(Credits: Netflix)

The latest sleeper hit to take Netflix charts by storm is the feel-good rom-com Nobody Wants This. Following in the footsteps of will-they-won’t-they comedy classics like When Harry Met Sally… and It Happened One Night, the ten-part series stars Kristen Bell as a millennial with a successful sex and relationship podcast and Adam Brody as a newly single rabbi.

When Joanne and Noah meet, sparks fly, but they are, like all great rom-com couples, completely at odds in every other way. Not since Andrew Scott’s ‘Hot Priest’ in Fleabag has a man of God been so lusted after in a series, and the show gives Bell’s comic timing its most perfect outlet since The Good Place.

After landing on the streaming platform in the last week of September, Nobody Wants This quickly garnered a passionate fanbase, becoming one of those hard to predict smash hits that both critics and viewers can get behind. Smart, snappy writing, a simple but charming premise, and that impossible to manufacture element of electric chemistry between the leads has made it a home run across the board, and it was only a matter of weeks before Netflix greenlit a second series.

The premise is so convincing and fully-realised that many fans have wondered whether it’s based on a true story. As reported by The Independent, there is indeed more than a kernel of truth behind the series. According to its show-runner, Erin Foster, the project is an ode to her marriage and is based on her early relationship with her now-husband, music producer Simon Tikhman. 

When they met, Foster was hosting a relationship podcast with her sister, just like Joanne in the show, and there are even lines in the series that reference actual episodes of the show, such as when they talk about men who run with backpacks as an immediate turn-off. The scene in which Noah shows up to meet Joanne’s parents wielding an awkward bouquet of sunflowers was also drawn from real life.

The major difference between the series and Foster’s own experience is that Tikhman was not a rabbi. But as Foster was quick to point out, in personality, he and Noah are very similar. Both are “emotionally available, chivalrous, old-fashioned […] but also really funny and confident,” she explained, adding that Noah’s charisma is based directly on her husband.

Although Foster and Tikhman did not have to clear as many social and personal hurdles as Joanne and Noah, they did have to navigate the clash between her unconventional, agnostic background and his more traditional, religious one. Eventually, she converted to Judaism before their marriage, just as Joanne does in the series.