A look of shocked amusement passes over Joanne’s face as she stares at Noah.
“You’re the rabbi,” she says.
Noah takes a long drag of a cigarette and says, smoke billowing out of his mouth, “Yeah, I’m the rabbi.”
“Nobody Wants This,” streaming on Netflix, follows Noah (Adam Brody), a young, charming rabbi who, after breaking up with his long-time girlfriend, finds himself falling in love with Joanne (Kristen Bell), a non-Jewish woman, much to his family’s dismay. Throughout the show, Noah and Joanne overcome the challenges of their relationship, of which there are many: Noah’s strong-willed family, prospects of a promotion to head rabbi and his bitter, plotting ex-girlfriend.
Although Noah is a complex character and defies many expectations of rabbis, many of his female family members are not at all nuanced and revert to tropes of Jewish women as severe and overbearing. Pitting Jewish women against non-Jewish women, or the “shiksa” as they’re referred to throughout the show, only furthers this stereotyping.
The prime example of this stereotyped character is Noah’s mother, Bina (Tovah Feldshuh). At every juncture, she bulldozes over every one of her family members’ wishes, justifying herself by claiming that she knows what’s best for them. Upon seeing Joanne talking to her son, Noah’s mother hosts a family intervention, telling Noah, “You had your fun, you tested it out, it’s not what you want.” Like the other Jewish-female characters, although possibly unintentionally, she is painted as the villain of Noah and Joanne’s story, attempting to stamp out their relationship as quickly as possible.
Esther (Jackie Tohn), Noah’s sister-in-law, is undeniably insufferable throughout the series. Her immediate disdain for Joanne, attributed to her close friendship with Noah’s ex-girlfriend, Rebecca, is tiresome and often frustrating. Her friendship with Rebecca is shown very rarely and although watchers are not necessarily supposed to empathize with Rebecca, they’re somehow supposed to understand Esther’s blind hatred for Joanne. Further, Esther’s stern, controlling persona, exemplified by her contrasting relationship with Sasha (Timothy Simons), Noah’s brother who is always cracking a joke or breaking tension, fits perfectly into these same stereotypes of Jewish women.
Despite its disappointing portrayal of some female characters, “Nobody Wants This” does an incredible job of introducing complexity in characters, namely through Noah, a rabbi who, unlike Joanne and many others’ expectation, does not “[have] a beard and was definitely judging [her].” He’s not uptight or pushy about his religious beliefs but charming and open-minded, while simultaneously genuinely connected to Judaism. This duality within his character works to dispel the myth that those qualities are mutually exclusive.
Overall, the show is a wonderful watch and a rare example of well-executed rom-com media today, but it fails to avoid perpetuating stereotypes of Jewish women — and nobody wants that.
