Netflix’s new romantic comedy Nobody Wants This earned near-unanimous praise when it began streaming last week, but there’s one criticism of it that keeps cropping up.
The 10-part series was loosely inspired by the early days of creator Erin Foster’s relationship with her now-husband, for whom she converted to Judaism before they got married.
Some critics have said that the Jewish women depicted in Nobody Wants This lean heavily into tropes and stereotypes, with one piece in Glamour suggesting: “I can’t imagine any guy who watches this show who would then say, ‘I really want to date a Jewish girl!’.
“We come off as controlling, marriage-hungry women who want to plan dinner parties and alienate anyone who doesn’t share those same dreams.”
The Hollywood Reporter took things one step further, saying in its own review of the show: “Occasionally [Nobody Wants This] upends those pieces of too-familiar representation, but it just as frequently doesn’t.
“While the series, which took admirable effort to cast Jewish actors in most of its key Jewish roles, never really becomes antisemitic itself, it definitely excuses shades of antisemitism as amusing character quirks.”
Time magazine also published a piece on the show titled “Nobody Wants This Has a Jewish Woman Problem”, which claimed: “What should be a show about a woman’s entrance into and embrace of Jewish culture instead perpetuates the worst ideas about Jewish women. I wanted to fall in love. Instead, I just felt targeted.”
The Jewish feminist publication Hey Alma also wrote an article about the show, referring to the female members of Noah’s family as “judgmental, needy and mean-spirited Jewish women”, who exist “solely as obstacles standing between Noah and Joanne”.
“We know nothing about them beyond their disdain — or jealousy — of the non-Jewish woman they view as wrongly infiltrating Noah’s life,” Hey Alma’s piece argues.
In the same article, Erin admits the depiction of Jewish women in Nobody Wants This is “not really something I was thinking about too much”.
Speaking more in depth on the subject to the Los Angeles Times, Erin argued: “I think it’s interesting when people focus on, ‘Oh, this is a stereotype of Jewish people’, when you have a rabbi as the lead. A hot, cool, young rabbi who smokes weed. That’s the antithesis of how people view a Jewish rabbi, right?
“If I made the Jewish parents, like, two granola hippies on a farm, then someone would write, ‘I’ve never met a Jewish person like that before. You clearly don’t know how to write Jewish people, you don’t know what you’re doing, and that doesn’t represent us well’.”
Later in the interview, she continued: “What I really wanted to do was shed a positive light on Jewish culture from my perspective – my positive experience being brought into Jewish culture, sprinkling in a little fun, [and] educational moments about things in Judaism that I love without it being heavy-handed.”
Erin also spoke about the importance for her that the character of Noah be played be a Jewish actor.
“I thought it was really important. We auditioned literally every Jewish actor on this earth,” she recalled. “I think it’s OK to be open about it and make it clear you’re looking for a Jewish actor who’s playing a rabbi. And the truth is, no one [but Adam Brody] felt right — like not even close.”
She added: “I think it’s ridiculous to think that an actor has to be all the things that they’re playing. I believe a gay person can play a straight person. A straight person can play a gay person.
“But I did feel like someone who’s not Jewish playing a rabbi as the lead in a show that is putting a positive light on Jewish culture felt wrong. That didn’t sit right with me.”
Nobody Wants This is now available to stream in full on Netflix.