Why 'Nobody Wants This' season 2 will make you root for Noah and Joanne like never before

From the get-go, "Nobody Wants This" season two reminds us why we fell in love with the series in the first place; that warm, fuzzy feeling that Noah (Adam Brody) and Joanne (Kristen Bell) bring to the screen is still alive and kicking.

Noah, still the sweet, loving, and yes, sexy rabbi, is trying to make it work with a girl who hardly believes in God at this point.

But even rabbis have toxic traits of their own, ones they often overlook, and the show doesn’t let us forget that. Reflection is apparently good for everyone, even holy men in adorable sweaters.

In the first season, we saw that Joanne's sister, Morgan, is not a fan of Noah. She felt he was disrupting their single-girl dynamic by changing her point of view on relationships.

This season, the two sisters stir up a whole lot of jealousy, showing how easy it is to compare ourselves to the next person and feel like we’re constantly “behind.”

Morgan rushes into a relationship, marriage and all, because she’s panicking about being left behind, while Joanne feels she and Noah are taking things at a slower pace. That’s where the comparison trap sneaks in; trying to match someone else’s timeline rarely leads to the best outcomes.

The soundtrack choices were another highlight for me. I found myself jamming throughout the series as the music perfectly matched each scene, giving the episodes so much more life.

From the awkward family Shabbat dinners to the chaotic romantic moments, it added an energy that made you want to dance, cry, or at least dramatically gesture at your screen.

And while we were thrilled to reunite with the awkward bunch of family, friends and lovers, season two doesn’t feel like a completely “new” season so much as a “to be continued” from where we last left off.

In the first season, Joanne insisted her podcast was about empowerment, but everyone else thought it was mostly about sex and bad dates. She continues her journey this season.

Noah often gets dragged into these podcast chats with her sister, providing both awkward humour and relatable relationship cringe moments.

The show still shines in demonstrating how two people from totally different backgrounds, families, and religions can find common ground and make it work, even with a crazy mother-in-law lurking in the background.

Romcoms often highlight sex, the make-out sessions in the middle of the street, or the fancy dinners, but "Nobody Wants This" doesn’t shy away from the real struggles of relationships.

It shows how frustrating love can be when you genuinely want the best for someone while also having to compromise, and that I appreciate.

This isn’t just a Noah-and-Joanne thing; other relationships get equal attention. The show explores the nitty-gritty of romantic entanglements, reminding us that we can fall in love just as easily as we can fall out of it, for all sorts of reasons.

And yes, their chemistry remains real and raw to the point where it’s almost believable, the kind of romance that makes you think, “Okay, this is what ladies hope to be: the lighter to a rabbi’s flame.” Yes, please.

The lingering question of conversion continues to hover over Joanne and Noah’s relationship. Joanne hopes she might gradually warm up to the religion, but unlike her mother, who suddenly develops a cringe-worthy, eye-roll-inducing connection to faith during a Purim party, Joanne’s scepticism is much more relatable.

The series sometimes simplifies religious nuances for comedic effect, like when Noah’s sister Esther pitches Judaism as the religious equivalent of hygge, saying Joanne is “warm and cosy, basically Jewish,” “funny, that’s Jewish!” and “always getting in everybody’s business, which makes her perfect for the religion.”

It’s funny, yes, but it’s a shallow take on the complexity of faith, especially when marrying a rabbi. Sex before marriage and all the other rules don’t just vanish, and the show doesn’t completely ignore that.

At the end of the day, the series presents a newer, more flexible approach to relationships and religion, showing that things can still work out even when the rules aren’t strictly followed. Love is messy, faith is complicated, families are chaotic, but somehow, it all works.

"Nobody Wants This" season two is now streaming on Netflix.

*** solid and enjoyable, though not groundbreaking.