Adam Brody and Kristen Bell star in Erin Foster’s Nobody Wants This – terrible title, by the way. Anyway, they play, respectively, Noah and Joanne, two single people who meet at an LA dinner party. Joanne hears that there’s a rabbi at the party and she thought it was not Noah. Brushing off that awkwardness, sparks eventually fly between them, to the charging of Noah’s strict Jewish family.

This Netflix show explores that strictness as Noah gets over the stigma of marrying a Gentile, and it also expands its scope to the closer members of both Noah and Joanne’s very different families. Joanne and her sister Morgan (Justine Lupe) host a sex podcast, which changes because Joanne’s ‘committed’ now. Morgan also runs into Noah’s ex Rebecca (Emily Arlook), an encounter that worsens her and Joanne’s relationship.

There’s also a lot of Timothy Simons on this Netflix show, as he plays Noah’s brother Sasha, as his main arc involves his friendship with Morgan, as they bond over being the ‘loser sibling’. Sasha also does other things like be a good father to his Gen-Z daughter Miriam (Shiloh Bearman). Tired of being the loser sibling, he also stands up to his businessman father Ilan (Paul Ben-Victor).

Most romantic comedies focus on the female characters but Nobody Wants This gives men 51% of screen time. Maybe more, which makes me repeat how conspicuous it is for the brothers to get their spotlight. Perhaps the show can give the presumably female target demographic an insight as to why men suck, why it takes time for them to commit, or to stand up to their traditional elders.

But all this, especially Sasha’s storylines, points to the fact that the B-plots here are more interesting. Nobody Wants This‘ A-plot feels like it’s a cycle of concocting conflicts and easily resolving these various conflicts. Noah hides Joanne from his boss (Stephen Tobolowsky), but he makes it up with romantic gestures. All of these are deal breakers that they solve just so they can make it to episode ten.

And now, let’s talk about Nobody Wants This‘ most egregious of flaws – its depiction of Jewish women. This show is like Shakespeare in that it depicts every adult Jewish female character as a shrew. The biggest of them all is Esther, Noah’s sister-in-law, a really tough nut for Joanne to crack. Esther then oscillates between disliking Joanne to liking her and back which, ugh, take a side already.