Kristen Bell and Adam Brody in “Nobody Wants This” Episode 1 Recap and Explained
A chance meet-cute turns into an unexpected pairing of two polar-opposite young people- one a rabbi, and the other a sex podcast host in the new feel-good and heartwarming Netflix miniseries ‘Nobody Wants This’, starring Kristen Bell and Adam Brody.
Episode 1 introduces us to the unconventional and eccentric lives of the protagonists Joanne and Noah. Joanna calls her sister Morgan to help escape from a bad first date and recounts her experience on her hit podcast ‘Nobody Wants This.’ They discuss her date still mourning the loss of his grandma whom he lost many years ago, and conclude Joanne’s tendency to find minor faults in every guy she meets. Meanwhile Noah, seemingly in a long-term, happy relationship breaks things off with his girlfriend Rebecca, who speeds things up by already beginning to wear the ring Noah bought to propose to her with. The relationship is guided by what others think is right for them than they do. Rebecca wishes to skip to the married phase of their life but Noah doesn’t feel right about it, hence the breakup.
An intimate family dinner with Joanne, Morgan and their parents reveals their father’s confused sexuality when he was married to their mother, resulting in their separation. However, the dinner is to celebrate the day of their divorce proving the close bond they share till the present day. At dinner, Joanne and Morgan get an important call for a possible business acquisition, leaving them giddy and excited. In the morning Joanne gets a call from Ashley, her business partner, inviting her to a party to meet possible suitors. Ashley informs her of the presence of a rabbi, a financier and a freshly- divorced man at the party.
Joanne makes a grand entrance at the party and gets into a conversation with Noah, mistaking another man for the rabbi. After some flirtatious banter between the two, with some witty back and forth and deeper conversation, it is finally revealed to her that Noah is the rabbi she was warned about. Finding herself developing feelings for Noah, she rushes out of there, but not without Noah, who also undergoes similar emotions dropping her to the car park. The day after their first meeting, both Joanne and Noah cannot seem to get each other out of their minds.
At yet another boring date, Joanne receives a text from Ashley indicating Noah’s keen interest in her. An anxious Joanne flees her date and rushes to the temple where Noah is meant to give a sermon. She breaks into the temple in the middle of the sermon and distracts Noah briefly. After he is done preaching, he tries to look for her, only to be surrounded by friends and family congratulating him on his first sermon. However, when he does find her, both of them are happy to have found each other among the swarm of people. But, this is not lost upon Noah’s mother, who calls Joanne a ‘shiksa’ i.e. a gentile. The episode ends with this remark, leaving the viewers to anticipate what’s to unfold now that the couple’s feelings are out in public.
