Nobody Wants This on Netflix

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I love it, binged over the weekend. My mid 40s daughter also loved it. We have no preconceived notions about Jewish people so it's all new to us, plus with the generally low quality of sit coms and rom coms we'll tolerate some stereotyping and stretches of reality.

Overall, A+

Then you must be the intended audience. This felt like a Jewish primer in different places. I have Jewish in-laws (not my direct in-laws, my DH was the product of an interfaith marriage) and I have learned a lot of small things from them. However, I knew what a shiksa, Shabbat, etc. were before ever being married. Defining everything felt pedantic.

Super cute though!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I thought the loser siblings were a hoot. Interested to see what happens with them if there is a season 2.

~ Shiska who married a Jew

Another shiksa married to a Jew who thought the loser siblings were the best part of the show. I thought Sasha was hot. I’d love to see a second season where the chemistry builds between the siblings.

[Anonymous]

I'm a Jew married to a Jew, and I loved it. I have to say, that episode where Adam Brody started describing all the religious rituals that she would be learning about made me feel overwhelmed, and I'm Jewish! The cultural evolution that I would have to make if I were to marry a rabbi is enormous, so I really felt it when those alarms started going off in Kristen Bell's head. I agree with the PPs who noted all of the show's faults, but like with any dumb rom-com, I tend to set the bar very low and overlook the bad writing, etc. if the actors have good chemistry. This was a zillllion times better than that horror show from a few years ago with Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Eddie Murphy, so that's something!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Her bad hair is so distracting.

Girl, get some highlights, wash your greasy hair, and chop off at least 2.5-3 inches. You need height and volume.

I was trying to figure out the hair too. It's (probably) an expensive balayage (with the two highlights on her part) but rather than it looking like painted on waves it's more like brown at the top and the blonde just at the bottom. I'm mystified if that is intentional.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The Jewish tropes are ridiculous. When Bell's character shows up to the synagogue and camera zooms in on the woman playing Brody's mom I knew she was going to call her a shiksa before she spoke. And agree that the pushy women desperate to marry their daughters off to Brody were silly.

It was also INSANE when Brody's girlfriend digs up the engagement ring and just starts wearing it without talking to him and then tries to just force an engagement. This combined with the scene at the synagogue really rubs me the wrong way because it portrays all the Jewish women in his life as marriage-obsessed with no interest in romance and essentially justifies him doing something he knows will stir up a ton of trouble by pursing a relationship with a non-Jewish woman. It has "look what you made me do" vibes.

Having said all that I do enjoy the scenes between Brody and Bell and I actually do think this could be an interesting premise (without the broad Jewish tropes that are especially harsh towards Jewish women). It's a shame they went this route and betrays a really laziness -- this was the only way you could think of to make it funny. Lame.

It was really tough to see that although I think Esther and Miriam come out looking quite strong and flexible. It's a bit cringe whenever Joanna says "it's because I'm not Jewish" about everything- flip that around to "he'll never marry me because I'm a Jew" or "nobody accepts me because I'm a Jew" and it's quite jarring.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought the loser siblings were a hoot. Interested to see what happens with them if there is a season 2.

~ Shiska who married a Jew

Another shiksa married to a Jew who thought the loser siblings were the best part of the show. I thought Sasha was hot. I’d love to see a second season where the chemistry builds between the siblings.

Me tooo!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m half Jewish and the stereotypes really bugged me. Along with Bell’s aforementioned lip issue.

On the other hand, I think Adam Brody is really cute and see that in real life he’s a secular Jew.

“Secular Jew” is more offensive than most of the clearly intentional stereotypes in the show. You can’t be a “secular Jew.”

It’s a religion.

A large percentage of Jews, including myself, are atheists.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I like it, but I’m unfortunately distracted by the fact that something has changed with her face that almost makes her look like a different person. It could just be that she’s shaping her eyebrows differently. I know, I know, this is absurd.

To be fair, he also looks different, but still looks like himself.

Yes something with her lips. It's actually more distracting because it's only noticeable when she's not smiling -- when she smiles her face looks normal. But then when she's not there is something going on with the area between her nostrils and her lips (agree with PP it's probably filler). So I found myself being like "she looks normal -- wait no something is off -- no now it looks normal -- no oops there it is again." Extremely distracting.

She is a beautiful woman. I wish we could just let these women age normally. I am totally fine with a few wrinkles around your lips it's fine.

I think she had her nasolabial folds filled. It makes the bottom half of her face flat.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I like it, but I’m unfortunately distracted by the fact that something has changed with her face that almost makes her look like a different person. It could just be that she’s shaping her eyebrows differently. I know, I know, this is absurd.

To be fair, he also looks different, but still looks like himself.

It's almost like she's....AGED....since Veronica Mars. Imagine that!

[Anonymous]

I don't know Kristin Bell from anything so can't comment on if her face has changed but she sure looked like she was wearing dentures- really big square teeth.

I ended up googling her for her height because they made so many short jokes even though the rabbi didn't look that much taller than her. She is 5'1"- one inch shorter than me so to me she isn't remarkably short to warrant the jokes/I don't get it. I also don't understand tall jokes unless a woman is over 6 feet though. If you are between 5 and 6 feet you are pretty human.

I thought it was easy to watch/characters were enjoyable.

[Anonymous]

I thought the siblings were great too, but where are they going with that? I actually think the marriage between Esther and Sasha is pretty healthy and nice. Are they really going to split them up?

[Anonymous]

Sooooo bad.

[Anonymous]

The wives are catty middle schoolers. Such a sad selection of Jewish women to highlight. Ugh. Hoped for better. We are better than that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I love it, binged over the weekend. My mid 40s daughter also loved it. We have no preconceived notions about Jewish people so it's all new to us, plus with the generally low quality of sit coms and rom coms we'll tolerate some stereotyping and stretches of reality.

Overall, A+

Then you must be the intended audience. This felt like a Jewish primer in different places. I have Jewish in-laws (not my direct in-laws, my DH was the product of an interfaith marriage) and I have learned a lot of small things from them. However, I knew what a shiksa, Shabbat, etc. were before ever being married. Defining everything felt pedantic.

Super cute though!

This was weird to me too. How do you live in a large coastal city and not know a lot of Jewish people and be familiar with some basic Yiddish and the central Jewish traditions. I am not Jewish and didn't marry in but I've been to plenty of Shabbat dinners and attended Jewish weddings and know what shiksa and goyim and other common yiddish words mean. Just like I also know what baby hairs are and some basic things about black hair care even though I've personally never needed that info for myself. I thought that this was just common knowledge if you live in a reasonably diverse community.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I thought the siblings were great too, but where are they going with that? I actually think the marriage between Esther and Sasha is pretty healthy and nice. Are they really going to split them up?

I have only watched two episodes but what is it about Esther's and Sasha's marriage that seems healthy and nice to you. So far she is portrayed as controlling and suspicious and treats him like a small child. And he acts like a small child.

I find Sasha and his dynamic with Noah very funny but that's largely because the actor is really funny. Esther feels like a total trope to me and while the actress is great I would not say her character or her marriage are aspirational.