After sparking debate within the Jewish community over its portrayal of Jewish women, Nobody Wants This returns for a second season showing some improvement. But the criticism from Jewish viewers didn’t slow its global success: amid a surge of antisemitism, the Emmy-nominated Nobody Wants This landed in the Global English Top 10 TV list and racked up 57 million views in its first three months. Take that, bigots!

First comes love, then comes the hard part: making it last. When we last met agnostic podcaster Joanne (Kristen Bell) and the unconventional, undeniably charming Rabbi Noah (Adam Brody), their chemistry caught everyone off guard—from Joanne’s sister Morgan (Justine Lupe) to Noah’s brother Sasha (Timothy Simons) and sister-in-law Esther (Jackie Tohn) —and even themselves. Their connection overcame countless obstacles, but now the real test begins: merging two very different lives and families. Falling in love was just the start; staying together despite their differences is the challenge they must now face.

New showrunners Jenni Konner and Bruce Eric Kaplan also manage to spice things up a little, with Morgan’s new love interest being a therapist, Dr. Andy (Arian Moayed). It adds a substantial amount of drama to Joanne and Morgan’s relationship, to the point that it might look as if they’ll never be able to recover.

I have to admit that I was not quite in love with the first season of Nobody Wants This. In part, I’ve become so desensitized to Jewish stereotypes that I sometimes miss them even when they’re staring me in the face. That definitely happened while watching the first season, and it took social media posts and a colleague’s column in Glamour to see some of what I had missed the first time around. That’s why I pressed play earlier this week on season two with caution.

Following the aforementioned criticism, Netflix announced that Jenni Konner and Bruce Eric Kaplan would take over as showrunners of Nobody Wants This. I went into the new season not knowing if it would let me down again by playing too much into stereotypes, or if the new showrunners had taken the criticism to heart. There are hits and misses. My background in Judaism started in the Conservative movement, before I became Orthodox later in life. As such, I come from a background where men wore kippot as a sign of respect to G-d. So to see a character tell a rabbi that kippot are optional simply didn’t sit well with me.

In a number of ways, I feel they did listen to the criticism, especially regarding the Jewish women. Now, this could be that Esther and Noah’s mother Bina (Tovah Feldshuh) no longer sees Joanne as an outsider, but as someone who could possibly become a member of their family. Of course, Joanne’s inner conflict over whether or not she converts drives Nobody Wants This all season long. Will she convert or not? Right from the get-go, it’s clear that neither Joanne nor Rabbi Noah are on the same page.

Maybe it’s my Jewish background talking again, but regarding a certain game in season two of Nobody Wants This, it doesn’t send a good message in my book: that a movie’s Friday-night grosses are more important than Shabbos. That Rabbi Noah was the only participant who felt Shabbos was more important than going to the movies earns respect in my book. I’m sorry, but I wouldn’t feel right staying silent about this.

After living through the worst surge of antisemitism in decades, it’s not an understatement to say that we need Jewish joy in our lives. It’s also not lost on me newly added recurring guest star Arian Moayed in season two of Nobody Wants This—a series likely watched by many Jews, the vast majority Zionist—decided it was worth punishing the left-wing Israeli film industry solely because of their nationality (which is illegal per the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law). I wish I didn’t have to bring this up in a TV review, but I wouldn’t be doing my due diligence as a proud Jew if I didn’t mention it. And that’s a shame.

Overall, season two of Nobody Wants This shows that the new showrunners were listening—but not everything lands perfectly. There’s genuine warmth and humor alongside missteps that might make some viewers squirm. For better or worse, it’s a show that keeps you watching… and talking.

EDIT: I’m adding this now that Nobody Wants This has launched on Netflix. Much like season 1, we have some issues that need to be discussed. Rabbi Neil (Seth Rogen) offers Noah a job at the reform Temple Ahava but I don’t know if it was the writing or Rogen’s improving where things went so badly off-track here. Rogen’s Neil comments that one of Noah’s previous sermons changed the way he mourned. Thing is, it’s made clear that the sermon was about Tu B’Shevat, the new year for the trees. Mourning is associated with Tisha B’Av. These are two very different holidays with two very different meanings. Someone on set should have stopped this when it happened.

And if this isn’t enough, we need to talk about Esther’s monologue in the Nobody Wants This season 2 finale. The finale was under a spoiler embargo when my review initially ran, but we  need to discuss what she tells Joanne:

“I feel like you have this idea of being Jewish that’s so much more complicated than it actually is. I mean, you feel Jewish to me. You’re warm and cozy, you always want to chat about everything. You’re funny—that’s Jewish. You love to overshare. No matter how much I resisted, you literally forced me to be friends with you—forced. You’re a true kibbitzer. You’re always getting in everyone’s business. Ever heard of a yente, Joanne? You’re a yente.”

But it’s not enough here to just feel Jewish. Six months is not enough time when it comes to conversion. Conversion in and of itself is a year-long process (and then some) for a reason. Of course, the show approaches things form a Reform perspective. What about the connection to G-d? The millennia of Jewish tradition that Joanne is buying into? Lest we forget, the connection to Zion—Zionism itself is a core tenant of Judaism. Israel is our ancestral homeland and we pray thrice daily towards Judaism. Connecting with the typical Jewish stereotypes isn’t enough. Nobody Wants This could do better in this regard.

CREATOR: Erin Foster
SHOWRUNNERS: Jenni Konner & Bruce Eric Kaplan
DIRECTORS: Hannah Fidell (201, 202), Jesse Peretz (203, 205), Heather Jack (206, 207), Jamie Babbit (204, 208), Richard Shepard (209, 210)
WRITERS: Jenni Konner (209), Erin Foster (201, 210), Mahtub Zare (202), Lawrence Dai (202), Ryann Werner (203), Sarah Heyward (204, 206), Lindsay Golder (205), Megan Mazer (206, 209), Bruce Eric Kaplan (207, 208), Jena Friedman (202)
EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: Erin Foster, Steven Levitan, Kristen Bell, Sara Foster, Danielle Stokdyk, Jeff Morton, Bruce Eric Kaplan, Jenni Konner, Nora Silver, Oly Obst
CAST: Kristen Bell, Adam Brody, Justine Lupe, Timothy Simons, Jackie Tohn, Michael Hitchcock, Stephanie Faracy, Paul Ben-Victor, Tovah Feldshuh, Sherry Cola, D’Arcy Carden

GUEST STARS: Leighton Meester, Miles Fowler, Alex Karpovsky, Arian Moayed, Kate Berlant, Seth Rogen

Netflix releases all 10 episodes of Nobody Wants This S2 on October 23, 2025. Grade: 3.5/5

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