Published by Mason Oldridge, 15 October 2024
CONTAINS SPOILERS!
Netflix’s new romantic comedy series is a typical romcom with one key difference… the protagonist has fallen in love with a Jewish rabbi.
Adam Brody as Noah is charming, smooth and an all-round nice guy juxtaposed with Kristen Bell as Joanne, who inhabits Bell’s usual character type of loud and outspoken yet well-meaning. It is likely Noah’s calm and collected charisma that led to an agnostic Joanne believing someone else was the Jewish rabbi at the party they met each other at, but he is indeed a more quiet and sensitive soul behind the confidence and opposites attract as the two develop their relationship. Meanwhile, Timothy Simons is hilarious as Noah’s brother Sasha, a kindhearted buffoon, who develops a friendship with Joanne’s free-spirited sister Morgan behind the back of his strict wife Esther.
The show portrays Jewish culture and people in a highly negative light. Noah’s mother Bina is immediately dismissive and disapproving of Joanne simply for being a “shiksa” which is essentially religiously discriminatory behaviour. She attempts to end the relationship and outrightly states her intentions to Joanne, proving her to be interfering and troublemaking. Billed as an overprotective mother, she is actually putting her own wants above the happiness of her son. She openly admits her disgust at Joanne’s podcast topic, suggesting she is intolerant of anything against her own beliefs. Furthermore, the WAGs of the basketball team are all presented as mean and sanctimonious. Joanne is accepting of Noah’s Jewish community; it is disgraceful that they don’t share the same level of acceptance.
Noah asks Joanne if she would consider converting to Judaism as a requirement for his job promotion, which she ultimately rejects when she learns of the responsibility. She breaks up with him as she won’t ask him to choose between his job and her, but he follows her. She asks him how this works, mirroring their quandary at the start of the series. He agrees that he can’t have both and kisses her, hinting that he is choosing her over the job.
Despite the frustration with religious intolerance, the series is enjoyable and well-scripted. Here’s hoping the already commissioned second season will see love triumph over religious and personality differences, not just with Noah and Joanne but with Sasha and Morgan too!
8/10