Nobody Wants This

I love a good rom com. Watching rom coms is reliably one of my favourite things to do and almost always a slice of joy. I can (happily) suspend my disbelief as we go through the trope of the meet-cute and the whirlwind romance and the inevitable misunderstanding and the chase – whatever form the chase takes. Bring it on, I am here for it!

So I was very excited about Nobody Wants This, with favo rom com star Kristin Bell and Adam Brody who I haven’t thought about in years… And friends! The first 3 episodes *delivered*. Laugh out loud funny, great dialogue, I was so into it.

And then came the ick. That tiny thing that totally turns you off someone, and that you can’t see past. It can be so small! But it is so irritating that you just can’t get over it, and the flame that had started burning gutters out.

I got the ick for Nobody Wants This.

I still liked both main characters, I 100% believe in their chemistry (those face-holding kisses! Yes please), the dialogue is mostly witty, but it started feeling like it was populated with a cast of stereotypes about Jewish families, and once I noticed that I couldn’t unsee it.

I am not political. I want the war in Gaza to end so that people can stop dying and life can return to some sense of normalcy for everyone in the region. I can’t believe it’s continued so long and that there is seemingly nothing we can do to stop it.

In the face of that – in the face of this being our current reality – I was so excited about this being a rom com about coming together. Two people from different backgrounds recognizing that actually, love and values and the way you see the world is what counts, and we can work together on the other stuff. We can find a middle ground.

Instead, I feel like I was served an othering. Here are two people from different backgrounds and oh look! The Jewish people are so different.

That doesn’t help.

Is it just me? Am I reading too much into it? Is The Ick clouding my vision?