Welcome to Kveller’s “Nobody Wants This” episode recap series! It should go without saying, but spoilers will abound here — if you haven’t watched season two yet, this is your warning to skip these recaps until you have!
If you want a short recap of season one, you can find it on our Substack, where you should join us to share your own thoughts about the show! Let’s get into these Jewish-tinged recaps of the Hot Rabbi Netflix Show everyone loves to kvell and kvetch about.
It’s hard to think of a show that’s been the subject of more dinner party and internet talk as of late than “Nobody Wants This,” the Netflix Hot Rabbi Show. That’s why the first episode of the second season being named “Dinner Party” feels oh-so-appropriate. (Also, Kristen Bell’s “shiksa” podcast host Joanne and Adam Brody’s Rabbi Noah met at a dinner party — love a full circle moment!)
The thing about dinner parties, of course, is that we have this romantic cottage-core-Pinterest-board ideal about what they’re going to be like… and then they often end up being more of a New York Times-recipe-implodes-in-your-oven type mess (or maybe, more realistically, somewhere in between). This episode focuses a lot on what happens when romantic ideals meet real life, and the way they come to a head at the couple’s first dinner party — a true Los Angeles relationship milestone — is satisfyingly metaphorical and literal.
As is format-appropriate, Joanne catches the audience up on all the shenanigans of season one under the guise of catching up her podcast listeners on her relationship with “The Prophet,” her somewhat disturbing nickname for Rabbi Noah Roklov. Luckily, she then gets rid of the nickname (baruch Hashem) by revealing to her listeners her boyfriend’s real name and profession. She projects an idyllic image of their relationship, dubs Noah a “real life adult man,” and to really hammer home how inspirational her relationship is, she shares that Noah keeps a water carafe by the bed (did not know this was something to aspire to, but OK!).
Morgan (Justine Lupe, Joanne’s sister and co-podcast host) is not buying what her sister is selling. She says the relationship is not out of its honeymoon phase and that the two have a lot to figure out (hint, hint, Joanne’s conversion). Joanne is adamant that her and Noah’s upcoming dinner party is one of the signs that their relationship is going smoothly. Is she trying to convince her listeners, or herself? Jury is out on that one (well, unless the jury is Morgan, then the verdict is obviously in — and very dire).
Next up, we get to see Noah and Joanne’s relationship, and to be fair, things do look pretty decent. They cook together, they watch basketball game that Joanne only half understands together, and we even see the water carafe situation by Noah’s bed. We also see the little shelf by Joanne’s side of the bed, which can only hold Joanne’s possession if she piles them like a Jenga tower a turn or two away from collapse. A sign of something shaky to come? Time will tell!
Noah has two meetings in this episode with Rabbi Cohen, the head rabbi of Noah’s synagogue, Temple Chai. They take place in a very realistic-looking rabbi’s office (we’re assuming an office from the Wilshire Boulevard Temple, where the show shoots its synagogue scenes).
The first meeting takes place right before the dinner party, and Rabbi Cohen and Rabbi Roklov discuss Joanne’s conversion and how much Noah wants the head rabbi job. Rabbi Cohen doesn’t seem convinced, and when his secretary makes a comment about how she heard about Noah’s water carafes on Joanne’s podcast, Noah becomes frazzled. Rabbi Cohen invites Rabbi Noah for a talk, but while Noah is obviously still angling for the position, it’s clear that Rabbi Cohen has major doubts about Joanne and the whole interfaith relationship.
It’s the evening of the Dinner Party TM. Sasha (Timothy Simons) and Esther (Jackie Tohn) are getting ready to leave for the party and Sasha adorably shows off his knowledge about the wine Esther likes. Of course, there’s a confrontation about Morgan — we all feared last season that something would happen with these two, though we did get confirmation from show creator Erin Foster that the two of them will not be getting together.
Esther encourages Sasha to ignore Morgan but be coy about it — not something in the newly mullet-haired Sasha’s lexicon — and Sasha’s failed ignoring leads to a conversation between all three characters in Noah’s bedroom, where Esther talks about how she hates the idea that she’s not as “fun” as Morgan.
This does feel a little bit like the show is addressing the critiques about the way the show portrayed Jewish women in the first season. It’s meta and kind of weird. In season one, some viewers felt Jewish women were portrayed as unlikeable and mean and just generally not as easy going and delightful as the show’s non-Jewish female leads — but giving Esther an identity crisis for this season doesn’t really seem like a great way to solve that. Nonetheless, throughout the dinner, Esther tries to sell her image as the “fun” one. She plays Lauryn Hill and says she gets compared to Zooey Deschanel. She also has to get in a dig about how she chooses her obedient husband’s friends, so how much growth is Esther really going to be allowed this season? We shall see.
The dinner party is a disaster from the get go. Ryan (D’Arcy Carden, in her unfortunate sole big appearance this season) and her partner Spencer just broke up and she spends most of the party lying on the floor, wondering out loud what went wrong and critiquing the lighting (which fell under Joanne’s supervision). Morgan is rude to Lenny (Miles Fowler), a friend of Noah’s who was initially open to being set up with her. Esther’s vibe is off. But the worst moment happens when Lenny congratulates Joanne on her upcoming conversion. Joanne responds breezily, saying she and Noah are going to be doing “the whole interfaith thing.”
Record scratch.
That’s not at all what Noah understood, which we know from his conversation with Rabbi Cohen, and also the incredibly disappointed and uncomfortable look on his face at this moment. It seems that Joanne’s statement threatens to bring their relationship to a grinding halt.
It’s clear that Morgan is right: the two have a lot to figure out.
But in the midst of this crisis, Joanne finds Noah’s bedroom changed: Instead of the tiny shelf that can barely fit all of her stuff, she now has a whole spacious nightstand. It’s a romantic gesture that affirms for her — at least in that moment — that the two do have a future together. Noah makes space for her — literal and metaphorical — in his life. For now, that’s enough for the couple.
Unfortunately, Noah’s crisis at the synagogue cannot be ground to a halt with cute gestures and carafes. Rabbi Cohen tells Noah that he’s officially ready to retire, but instead of appointing our Noah to be his successor, he brings on viral Rabbi Noah Field (Alex Karpovsky), who we learn recently was a guest on “Hot Ones” (are those chicken wings Kosher?) and who our Noah apparently went to camp Chaverim with. Allegedly, Brody’s Noah was dubbed Little Noah and Karpovsky’s Noah was dubbed Big Noah; those nicknames may or may not have been made up by Big Noah himself, but one way or another, the man has carried on his PR upper hand from Camp Chaverim to Temple Chai. He’s the new head rabbi.
Little Noah (lol, sorry) returns home to Joanne, who asks him how things went. We’ll get to see his response in episode two.
The wins
In response to criticism about Jewish representation in season one, Erin Foster said, “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?” So we’ve decided to take her quite literally, and we’ll be tallying the wins of season two, episode by episode.
The winner of this episode is definitely Noah’s new nightstand (NNN??).
I’d also say this episode is a win for Jewish love via Sasha and Esther.
The icks
Since we’re Jews, we have to get some kvetch in with the kvell. As Robby Hoffman says, to complain is to enjoy.
Temple Chai continues to be shitty about Joanne not being Jewish, and making it such a central part of Rabbi Noah’s role at the synagogue feels decidedly not a cool or good portrayal of Judaism. If they passed him over for just not having that rabbi zhuzh, we’d get it, but it seems like the interfaith thing is what they really can’t let go of. Ick.
