she doesn’t commit to conversion. During a tearful conversation at his niece’s bat mitzvah, she breaks up with him, believing it’s the least painful option. But in the final moments of the episode, they reconcile and kiss, with Noah admitting he can’t have both a relationship with her and stay true to his faith – and making it clear he chooses her.

The season ends with a familiar, heartwarming scene – a classic romantic comedy trope. After a somewhat inconsistent season, the finale mirrors the first, bringing Joanne and Noah back together. The story revisits a formal engagement party for Joanne’s sister, Morgan, where the question of religious conversion still lingers. This time, however, it’s more prominent, as Joanne’s mother, Lynn, discovers a deep connection to her Jewish heritage and wants to explore converting. This leads Joanne to question her own stance. Noah, wanting to be supportive, initiates a conversation, assuring Joanne he doesn’t want her to change for him. They again agree to separate, parting with tears. And, predictably, they reconcile in the final moments – with Joanne running into Noah’s arms. Noah then takes back his earlier words, declaring, “None of it matters. You are my soulmate.”

If Nobody Wants This was intentionally repeating itself to highlight how predictable modern romantic comedies are, that would be one thing. But the show’s finale takes a strange turn after a particularly baffling scene: a lengthy conversation where Noah’s sister-in-law, Esther, tells Joanne she already “feels Jewish” towards her. Esther defines this as feeling “warm and cozy” and having a constant need to chat. She even suggests Joanne would be a good match for Jewish people, implying they lack warmth and talkativeness. This feels especially odd considering Noah’s own arc this season, where he discovers the importance of traditional Jewish observance. He’s devastated when he’s passed over for a lead rabbi position at his synagogue in favor of another rabbi, and briefly finds solace at a more laid-back synagogue. However, he realizes that traditions are truly important to him – it’s not enough to simply feel Jewish, he needs a real, practiced faith.

Season two of Nobody Wants This shifts away from the show’s earlier focus on stereotypes and instead explores themes of rules and traditions – both in relationships and religion – which generally improves the storytelling. This is seen through Noah’s experiences with a very laid-back synagogue and Joanne’s frustration with Noah’s disregard for typical relationship expectations, like repeating a Valentine’s Day gift from a previous partner. (While the gift isn’t ideal, a show about dating in your 40s shouldn’t dwell on it.) Initially, Joanne and Noah were attracted to each other because their relationship defied their personal rules. However, the finale surprisingly abandons this idea, and Noah’s second change of heart regarding Joanne feels particularly jarring, considering his season-long journey to appreciate having guidelines in life.

Noah never actually tells Joanne any of this in the final episode. He quietly realizes she’s the one for him, but he doesn’t understand why her choosing to embrace Judaism meant so much to him. Would he have been okay if Joanne simply identified as Jewish? And why is Esther, of all people, deciding who is authentically Jewish at such a key moment? That scene feels off, too. After the show faced criticism about antisemitism in its first season, they’ve softened Esther’s personality considerably. It’s good she’s no longer harsh and unpleasant, but she was at least entertaining when she was. Now, she’s been relegated to a minor storyline, lacking her former wit and clear perspective. She’s dealing with whether or not to have more children, gets a new haircut, and delivers a feel-good speech about what it means to be Jewish—it’s very similar to America Ferrara’s monologue in Barbie.

The show Nobody Wants This centers on a woman exploring Jewish conversion, but it often avoids fully addressing the significance of that process. Given that the show is inspired by creator Erin Foster’s own conversion, it’s odd that it doesn’t delve deeper into the emotional and spiritual weight of changing faiths – something that’s inherently complex, especially when motivated by love or marriage. While the show briefly touches on the depth of conversion through the experience of Joanne’s mother, it doesn’t offer the same exploration for Joanne herself, leaving her journey feeling incomplete. The series spends a lot of time explaining Judaism to Joanne, but we rarely see her actually reflect on what it means to her. By downplaying the cultural differences between Jewish and non-Jewish characters, the show ultimately removes the core conflict that drove the season, leaving little of substance to discuss.

The second season has some genuinely good moments, often in scenes unrelated to the show’s religious themes. Lupe continues to be a standout performer, bringing both humor and heartfelt emotion to the character of Morgan, who could easily be unlikeable. Her relationship with Dr. Andy (Arian Moayed, from Succession) starts as a comedic plotline but takes unexpected turns. The show asks if it’s absurd that Morgan is dating her therapist, but presents it similarly to Joanne’s relationship with Noah – potentially problematic, but maybe okay. That’s pretty much the show’s approach to everything. However, Morgan ends up isolated in the season finale, and looking back, her storyline feels unnecessarily harsh.

When it’s at its best, Nobody Wants This reminds me of shows like You’re the Worst or Happy Endings – you know, those comedies where a group of people are all tangled up in each other’s lives and everyone’s a little messed up. You’re the Worst had characters who were flawed and searching for meaning, and the show really took their feelings seriously. That’s what I feel is missing here. If someone’s Jewish identity is important, I need to understand why. If the show is going to explore what it means to be Jewish, it needs to actually show me. It’s okay if the show wants to move away from the original conversion storyline, but it needs to fully commit to that change. Honestly, watching Joanne and Noah basically repeat the ending of season one just makes everything in season two feel pointless. The show doesn’t need to be about finding religion to be good, but it desperately needs to find something meaningful to be about at its heart.

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2025-10-23 23:57