Nobody Wants This
こんなのみんなイヤ!
Storyline
The whole story, ending included.
An agnostic sex-podcast host falls for a rabbi in Los Angeles; an interfaith romcom in which the question of conversion never quite goes away.
Joanne, an outspoken agnostic in Los Angeles, hosts a podcast about sex and dating with her younger sister, Morgan. At a friend's dinner party she meets Noah Roklov, a warm, handsome rabbi who has just walked away from Rebecca, the Jewish woman everyone expected him to marry, and who hopes to become head rabbi of his synagogue. They fall for each other almost at once.
The first season is about everything standing between them. Noah's mother, Bina, tells Joanne she will not end up with her son. When his boss appears at a Jewish camp, Noah asks Joanne to skip his Torah study so that he is not seen with a woman who is not Jewish, then apologises and asks her to be his girlfriend. His boss, Rabbi Cohen, wants Noah to succeed him and to find a Jewish wife. Noah tells her he would have to marry a Jewish woman and asks whether she might convert. At his niece Miriam's bat mitzvah Joanne announces that she will, then admits she is not ready and tries to end it so that he can have the job. He follows her and kisses her.
In the second season Noah has been passed over, and Bina blames Joanne. He leaves for Temple Ahava, a relaxed, progressive congregation led by Rabbi Neil, and finds that its easy faith is not his. Morgan rushes into an engagement with Andy, her former therapist. Esther, who married Noah's brother Sasha young, grows restless. Joanne's mother decides to convert before Joanne does. When Joanne is evicted and wants them to live together, Noah says not until the question of conversion is settled.
At Morgan's engagement party it all comes apart. Morgan ends her engagement, Esther tells Sasha she cannot fix herself while they are together, and Noah ends things with Joanne, saying he will not ask her to become someone else. Then Esther tells Joanne that she is already Jewish in the ways that matter: the Friday dinners, the warmth, the talk. Joanne and Noah run to find each other and meet among the lamps of Urban Light at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. He tells her she is his soulmate, Jewish or not, and that he chooses her every time. Well, she answers, then he is in luck.
Starring
Kristen Bellas Joanne Williams
An agnostic sex and dating podcaster, frank to a fault, who falls for a rabbi and has to decide whether to convert.
Joanne Williams’s story
Joanne falls for Noah as soon as they meet. His mother, Bina, tells her she will not end up with him. At his niece's bat mitzvah she announces she will convert, then admits she is not ready and tries to let him go so that he can have the job. When Noah is passed over, Bina blames her and they clash; she falls out with Morgan and watches her own mother decide to become Jewish first. Evicted, she wants them to live together; when Noah refuses until conversion is settled, she asks to be accepted as she is. He ends it. Esther tells her she is already Jewish in the ways that matter, and she runs to find him at Urban Light; when he says he chooses her every time, she tells him he is in luck.
Adam Brodyas Noah Roklov
A rabbi hoping to lead his synagogue, who falls in love with a woman his community and his mother do not accept.
Noah Roklov’s story
Noah has just left Rebecca, whom everyone expected him to marry, when he meets Joanne and falls for her. He asks her to skip his Torah study so his boss will not see them, then apologises and asks her to be his girlfriend; he tells her he must marry a Jewish woman and asks if she might convert. When she tries to leave so that he can have the job, he follows her. The board passes him over. He moves to the relaxed Temple Ahava and finds its easy faith is not his. He will not live with Joanne while conversion is unsettled, and at Morgan's party he ends it, saying he cannot ask her to become someone else. Walking alone, he turns back, meets her under Urban Light and tells her he chooses her every time.
Justine Lupeas Morgan Williams
Joanne's younger sister and podcast co-host, who fears losing her to Noah and rushes into an engagement with her former therapist.
Morgan Williams’s story
Morgan is afraid of being left behind when her sister, Joanne, falls for Noah. She repeats to Joanne a claim from Rebecca that Rebecca and Noah are still talking; it is a lie, and the sisters stop speaking until Sasha, her unlikely friend, finds out and tells them. In the second season she starts dating Andy, her former therapist, moves in with him and accepts his proposal at Purim. When Joanne says the marriage will not last, Morgan puts their podcast on hold. Meeting Andy's ex, also a former patient, she begins to doubt him and even tries, with Sasha, to break into his phone. At the engagement party, with their mother's encouragement, she calls it off, admitting that she rushed because she felt she was falling behind Joanne.
Timothy Simonsas Sasha Roklov
Noah's older brother, a devoted husband and father who strikes up an unlikely friendship with Morgan.
Jackie Tohnas Esther Roklov
Sasha's wife, cool to Joanne at first, who begins to question the life she chose young.
Why it matters
Nobody Wants This takes the oldest obstacle in romantic comedy, a family that disapproves, and gives it real weight. For Noah, faith is his work, his community and his mother's expectations; the woman he loves talks about sex for a living and believes in nothing in particular. The question the series keeps asking is what one partner can fairly ask of the other. Noah wants a Jewish wife, Joanne wants to be wanted as she is, and conversion is treated neither as a happy ending nor as a surrender, but as a decision only she can make. Erin Foster based the series loosely on her own life. Around the couple it lets other women weigh what they gave up, Esther who married young, Morgan racing to keep pace with her sister. Its first season was nominated at the Emmys for best comedy series and for both leads.