If you’ve been following along the past few weeks, you know we can’t stop talking about season two of Netflix’s Hot Rabbi Show, “Nobody Wants This.” We even dedicated our Substack, Jewish TV Club, to the show!
Recently, the staff of Kveller and our partner site Hey Alma met up over Slack to have a conversation about all our thoughts, feelings, kvells and kvetches about season two. You can read the first part of our roundtable over at Hey Alma, and you can find the second part right here.
This conversation has been lightly edited and condensed.
Vanessa: Can we discuss Bina this season, and also how she disappeared for the last four episodes?
Avital: Bina felt very MIA.
Lior: Maybe Tovah Feldshuh had somewhere else to be.
Evelyn: She was like “I will break them up” and then we never see her again.
Lior: I know, the line of “I have scissors” was perplexing but also didn’t come to fruition.
Daci: She’s in some lair somewhere working on her plan.
Avital: And there’s the stereotype of a meddling Jewish mom again! Groundbreaking!
Daci: I feel like they tried to give Bina a glow up and make her more of a bad ass. Which felt maybe promising? But then she BROKE into Esther and Sasha’s HOUSE?! And we were back to square one.
Evelyn: I mean, I was SO tired of the never-ending stream of Bina hating Joanne. So I was relieved to not see that. But why not resolve that by having Bina try to accept Joanne?
Lior: Yeah she was very evil witch coded. Some Roald Dahl shit right there.
Evelyn: Like why have her like Morgan and still hate Joanne? Make Bina and Joanne bond in the bathroom.
Vanessa: This season was so much “we are back to square one.” Aside from Esther’s random decision to leave her husband, tell me how we’re in a different place now than we were at the end of season one?
Daci: Joanne has a nightstand.
Evelyn: Sasha has a mullet! That’s a difference.
Lior: Sasha looked great this season.
Daci: I like the mullet!
Evelyn: Yeah it worked for me.
Vanessa: The mullet: A win!
Lior: The mullet, the fits, the Benny Blanco mention, all great.
Avital: Noah’s straggly beard: A loss!
Evelyn: Noah was a loss this season. Throw the whole man out.
Daci: Do we think a version of Lynn’s [conversion] story could have happened to Joanne this season and then season three could have been set up for Fun Jewish Hijinks/wedding planning?
Evelyn: And conversion classes as part of the hijinks!
Vanessa: Yes. But I also think they could have just… accepted an interfaith relationship.
Evelyn: RIGHT?!
Daci: It’s hard for me to imagine how Bina would have fit into an interfaith storyline without rehashing the same shit over and over.
Lior: Maybe Bina can have a story arc where she decides if she’s choosing her son or her preconceptions.
Vanessa: Daci, I think watching Noah set some boundaries with Bina would have been hilarious and also SO IMPORTANT AND HEALING to… let’s say all Jewish children.
Lior: It already happened a little with the Shabbat episode.
Evelyn: I also stand behind one of my predictions that Joanne could’ve secretly started converting without telling Noah because she didn’t want him to think she was doing it for him.
Vanessa: That would’ve been hilarious and very on brand of Joanne.
Daci: Oh my prediction was that we would find out why Joanne has NO knowledge of Judaism despite growing up in LA, and we did! It’s because she’s an asshole.
Vanessa: Hey, my prediction actually also sort of came true: The podcast suffers because Joanne has nothing to talk about!
Evelyn: Does the podcast even exist this season? We see them hold microphones like two times.
Lior: It exists enough to get Joanne evicted.
Daci: And for Noah’s ex to call in.
Vanessa: And as a plot device so the sisters can “put it on pause” when they’re mad at each other.
Avital: What kind of true “yenta” has a boring podcast? She does not deserve the title.
Lior: Brutal. I love it.
Vanessa: Let’s talk about The Yenta Speech. Esther gives Joanne a real pep talk at the end of the season. Love it? Hate it? WTF it?
Avital: I HATED THE YENTA SPEECH. “You love to gossip! You are Jewish, Joanne!!!”
Evelyn: I thought it was a heartwarming speech. And I do agree that “feeling Jewish” and feeling accepted by other Jews is important for people converting. But there is more to [Judaism] than that.
Daci: I had watched “When Harry Met Sally” for the first time (I know) the day before seeing the pep talk and I liked it but I think I might have been riding the high of Harry’s speech.
Evelyn: The episode is trying to riff on “When Harry Met Sally” and fails.
Vanessa: It felt to me, much like the whole series, well intentioned but ultimately sort of useless at best, offensive at worst.
Evelyn: Agreed. Again, what’s the point?
Lior: I liked it. I think it’s true that the experience of being Jewish sometimes comes from the little things that make you feel like you’re in Jewish community.
Vanessa: I think that rings true for Jewish people, but in the context of a woman who is genuinely trying to understand if she wants to convert or not, it felt really hollow/superficial. Like I would’ve preferred Esther to be like “Babe, you can love Judaism without converting!”
Lior: I did talk about it with Jackie and I know that she was moved by it, like it’s very true to her Jewish experience.
Vanessa: I love Jackie, and I would love any Jewish woman (including converts, who are as we all know, Jews) to receive this speech and feel empowered by it… but Esther delivering it to a non-Jewish character who is really tortured over whether she should convert or not just felt empty to me.
Avital: I would love to hear thoughts on that final speech from someone who converted to Judaism.
Daci: I think the feeling of not fully belonging and missing out on some of these cultural moments as a convert is real. But I don’t think Joanne is in a place yet where she feels that.
Lior: Yeah, I totally see that. But, not everyone who converts does it because of faith, and I think doing it because of this feeling of belonging and of loving tradition and people is legit, and it’s true that Joanne might already be all of these things.
Evelyn: I just feel like we’re in this mode societally where we are SO entrenched in identity politics (to clarify, not necessarily bad) that we try to identify anything we like as being related to our own identities. Being warm and cozy is Jewish, per Esther’s thoughts. Sure! But there’s no specificity to that. I want more specificity to Joanne wanting to convert. Also, Noah just broke up with her and she wants to be with Noah. That could very easily color her perception of wanting to convert.
Daci: Right, she only wants to convert when she’s in danger of losing him.
Avital: The lack of specificity was a huge oversight!
Lior: The lack of specificity is the problem with this whole show’s conception of Judaism.
Vanessa: I think you just named the difference between “Nobody Wants This” and “Long Story Short.”
Lior: Absolutely, “Long Story Short” is entirely informed by super specific personal experiences with Jewish tradition and concepts. Here everything is broad strokes and nothing lands. All of Noah’s sermons this season were meh. Even that Big Noah one. It was just… so many platitudes, so little specificity.
Evelyn: I have so many problems with the writing in this show, but my biggest gripe is that the sermons and rabbinic wisdom they write are so bad.
Vanessa: Wow, so we all loved this season, huh. Any final thoughts anyone wants to throw in?
Evelyn: I think if “Nobody Wants This” actually allowed itself to have a real, grounded discussion of Judaism it would do well.
Daci: I think Abby Loves Smoothies is a very funny influencer name.
Vanessa: Do we see a season three happening?
Evelyn: I think it will get a season three to wrap things up, but this was truly one of the worst seasons of television I’ve ever seen.
Avital: Amen.
Evelyn: And I did genuinely like season one!
Lior: I do wonder how it lands with non-Jewish viewers and if they won’t care about any of these things? But to me I think the problem has generally been a very uneven season of storytelling that goes beyond just Jewish rep.
Daci: Yeah I’m so interested in whether non-Jewish viewers like this season. Honestly none of my issues with this season are about Judaism.
Vanessa: Even if you don’t care about Judaism AT ALL, this was just objectively missing the magical sparkle of season one.
Lior: There were definitely things that I loved about this season, but overall, as a season of TV, I think it wasn’t good.
Evelyn: I will also add that my most positive associations with this show are the actors themselves. But Netflix could not fit me in to the press junket, so I couldn’t dialogue with them about it.
Lior: The actors did amazing with the material that they had.
Daci: Yeah honestly props to Kristen Bell for making me dislike Joanne so much.
Lior: Same for Justine Lupe playing Morgan.
Evelyn: Shout out to dedicated Hey Alma follower Timothy Simons, you did amazing, sweetie.
Daci: Never a bad word about Timothy.
Avital: Timothy and Jackie, this doesn’t concern you.
Lior: Jackie Tohn is forever my queen. I need that Esther and Sasha spinoff.
Vanessa: My final controversial (?) opinion: Joanne is not warm or cozy.
Lior: She is not warm and cozy at all, agreed.
Avital: My final question: I wonder which American girl doll was handed to Kristen?
Lior: I think it was this one?
Avital: Missed opportunity for Rebecca Rubin product placement.
Evelyn: Win: The American Girl Doll jokes. Loss: No Rebecca Rubin.
