I’m going to put it out there that the television/streaming offerings this year have been stronger than the films. I would also suggest that the reason for this, at least in part, is that the entertainment industry’s really close to figuring out a balance between the two mediums.
At first glance, Nobody Wants This feels like it should be a movie. Sure, it stars two early-2000s television darlings, but regardless, the story of shiksa podcaster Joanne (Kristen Bell) and hot rabbi Noah (Adam Brody) seems like an obvious 100-minute rom-com. Instead, it’s a 10-episode series that positions itself to contain multiple seasons.
Unlike the TV era when Veronica Mars and Seth Cohen came of age, the American serial has scaled back. It isn’t quite the British model, but it’s rarely epic 24-episode seasons anymore. In this truncated form, bottle episodes don’t exist, but there is more room to explore a story and its characters. Nobody Wants This strikes that balance between the two modes: a movie premise expanded over a not-too-lengthy TV landscape.
Because we’re given approximately 300 minutes of story time, Joanne and Noah’s relationship can grow at an even keel, and Bell and Brody have time to develop their on-screen chemistry, of which they have in spades. Over the years, both actors have developed trademark schticks without becoming caricatures of their brand; not an easy feat, but one they seemingly carry effortlessly into each of their projects. The crux of Nobody Wants This is finding love as fully formed adults, and, in a similar way, we witness two established actors find their way around familiar comedic beats and storylines while keeping it fresh and engaging.
The star-crossed love found within the series brings with it the expected cross-culture humour and heartbreak, as well as becoming a meditation on evolving as an individual without losing a sense of self, and the sacrifices and commitments we all make in relationships. Nobody Wants This was developed with Gen Xers and millennials in mind — not with a nostalgic soundtrack or references, but with the relationship fears and handed-down emotional neglect so many grew up with and are now trying to vanquish with self-help and therapy.
Nobody Wants This is a product of its time narratively and logistically, benefitting from being given sufficient rope to have viewers fully invested in these characters and their love without feeling like we’re beating a dead horse. A series that feels real and just fairytale-like enough, funny yet dramatic, youthful and old, Nobody Wants This finds a healthy equilibrium in every way possible.
