Nobody Wants This landed on Netflix less than three weeks ago, but it has already reignited a universal love of rom-coms and Adam Brody. In fact, viewing figures have been so good that season two was confirmed this week thanks to the former O.C. star’s undeniable chemistry with Kristen Bell – and fans are thrilled that the podcaster and rabbi’s love story will continue.
The second instalment will be spearheaded by Jenni Konner and Bruce Eric Kaplan of Girls fame. While this change appears to have concerned fans, creator Erin Foster – who wrote the story inspired by her relationship with her husband – will remain working on the show, but will instead be moving into an executive producer role.
Although Nobody Wants This has been an enormous hit for Netflix (and reportedly pulled in a staggering 26 million viewers in its first 11 days), the show has faced accusations of perpetuating Jewish stereotypes, particularly when it comes to the depiction of the female characters. During a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Foster explained that season 2 will expand on different characters within the show – but insisted that it wasn’t in response to the backlash. Instead, Foster says she had always planned to ‘flesh [them] out’ and let their stories unfold.
Discussing the conversations around Jewish representation, she said: “I think if you look at the show as a whole, a lot of the criticism wants to ignore that we have a female rabbi who is really accepting of Joanne. We also have a lot of really flawed characters who are not Jewish; Joanne is a really flawed character. There’s this hyper focus on the female Jewish characters being stereotypes, but there’s a real lack of acknowledgment about how strong they are as women, and how they’re the matriarchs of the family. They’re not these passive housewives who don’t have opinions and or a say in their family. They’re the authoritarian in their relationship in a way that’s cool.”
Adding that many of the female characters will be developed in the next season, Foster said: “We’re going to continue telling the story in season two and fleshing those characters out as we always planned to do, and not as a reaction to criticism. Because I think the majority of people see that this is a net-positive for Jewish people in general.”
Nobody Wants This is available to stream now on Netflix.