The good and bad of Nobody Wants This

Is the Netflix show worth the hype? Plus, poverty porn, Substack recs, and Jennifer Aniston welfare checks.

Is eating a continental roll a good enough excuse to publish late?

I'm making a point of enjoying my neighbourhood before I move, so I'm going to places I haven't been before and eating gluten-laced meals even though they make me sick.

I was also busy checking up on Jennifer Aniston. I seem to do this annually or if Aniston-adjacent celebrity gossip triggers concern.

This time, the trigger was a picture of Brad Pitt and his new girlfriend, Ines de Ramon.

Like, yeah. Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt may have broken up 20 years ago, and Jen probably doesn't give a shit about who Brad is dating, but it served as a reminder to see how she was doing.

What does a Jennifer Aniston welfare check entail? I just google for hours and read quotes from unsubstantiated sources – riveting stuff!

Apparently, dating has been a nightmare (Hollywood execs, I’m looking at you), and Jen would like someone to come home to.

And it’s all Brad's fault.

5 good things

1. Starting the week with a Sylvia Plath-themed meditation and writing hour with one of my fave authors, Melissa Broder.

2. Feeling inspired and good vibey about freelance life. Slogging it in an open-plan office to hustling in a coffee shop has been pretty seamless transition.

3. First swim of the spring/summer! Super grateful my friend asked me for an impromptu ocean date. Joy of joys.

4. Robust discussions with informed and opinionated friends. Smart people are so sexy and interesting.

5. Time to see people I’ve wanted to see in ages!

WATCHING

Nobody Wants This 🔪

I resisted watching Nobody Wants This like I resist all Hollywood romcoms, especially the shit Netflix has been serving up lately. But I used to follow the creator, Erin Foster, and know she’s pretty funny.

Also, the Adam Brody pull was too strong. Like every millennial woman, I had a huge crush on Seth Cohen growing up. I thought preferring the nerd made me so quirky, but it turns out every other millennial woman wanted to fuck Seth as well.

As for Kristen Bell? I don’t hate her. She’s funny and talented, and from what her husband, Dax Shephard, says about their relationship on his hit podcast Armchair Expert (long form interviews with A-list guests), she seems like a good human.

So I went ahead and watched Nobody Wants This. And… it’s good. It’s pretty, pretty good. There’s a lot to love about this witty romcom, but there are also a few icks so I’ll review it by sharing the good and the bad.

Photo credit: Netflix

The Good

Brody x Bell’s chemistry

There's no denying it. These two are electric. I felt the chemistry as soon as Joanne arrived at the party in that over-the-top coat and Noah so charmingly (and clumsily) opened her bottle of wine. I got on beat with their clever banter. I swooned during their first kiss (please, for the love of god, can the next man I kiss put both hands on my face like Noah does Joanne?). It's the chemistry between leads that make a romcom great, and these two are hot AF.

Justine Lupe

When I saw Justine Lupe on screen, I thought: I LOVE HER. But then I was like, wait, where else have I seen her? It's Willa from Succession, of course ("At least I'm only getting fucked by one member of this family.")! Lupe was great as Connor Roy's wife but as Joanne's sister? She's epic. Morgan is the kind of sister everyone wants – she'll call you out for being a boring bitch on your podcast but get the wives on-side by getting them drunk at your boyfriend's basketball game.

Timothy Simons

The same thing happened with Timothy Simons. When I saw Sasha, Noah's brother, I thought: Yes, him! Jonah from Veep! Simons plays the dopey "loser brother" brilliantly. I would love to get stoned with him, actually. And Sasha and Morgan together? They bring a much-needed edge to the sickly sweet Noah and Joanne, and the show wouldn't be the same without them.

Two older singles without kids

Seeing an older-than-usual couple with no kids navigate love is refreshing. But how old are Noah and Joanne, really? I’m not the only one who googled this (you know it’s a hot search term when Mamamia writes an article about it). It turns out no one really knows. Bell and Brody are both in their forties, but they say Noah and Joanne are most likely to be in their mid-late thirties. Whatever. It was nice seeing a will-they-or-wont-they story about people older than 25.

The Bad

Rich white people (again)

Wealthy white characters with bangin’ houses are hardly anything new, but I’m so over the upper-middle-class being portrayed as the norm. Noah and Joanne are rich AF. I mean, their houses look like something out of Architectural Digest. How can every character have money and great taste? Yeah, yeah. I know it’s TV, Hollywood TV. But why are rich people always the default?

Possible reasons wealthy characters are the Hollywood norm:

• Audiences rather escape into idealised versions of reality than watch people like themselves in ugly houses

• Nice settings are as much the default in Hollywood as good-looking characters (easier on the eye)

• Characters must be financially comfortable enough that typical problems, like an expensive dentist bill, do not interfere with the story (the sisters’ sex and love podcast would be a lot less glamorous if the two had to record it on their bedroom floor)

• The people who get to make TV and film are usually from wealthy backgrounds (the creator Erin Foster is a nepo baby), so an upper-class existence is their reality

Religion as plot device

I don't have the authority or the lived experience to go too deep into Judaism, but the whole rabbi and non-Jewish woman love affair feels slightly farfetched. Nobody Wants This is based on the real-life love story between its creator Erin Foster and her husband Simon Tikhman, but he’s not a rabbi. Would a rabbi so readily contemplate dating a non-Jewish woman (I could be wrong)?

Also, Noah's Judaism can come off as a quirky personality trait rather than a belief system central to his life. But, then again, perhaps this is because Nobody Wants This has constructed a multidimensional character who is more than just his religion. I have also read that Noah being a young "hot rabbi" is a more relatable portrayal than rabbis previously depicted, which leads me to…

I felt more seen by the Adam Brody character because obviously rabbis in popular culture, generally, we do often get these blokes with beards and [Brody’s character] was much more relatable. - Rabbi Benjamin Stanley

Negative portrayals of Jewish women

The Jewish women in Nobody Want This are not exactly likeable characters, especially compared to the carefree Shiksa sisters. Noah’s ex, Rebecca, is so desperate to get married she finds the engagement ring Noah was hiding and puts it on her finger before he can propose. Esther is a scary, nagging wife who keeps Sasha on a tight leash, and Bina is a controlling mother with the sole purpose of getting rid of Joanne. Writer Jessica Radloff writes in Glamour: “Would it be too much just to see Jewish characters in shows without feeling othered?”

It's not all bad. There's a scene in the show when Joanne, Morgan, Noah and Sasha are in the car on the way to the bar. Morgan shares her opinion of Noah via text, but the car speaker reads the message: "He's cuter than I expected. He doesn't look that Jewish." In response to this racist remark, Noah replies, "And what does a Jewish person look like?" This is a teachable moment, I think? Although, it doesn’t bode well for Morgan’s character.

Final verdict

In summary, I enjoyed Nobody Wants This. It’s the perfect spring watch, and it’s a fun escape from whatever annoying life stuff you have going on. I rolled from one episode to another, feeling genuinely entertained. I even laughed a few times. All in all, I think the show’s heart is in the right place.

Just quickly

• Have you ever listened to the podcast Sweet Bobby? It's about a woman who got catfished for nine years (wtf) — a tale with many twists and turns. I bloody loved the podcast, and now it's a Netflix doco: Sweet Bobby: My Catfish Nightmare. The podcast is better.

• I just started watching The Franchise (Binge). It's about the production team behind a superhero franchise film titled Tecto: Eye of the Storm – ripe for jokes, right? One scene was so good I watched it three times and laughed the same amount each time. Real good, especially if you've worked in any kind of creative capacity and know the feeling of budgets and egos ruining the fun.

READING

On rich white girls writing poverty porn 🔪

Circling back to Hollywood and class. The default representation is definitely upper-middle class. But what about when rich people try to write about being poor?

I’ve long had a problem with poverty as an aesthetic. I’ve encountered it often in creative circles (also Freo).

“I’m sooooo broke, man,” says the so-called poet wearing a worn jumper who can afford to write creatively for a living without a supporting stream of income.

Soon, you find out that his parents are paying for his rent. But you don't hear it from him because he doesn't want you to know. Seeming poor is edgy, more interesting. Without the poor persona he’s just another rich guy without a job.

There’s nothing more offensive to a rich person than considering the idea they didn’t entirely ‘make it’ on their own. -

Valerie

ayan artan

writes about Nicola Peltz Beckham’s – yes, Brooklyn Beckham’s wife – new film lola, which seems like a rich (very rich) white girl’s attempt to be creative by turning working class experiences into a hollow story (but she’s hot so it’s okay!). I haven’t seen the movie, but it looks terrible.

Marginalized minorities pop up in the story like prop furniture, their humanness secondary to the beautiful white girl’s personal traumas.

She’s broke but hot AF.

Ranking the men from Titanic in order of rizz 🔪

Titanic is part of my DNA, like The Little Mermaid, Clueless, and My Best Friend’s Wedding. It’s up there on the list of movies that made me.

And the men in Titanic? Well, they also have a special place in my heart. There were men I loved and men I hated – Cal, I have two words: FUCK YOU!

But what about rizz aka charisma? Which characters lit up the screen like Rose’s sparkling dress in the ballroom when she meets Jack at the upstairs clock (swoon).

SILT

ranks the guys in order of rizz and there was nothing else I needed to read this week. I loved this.

Honestly, by the end of the film, I fancy Mr Andrews almost as much as Jack Dawson. The honest, open face. One of about two men in the entire film who are actually nice to Rose. The devastation and blame that he shoulders over the sinking. The fact that he tried to add more lifeboats and was overruled. Justice for Mr Andrews who “wouldn’t even make a try for it”.

On not wanting motherhood 🔪

Yes! Another woman writing about not wanting to have kids. I have yet to read anything that links not wanting to have kids with loneliness (the decision phase, not the older years), but it fits.

Making a decision that is so against the “natural” wave of adulthood is lonely. So when people like

Amie McNee

are honest about feeling lonely, I feel less alone. And that is the power of writing and sharing vulnerabilties.

I think I use the "maybe I will change my mind" method to soften the blow to the world that wanted and expected me to have kids. I think, initially, I used the line to soften the blow to myself, as someone who assumed I would eventually want them. It was a way for me to settle into the concept. A liminal space to get comfortable with a future I never imagined for myself.

With love & dopamine,

Nx

Quote of the week 🔪

How often in life he has found himself a frustrated observer of apparently impenetrable systems, watching other people participate effortlessly in structures he can find no way to enter or even understand. So often that it’s practically baseline, just normal existence for him. And this is not only due to the irrational nature of other people, and the consequent irrationality of the rules and processes they devise; it’s due to Ivan himself, his fundamental unsuitedness to life. He knows this. He feels himself to have been formed, somehow, with something other than life in mind. - Sally Rooney

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