One of the first running jokes of “Nobody Wants This” season three is a kitchen cabinet. Joanne (Kristen Bell) will not close one, Noah (Adam Brody) keeps complaining about it, and the two of them keep exclaiming “We live together” at each other so happily that the line starts to work as a dare about how long a romantic comedy can coast on contentment. Netflix released all ten half-hour episodes on Thursday, October 22nd, almost exactly a year after the second season. The premise is deliberately domestic, with the podcaster and the rabbi sharing a house and Joanne starting conversion classes at Noah’s old synagogue, and the question that powered two seasons, whether this couple can stay together at all, has been mostly set aside. What takes its place is a pile of smaller problems, among them an ex-boyfriend next door, a formidable mother, a sister whose career suddenly takes off, and the long-simmering tension between Noah’s brother Sasha (Timothy Simons) and Joanne’s sister Morgan (Justine Lupe). The reviews disagree about whether that pile is enough to carry ten episodes.
Many of the verdicts lean generous, though plenty of the praise arrives with a caveat attached. Collider’s Meredith Loftus called the season “a massive step forward for the show” in her review, RogerEbert.com said it “recaptures the magic” of the first, and Decider named it “the best installment of Nobody Wants This to date”. MovieWeb’s headline promised a “Near-Perfect Season 3”. The Hollywood Reporter’s Angie Han was warmer on the idea than the execution, writing that the show “can’t completely shake the bad habits” that leave it “nearly as exasperating as it is endearing” by the end. Tom’s Guide asked whether “someone accidentally hit the romance fast-forward button” in its headline, and But Why Tho’s Jason Flatt, writing in the opposite spirit, called the season “a total shanda” in his verdict. The fairest summary may be that most reviewers are describing the same show, a warm and funny romance that has traded its tension for contentment and is still deciding what to put in the space. Warning beyond this point there are spoilers for all ten episodes of “Nobody Wants This” season three, including the finale.
The fairest summary may be that most reviewers are describing the same show, a warm and funny romance that has traded its tension for contentment and is still deciding what to put in the space.”
The first episode, “It’s Perfect”, is a comedy of habits, built around Joanne’s refusal to close a cabinet door and Noah’s wish to start every morning with a walk. Sasha and his wife Esther (Jackie Tohn) have separated, a split that began at the end of the second season, and he now spends his days at the house of Morgan and her mother, Lynn (Stephanie Faracy).
In the second episode, “Daddy’s Home”, Joanne walks into her first Intro to Judaism class at Temple Chai. The teacher is Rabbi Eden (Sarah Silverman), a dry and low-key presence, and Joanne’s nemesis in the class is a fellow student named Sebastien (Andrew Rannells). Noah, hearing that the congregation is unhappy with Big Noah, the rabbi who got the senior job he wanted, sets out to win it back, with a Rosh Hashanah sermon as his audition. His mother, Bina (Tovah Feldshuh), takes the occasion to give Joanne a makeover meant to turn her into a proper rebbetzin, a rabbi’s wife, and the hour ends with the discovery that the couple’s new neighbor, Travis (Avan Jogia), is Joanne’s ex.
The third episode, “Housewarming”, turns the new house into a party and a hanukkat habayit, the Jewish home dedication, with a mezuzah to hang and Travis among the guests. He takes Noah aside to warn him about Joanne. “Brian’s Wedding” follows, and it is the first big turn of the season. The couple fly to Napa for what is supposed to be Brian’s wedding, which Noah says he is officiating, and at the airport she gives her seat to a desperate fan of her podcast, a cameo played by the show’s creator, Erin Foster. Then it becomes clear that there is no wedding, only a proposal that Noah has planned in detail. Foster told Netflix’s Tudum that the sequence was pulled almost directly from her own August 2019 engagement, when she thought she was headed to a vow renewal and was in fact “going to my own proposal”.
With the couple engaged, “The Love Card” fills the following hours with competing visions of a wedding, and Bina is determined to host a large one at her own house. Esther starts a real estate career and meets a wealthy older client named Julian (Steven Weber). RogerEbert.com felt that pairing gave “short shrift” to the show’s most dynamic Jewish woman character. Morgan’s dream of becoming a writer runs through these episodes too, with a psychic played by Sadie Sandler and a meeting with a publisher that goes badly. The sixth episode, “Heatwave”, is the season’s pool party, a sweaty afternoon on which the couple try to trim a guest list that keeps growing. A cousin played in a cameo by Phil Rosenthal turns up and sends Noah back to the list, and Morgan receives an invitation to appear on “Watch What Happens Live” with Andy Cohen.
Everything in the middle of the season leads to the seventh episode, “Watch What Happens”. Morgan, booked for her appearance with Andy Cohen, brings Sasha along to New York. Joanne and Noah, because it is the Sabbath, switch off their phones and drop out of the story for the night. A hotel suite with one bed, a rushed search for a replacement dress after Lisa Rinna turns out to have worn the same outfit, and a walk along the High Line carry the pair toward an almost-kiss. Then Morgan opens her bedroom door, finds Sasha standing on the other side, and the two spend the night together. TVLine’s Ryan Schwartz called it “among the most romantic episodes of television I’ve seen in ages” in his column. IndieWire’s Kate Erbland said it was the episode that “most stands out” among the ten, and MovieWeb’s Aya Tsintziras called it “the powerful episode I’ve been waiting for” in her review.
The morning after, “One in a Million” goes sour. Sasha wakes to a note saying that Morgan has taken an earlier flight home. After Joanne helps her see what she feels, Morgan tells him she is done running, but Sasha, whose marriage has only just ended and who is not yet divorced, says he cannot risk being hurt again. Joanne gives way to Bina and agrees to a ceremony in her backyard, and Esther and Julian become exclusive. “Last Christmas” then spends a whole episode on Joanne’s last holiday before converting, with flashbacks to earlier Christmases, and it drew mixed reactions. IndieWire’s Erbland said it supplies “very necessary flashbacks and context” for the Travis subplot. MovieWeb’s Tsintziras thought it a “misstep” that repeats what viewers already know, and The Hollywood Reporter’s Han noted that Christmas traditions get “a more elaborate episode spotlight than any Jewish holiday does” in this season.
The finale, “The Plunge”, gathers everyone at a rented beach house in Malibu on the day of Joanne’s mikveh, the ritual immersion that completes her conversion, and the secrets come out at the worst possible moment. Esther learns that Sasha slept with Morgan in New York, and, according to Tudum, Morgan learns that Sasha slept with Esther the day before. It is Lynn who cannot keep the news to herself, after which both sets of parents trade insults and Bina tells Lynn that she has no more sons for Lynn’s daughters to corrupt. Joanne completes her mikveh in the Pacific with Noah and Rabbi Eden beside her, and the couple decide to marry then and there, with Rabbi Eden officiating, a ketubah, the Jewish marriage contract, from the trunk of her car and a passerby walking his dog as the witness. Tudum reports that the song under the final seconds is “My Kinda Love” by Stella Lefty and Bailey Zimmerman. “They’re married”, Foster told Tudum, and co-showrunner Jenni Konner said the pair are “married in the eyes of God” but not yet in anyone else’s. In Tudum’s account, the last time viewers see Morgan, she is icing her ankle on the deck while Sasha and Esther argue nearby.
For some critics, Sasha and Morgan are the real show. The Guardian’s Jack Seale thought Simons and Lupe “arguably even better” than the leads, and IndieWire’s Erbland said the pair “add some real fizz” to the season. Decider wrote that Lupe and Simons “consistently steal the show”, and MovieWeb’s Tsintziras said they “are the real stars” of the season. Others pushed back on the way the storyline is handled. TVLine’s Schwartz loved the New York hour but argued that afterward “the show goes and chickens out” by leaving the pair unresolved, and ScreenRant’s Liz Hersey missed the platonic friendship they had before. Time’s Judy Berman worried that a fresh love triangle could “only lead back to the same old referendum on Jewish women”, and she closed by saying “I just need to be convinced” about the whole idea. The Hollywood Reporter’s Han found the chemistry undeniable but the handling short on subtlety.
The other complaint is about pace. Tom’s Guide’s Kelly Woo wrote that the big milestones “come thick and fast”, with the engagement, the conversion and a surprise wedding all arriving in a single season. She added, “Sometimes, I felt like the writers had gotten word that they wouldn’t be renewed for season 4.” ScreenRant’s Hersey described a show that has gone from must-watch to “a folding laundry show”. The Guardian’s Seale saw it a little differently, writing that “The stakes are lower and the old fizz has somewhat fizzled” while still concluding that the series “knows how to make us fall in love with it all over again” in the end. Both readings can be true, and the season was perhaps designed to be cozy rather than urgent, since Konner told Tudum that “This season feels like Champagne.”
The Jewish-representation debate has followed the show since its first season, and season three seems to be partly a response to it. Kveller’s Evelyn Frick writes that critics including Esther Zuckerman and Jessica Grose found season one leaning on stereotypes of Jewish women, and that she found season two worse. She argues that season three “has finally become self-aware” by holding back on Judaism and keeping to simple moments such as the home dedication and the mikveh. The Hollywood Reporter’s Han says the series “tones down its exploration of Judaism and Jewish culture significantly”, and Frick’s Hey Alma fact-check awards it “4.5 out of 5 hot rabbis for Jewish accuracy”. JTA’s reviewer says the bar for authentic Jewish representation on television “isn’t particularly high, but Season 3 manages to raise it”. Unpacked’s Alan Zeitlin calls the season “the show’s best season yet” but finds it “less convincing when it explores the faith”, and Micropsia’s review argues that the series still treats its Jewish families as formulas that “belong to a world 40 years behind the times” in a way that grates.
Foster created the series, loosely inspired by her own romance, and Konner and Bruce Eric Kaplan have been its showrunners since season two, with Foster remaining an executive producer. Decider wrote that as of Thursday, October 22nd, it was unclear whether Netflix would bring the show back for a fourth season, and TV Insider noted that it had not been renewed and expected a decision within weeks. Decider added that Netflix took two weeks after the second season to renew the show for a third. TVLine’s Schwartz admitted he would “gladly watch a fourth season” but said he feared “this might be all we get” with so little promotion for the new episodes. Tom’s Guide’s Woo noted that the finale could double as a series finale. The wedding no one saw, Sasha’s choice between Morgan and Esther, and Bina’s backyard give a fourth season an easy pitch, and a version of the show that trusts its supporting cast with more of the weight might turn out to be its best one yet.
What Do You Think? Did Joanne and Noah deserve the quiet, happy season they were handed, or did the show go too fast once it stopped asking whether they would stay together? Should Sasha and Morgan be the main attraction in a fourth season, and would you rather Sasha end up with Morgan or Esther? And is a lighter touch with the Judaism a smart correction or a missed opportunity?
See you on the next binge!
