Sorry to be a hater, but the new Adam Brody and Kristen Bell Netflix phenomenon does nothing for me — Here’s what to watch instead:

Let me start by saying that I love Adam Brody. It’s a shame that his role as a former prodigy grappling with his childhood potential as a kid detective in the indie drama Kid Detective goes so unnoticed. Lamenting over the one case he couldn’t solve that derailed his prodigious young career, close to two decades later he gets a chance for redemption. The film is heartwrenching, nuanced, and pulls a fantastically emotive performance out of Brody. Sadly, the same cannot be said for Nobody Wants This.

Despite being Netflix’s latest romantic darling, Nobody Wants This is shallow and surface-level. It’s cotton candy. Seems sweet, but full of absolutely nothing. Carried by Brody’s charm and his chemistry with co-star Kristen Bell, its success can largely be attributed to our nostalgia — for classic rom-coms and for Brody’s role in the millennial favorite The O.C. But let’s be honest: beyond that, Nobody Wants This is overrated and underdelivers.

In this era where everything old is new again, and nostalgia reigns as Hollywood’s most valuable currency, Netflix’s Nobody Wants This feels like it was created in a lab by executives who studied millennials’ viewing habits with the precision of anthropologists. The result? A show that’s simultaneously everywhere and nowhere. This rom-com has gone viral not due to its exceptional quality, but because it stars two beloved actors from our collective coming-of-age years, engaging in a perfectly acceptable “will-they-won’t-they” dance set against the backdrop of contemporary LA.

Let’s be honest about what Nobody Wants This truly is: Netflix’s latest attempt to recreate the romantic magic of Emily in Paris but for the slightly more “edgy” millennial audience that likes to think they’re above such saccharine fare. The formula is familiar: take one quirky female lead (here, a sex podcaster, because it’s 2024 and everyone has a podcast, but this woman is not like other girls and not afraid to talk about sex), add a dash of cultural conflict (he’s a rabbi!), sprinkle in some family drama, and voilà — a formulaic comfort watch.
But it actually worked. The show has exploded across social media, dominating Netflix’s Top 10 list with 15.9 million views in its second week alone. But popularity does not equal quality, and Nobody Wants This often seems to rely on the reliable charm of its leads rather than putting in the effort to stand on its own.

The rom-com resurgence

I should have seen this coming. Our cultural desperation for the era of rom-coms is well documented. While some milestone films in recent years have emerged as beacons of hope amidst the dark ages of Netflix teen soaps — think Rye Lane and Set It Up — we’re so starved for tolerable romantic content that we’re hyping middle-grade content.

I can’t count the number of people’s Instagram stories stating they’d watch 20 seasons of Nobody Wants This, that it’s the greatest show of all time, and that finally here’s a worthy rom-com show. But I saw even more stories cheering on the return of Adam Brody, the perpetual hotness of the boy next door, and the ache for millennial crushes. To me, the latter feels like the more authentic response. It’s the real reason behind the fervor for the show — not the quality of the show, but reather the heartthrob it showcases on our screens. 

Adam Brody is just the latest figurehead of the 2000s heartthrob renaissance. Thanks to the 20th anniversary of A Cinderella Story and the upcoming Freaky Friday sequel, Chad Michael Murray is enjoying a signifigant resurgence. Joshua Jackson of Dawson’s Creek and Fringe fame returns to TV as the sexy cruise Doctor in Ryan Murphy’s Doctor Odyssey. 

And now the return of Adam Brody is making us miss Seth Cohen — the nerdy-boy blueprint that inspired the likes of Dylan O’Brien’s Stiles Stilinksi and other nerdy teenage crushes. At 44, he proves he hasn’t lost an ounce of the awkward charm that made Seth Cohen the unexpected heartthrob of The O.C. two decades ago. 

Brody — as the hot rabbi — makes it clear that we need a heartthrob more than ever. Glen Powell is doing all he can — but he can’t carry the mantle on his own. Brody’s Noah is essentially Seth Cohen with a yarmulke — exhibiting the same self-deprecating humor, endearing awkwardness, and knack for quoting obscure cultural references while effortlessly keeping up in witty banter. It might seem tired or overly millennial — but it works because Brody knows precisely what he’s doing and who he’s doing it for — millennials who grew up wanting to date Seth Cohen and now want to date a slightly more mature version who’s gotten his act together.

Paired with Kristen Bell, I won’t lie — it’s really something. Bell, who was (amongst her many roles) the voiceover on Gossip Girl, has been a fixture of the romantic TV show pantheon for her entire career. Who can forget the affability and wit that made Veronica Mars a cultural touchstone for a generation? As Joanne, Bell transforms a character who could easily fall into cliché and admittedly watchable, even though she has far less material to work with than in her previous roles.

The chemistry between Bell and Brody is undeniable — it’s what happens when you put two actors who understand the language of rom-coms in the same frame. They know the beats, they know the looks, they know exactly how to play off each other to make audiences swoon. And since chemistry is the most crucial element in a rom-com, it almost makes up for the flat storyline, the eye-roll-inducing characters, and the trite tropes.

Why I can’t stand Nobody Wants This: There’s not enough yearning

Nobody Wants This is the Anyone But You of television. Lifeless and lacking any real personality—despite the quirky banter attempting to convince us that these people are at all interesting — it’s surprisingly successful. 

Where a rom-com is supposed to make us all believe in big, overwhelming love, these movies feel like hearing your friend from high school yap about how they met their boring boyfriend. You think, ah yes, that makes sense. But that’s not what rom-coms are for! I want drama, not mere petty fights with the in-laws. I want big, difficult personalities making it despite everything pitted against them. Where are the stakes here? Where is the earth-shattering romance forged through yearning and torment? These are the pillars of a good romantic comedy, and Nobody Wants This is missing them all.

Nobody Wants This is an imperfect template for a new era of romance content because it implodes under any serious scrutiny. The show’s handling of interfaith relationships is problematic at worst and superficial at best, reducing complex cultural dynamics to tired stereotypes about overbearing Jewish mothers and clueless gentiles. The supporting characters are painfully underdeveloped — Justine Lupe’s Morgan serves as little more than a sounding board for her sister’s romantic misadventures.

The show’s biggest sin, however, is its inability to create any tension or conflict. Each obstacle in Noah and Joanne’s path dissolves so quickly we don’t have time to feel it. I told you — I want torment! Instead, I get a weightless romance — and not in the charming, floating-on-air way of classic rom-coms, but in the empty-calories content that’s designed to be quickly consumed and forgotten.

While I would never fault anyone for enjoying as series that’s light and fun, I take issue with the internet’s elevation of this subpar romance as the as the end-all-be-all of romantic comedies.

It’s not that I hate this nascent, sanitized version of the rom-com genre. But I fear that if these movies keep gaining traction, all movies will feel as algorithm-generated as they do and we’ll never get a fresh and actually romantic movie again. 

With a second season already greenlit for 2025, Nobody Wants This is not going anywhere. And perhaps that’s fitting for our current moment — a time when we’re so desperate for connection that even the simulation of romance, performed by actors we trust from our youth, is enough to stir undue fan fervor. Like, in the dating app era, perhaps this is the best we can imagine.

The show’s success says more about us than it does about the series itself. 

Instead of overhyping Nobody Wants This completely mid-show (though I’m fine with the Adam Brody renaissance), here are the shows I think are worth the hype. And provide new and surprising templates for what a modern rom-com should look like — yearning and torment included.

10 Superior Rom-Com Shows to Watch Instead

1. Fleabag (Prime Video)

Thank goodness for Phoebe Waller-Bridge and thank goodness for Andrew Scott — literally. This is the gold standard of modern romantic comedy-drama. Formally inventive — yet still relatable and funny — it’s smart without being pretentious. As for the content, where Nobody Wants This plays it safe with its religious romance, Fleabag is unflinching about the messy intersection of faith, love, and desire. We all know Andrew Scott’s Hot Priest served as the template that Brody’s Hot Rabbi attempts to follow.

2. Normal People (Hulu)

I’m a person second and a Sally Rooney fan first. So my expectations were high for the TV adaptation of her masterpiece, Normal People. The series of the same name catapulted Paul Mescal — now appearing in the upcoming Gladiator II — and Daisy Edgar Jones to success. And for good reason. The show strikes a balance between romance and a meaningful exploration of class differences and missed connections. It shows how to do the “opposites attract” trope with real emotional weight.

3. Love (Netflix)

Judd Apatow’s series about messy people finding love in Los Angeles achieves everything Nobody Wants This attempts, but with authentic awkwardness and genuine consequences for its characters’ actions. The protagonists really are a little weird and a lot funny, making them far more entertaining than the fundamentally bland characters in Nobody Wants This.

4. It’s A Sin (MAX)

Though it’s a queer TV show set in London during the AIDS epidemic, it’s as resonant as ever. If you laughed and cried during The Normal Heart, this series evokes that same essential pain, capturing the ups and downs of this friend group with remarkable sensitivity. Between the moments of tragedy, there are beautiful moments of levity that will raise your standards for what a TV show can, and should, do.

5. Lovesick (Netflix)

Formerly titled Scrotal Recall, this British comedy features a man has to contact his former sexual partners about an STD. It’s a surprisingly sweet exploration of friendship and romance. From the absurdly funny premise and riotous British humor, this show isn’t your average rom-com — which makes it a perfect watch for the modern age.

6. Modern Love (Prime Video)

Inspired by the iconic New York Times column, this classic anthology series delves into love in all its forms with greater nuance and variety than Nobody Wants This achieves in its entire season. It has an all-star cast and some real tearjerker moments that will make you believe in all types of love — not merely romantic.

7. Queen Charlotte (Netflix)

This Bridgerton spinoff retains the grandeur of the original series, but its portrayal of love and mental illness is completely singular. It’s a feat of modern storytelling, acting, as well as the romance genre. This is what I mean by torment! Yearning! The characters are so well written I actually felt sympathy for the British Royal family — a feat I previously thought impossible.

8. Starstruck (MAX)

The rom-com premise gets the full TV drama treatment in Starstruck. An underrated show about a normal girl who meets a guy at a bar and — when she wakes up — realizes he’s a famous actor. It’s glitzy and glam one moment, then down to earth and Two Broke Girls-esque the next. It’s the odd-couple pairing that Nobody Wants This aims for but Starstruck has genuinely convincing obstacles.

9. Entergalactic (Netflix)

For something completely different but dripping in true romance, watch Netflix’s Entergalactic. Don’t let the animated fromat throw you off; Kid Cudi’s excellent series is a genuine celebration of romance and artistic expression. And points for how many famous voices you can identify — with unexpected voiceover cameos from Jaden Smith to Timothee Chalamet and Vanessa Hudgens.

10. One Day (Netflix)

The recent adaptation of David Nicholls’ best-selling novel (2009) exemplifies how to craft a will-they-won’t-they romance with genuine stakes and emotional depth. The 2011 movie was fantastic (although Anne Hathaway’s accent wasn’t), but the show’s slow burn really gives you time to gear up for the ending’s sobfest.