Nobody Wants This: Love's Everyday Chaos & Nuance

THE REVIVAL OF ROM-COM on the small screen seems to be continuing, at least on Netflix. After a successful run of One Day, a heartfelt Brit-rom-com, comes an American one, that ‘almost’ quite nicely hits the spot.

The story revolves around Joanne (Kristen Bell), an independent modern woman who’s only had bad relationships, and along with her sister Morgan (Justine Lupe), she owns it and even monetises it through a wildly successful podcast on relationships and sex. Convinced of this destiny of hers, she unexpectedly and reluctantly falls in love with a young Jewish rabbi, Noah (Adam Brody). The odds are against them right from the start, because there couldn’t be two more different people in all of Los Angeles, and everyone does try to break them apart — Noah’s family, his heart-broken ex-fiancé, Joanne’s sister, and even the two of them themselves. And yet, none of the sabotage works, and as season 1 ends setting the base for season 2, they get together for what could be a happy ending.

In the main, the series is nicely done. Erin Foster’s first creation is a great promise of a new maker who is able to understand and express love and romance in its subtle and nuanced nature. An experience that is so personal and specific to the two people involved, that apart from the two, no one else could really understand or be a part of. This is what hits the spot. The everydayness of love, the banal moments of romantic conversations that simultaneously mean nothing and yet so much. The flutter of newness of a relationship yet daunted by the uncertainty of where it might be heading. Feeling like a teenager all over again, but rationalising it all like an adult. The complete disconnect of the head and the heart. The balancing act of being the same person with everyone in their lives so far, with, the entirely new persons they both are becoming as a result of their relationship. The struggle of losing their independence yet relishing the idea of their dependence on each other. Navigating the everyday question that, in fact, is the Netflix byline for this series Will they? Won’t they? Should They?

If Erin Foster creates this storytelling beautifully, the actors and the performances do complete justice to the vision. Adam Brody and Kristen Bell do a wonderful job of playing their conflicted-yet-passionate characters. We are fully engrossed in their emotions and can feel what they feel. All other characters also do a terrific job of bringing to life the two completely different worlds the central characters come from, convincing us why they can never get together. Timothy Simons as Sasha, Noah’s hen-pecked brother is especially a fab discovery, reminiscent of Vince Vaughn’s hilarious characters.

But, as I liked a fresh love story on the small screen, and especially the fact that it was was a 10-episode season, each episode being less than 30 mins, I couldn’t put aside the slightly “icky” feeling (to quote an emotion that Joanne uses as a reason to get out of many relationships) I got due to the overwhelming ode to the Jewish community that the series gives, with an inherent celebration of the faith, the beliefs, the practices and the rituals of the Judaism religion, during this time in the world where against the heart-breaking reality of war and suffering of millions, we cannot have mainstream popular culture taking sides, hero-ing one faith over another. The love story would have worked even without this being the centre of the plot. There could have been many script alternatives to have as the reason for the perceived inevitability of them falling apart.

All in all, despite the fault in its ‘stars’, it’s great to see romantic stories making a comeback, even as the big cinema has thrown it away. And perhaps rightly so, reminding us that a love story is not a big public social event, but an everyday personal lived reality that we feel when we tuck into our beds and sofas at night, with our loved ones, for our daily dose of Netflix.

The writer has a blog, Viewing Room, with more of his thoughts on all things "books, booze, box office and other bakwaas". Click here to read.