Netflix’s ‘Nobody Wants This’ critiqued for Jewish character depictions
New Netflix series Nobody Wants This has attracted attention for the wrong reasons as viewers hit out at it’s depiction of Jewish characters.
As described by Netflix, the comedy season follows “an agnostic sex podcaster” played by Kristen Bell, “and a newly single rabbi” played by The O.C’s Adam Brody, as they “fall in love” and see if their “relationship can survive their wildly different lives and meddling families.” The show was created by Erin Foster and is loosely based on her real life experiences.
Things started out promising for the show. When the season premiered on the streaming platform last week, it gained a 93 per cent review score on Rotten Tomatoes, and seemed set to top the Netflix chart as one of the most watched new shows.
However, the show has since been on the receiving end of a series of complaints. Jessica Radloff, the senior West Coast editor at Glamour Magazine, published a piece criticising the show for using “persistent” Jewish stereotypes, especially when it comes to the characterisation of Jewish women within the season.
“Would it be too much just to see Jewish characters in shows without feeling othered?” she asked in her piece, stating, “After I watched the first two episodes of Nobody Wants This, I called my mom and said, “I can’t imagine any guy who watches this show who would then say, ‘I really want to date a Jewish girl!’”
She continued, “We come off as controlling, marriage-hungry women who want to plan dinner parties and alienate anyone who doesn’t share those same dreams.” To her, this plays into stereotypical depictions that have always surrounded her religion.
She also took issue with the way that Jewish characters in the show react to Bell’s chracter of Joanne, a non-Jewish woman, as they treat her with hostility in one early scene in particular. Radloff wrote, “This scene at the temple is the exact opposite of what we Jews are taught to do—welcome thy neighbor. At a time when antisemitism is at the highest levels we’ve seen since the Holocaust, scenes like this hit me hard.”
Radloff isn’t the only writer to critique the new TV show for these depictions. David Bashevkin, a rabbi and academic, said the show’s trailer featured a “whole lot of classic Jewish stereotypes.”
The show’s creator responded to the criticism in the the Los Angeles Times, stating, “I think we need positive Jewish stories right now. 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?”
She added, “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.”