“Nobody Wants This,” the Netflix series starring Adam Brody as hot rabbi Noah Roklov and Kristen Bell as Joanne, the “shiksa” he falls in love with, is back for a second season in October. This week, Vanity Fair ran a first look at the new season and an interview with the show’s creator, Erin Foster, who loosely based the show on her own relationship and conversion to Judaism, and we have Thoughts about some of Foster’s comments.
When “Nobody Wants This” premiered, the show quickly became a certified hit. But the Jewish community, as we are wont to do, had conflicting feelings.
Some of us loved it, sure, but others of us picked up on something: The Jewish women depicted in the series — specifically Rabbi Roklov’s ex-girlfriend Rebecca, his sister-in-law Esther and his mother Bina — were controlling and rigid. The non-Jewish women were fun and free.
On our partner site Hey Alma, we joined our colleagues for a conversation titled “Real-Life Jewish Women Discuss the Jewish Women of Netflix’s ‘Nobody Wants This,’” where we noted that Jewish women have been portrayed as “overbearing, intense, not fun, unattractive, too much” throughout history, and it was painful to see the stereotype play out again.
This criticism was also picked up beyond Jewish media: Time ran a piece called “Nobody Wants This Mean-Spirited Depiction of Jewish Women in Nobody Wants This.” Glamour published “Netflix’s Nobody Wants This and the Persistent Jewish Stereotype.”
The sentiment popped up again and again in traditional media and on social media, peppered in throughout the overwhelmingly gushing reviews of the show. And Erin Foster noticed.
“I was honestly very surprised, and I was disappointed,” she told Vanity Fair. “Find me another Jewish rom-com showing Jewish people in such a positive light, showing the Jewish faith in such a positive light. It’s something that I take very seriously as someone who converted and felt so welcomed by the Jewish community.”
“With the heaviness of what’s going on in the world around the Jewish faith,” she continued, “to have a lighthearted, sweet, happy show that reminds people how beautiful Judaism is — don’t find something wrong with it! Take the win, you know?”
Last year, in an L.A. Times interview where she was asked about the show’s criticism, she defended herself by saying, “I think it’s interesting when people focus on, ‘Oh, this is a stereotype of Jewish people,’ when you have a rabbi as the lead. A hot, cool, young rabbi who smokes weed. That’s the antithesis of how people view a Jewish rabbi, right?”
What’s frustrating about these responses is the idea that two things cannot be true. As a staff, we actually very much enjoyed “Nobody Wants This” — it is a lighthearted, sweet, happy show that does showcase the beauty of Judaism. And also — it absolutely portrayed its Jewish women characters in a stereotypical light. For the creator of the show, herself a Jewish woman, to act as though anyone critiquing the show is doing so in bad faith or is… dare we say… overbearing, intense, not fun, unattractive, too much… is a weird stance to take.
As Jewish comedian Robby Hoffman once famously said, “to complain is to enjoy.” If you’re not critically engaging in a piece of media that you love, do you even care about it? It’s possible to enjoy a show, to celebrate its portrayal of Judaism as a religion, and to also want more for its Jewish female characters.
“Nobody Wants This” brought on two new Jewish showrunners for season 2 — Jenni Konner and Bruce Eric Kaplan, both “Girls” alum — and according to Vanity Fair, brought in Rabbi Sharon Brous to speak with the writing staff, though everyone involved in the show maintains that none of this was in response to the criticism.
Konner told Vanity Fair that season 2 will dive deeper into some of the most harshly criticized Jewish women’s motivations (specifically Rabbi Roklov’s sister-in-law Esther and his mother Bina), but again, not because of any criticism — simply because, well, that’s what happens in the second season of a show: the characters gain more depth.
Jackie Tohn, who plays Esther, told us last year “what drew me to the role was like the obvious Jewishness, and how she’s a loud, opinionated woman. I am all those things, and I was excited that the character really spoke to me. But then, once I had the role, what was important to me was making her multi-dimensional, right? Honestly, I’m hoping, if we get a season two, we dive into the nuance even more, because I think that is the challenge, right? You make this show, you want it to be for everyone, and you want everyone to enjoy it. And I was concerned, as a Jewish woman. I don’t want to just be the stereotypical shrill, right? I don’t want to be that.”
We’re looking forward to “Nobody Wants This” season 2, which premieres on Netflix on Oct. 23 — and as superfans of “Girls,” can’t wait to see what Konner and Kaplan bring to the table. We also can’t promise we won’t have complaints — and frankly, that’s a compliment.
