By: Nomi Kaltmann as seen in The Age Newspaper

3 November 2024

I’m not usually a fan of TV depictions of Jews and Judaism, because if I’m honest, in
general, they usually suck. TV shows love common tropes, like religious Jews who once
they become enlightened about how restrictive orthodox Judaism is, leave the fold (My
Unorthodox Life, Unorthodox), or TV episodes where the Jewish representation is plain
weird or just wrong (The Yom Kippur episode in Gossip Girl, the OC’s Chrismukkah).

With only 14 million Jewish people in the world, a tiny 0.2% of the world’s population, its very
annoying when my faith is misrepresented or sensationalised for a mass audience. Most of
the world will have never met a Jewish person before, and with crass or sloppy television
portrayals, its unfortunate when those become the popularised versions of my religion.

So, you can imagine my trepidation when I saw that Netflix dropped a 10-part series called
Nobody Wants This where the protagonist, Rabbi Noah falls in love with Joanne, a non-
Jewish sex and relationships therapist. Urgh, I thought, here we go again.

However, any worries I had were erased when I binged all 10 episodes over two nights. Not
only was the show warm and funny, but it was also downright enjoyable. Rabbi Noah is a
self-proclaimed hot rabbi, who is thoughtful, kind and serious about his faith. Joanne, his
love interest is self-aware, emotionally intelligent and relatable. Like most people in the
world, she doesn’t know too much about Judaism, but she’s taken with Noah, his down to
earth nature, his family-oriented way of life and the fact he is a NJB (nice Jewish boy). Its
helpful that both actors, Kristen Bell and Adam Brody, are millennial superstars who evoke
nostalgia and much love.

Sure, the show was not entirely perfect, with almost all the Jewish women depicted within it
as bitchy and mean, but at the same time, I’m willing to look past this and hope that they do
better in season two, because I’m just so pleased that Judaism is being shown on television
to millions of people in such a loving way. The show includes a scene at a Synagogue, a
weekend away at a Jewish campsite, a discussion about celebrating Shabbat and kosher, a
bat mitzvah party; plus, there’s a female rabbi and a thoughtful discussion about Judaism’s
views on belief in God.

Finally! A show doing its best to show Judaism for all its beauty and depth.

So, while I’m not usually a TV fan, I can promise you this: there is no way I would miss
season two. And, judging by how fast Netflix announced that it would be renewing the show,
apparently, I’m not alone because Everybody Wants This.