Nobody Wants This, the Netflix romcom that brought us the ‘hot rabbi’, recently returned for its second season. For the uninitiated, the first series introduced us to sex and relationships podcaster Joanne, played by Kristen Bell, who meets Noah, played by Adam Brody (of The O.C. millennial crush fame), a reform rabbi who has just broken up with his long-term girlfriend. The premise felt fresh and original: a romcom that dared talk about religion and even made it the key part of the plot.

It’s undoubtedly a hit, with season two racking up more than eight million views in its first four days of streaming, taking it to the number one spot on Netflix’s chart. But for me, the show has failed to live up its early promise – and is starting to look like a missed opportunity for Jewish comedy.

In the first season, we witnessed crackling on-screen chemistry as Joanne and Noah made an initial weak attempt to fight against their obvious mutual attraction, and some humorous culture clashes as each learned about the other’s world. Highlights included Joanne turning up at Noah’s synagogue in a bright red midriff-revealing outfit and crossing herself, mistakenly believing that it was a Jewish thing to do (Noah: ‘That’s not us’); and Noah accompanying Joanne to pick up a sex toy for her podcast, only to bump into congregants while wearing a spiky dog collar with a device called ‘The Obliterator’ under his arm. Without giving too much away, by the end of the series the question of whether or not Joanne could see herself converting to Judaism has become a central issue.

Season two picks up with Joanne and Noah seemingly settling into a more serious relationship – but Joanne believes they have agreed to ‘do the whole interfaith thing’, while Noah thinks they have just been giving Joanne more time to find her Jewish connection. And yet despite Judaism........

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