On Thursday, Oct. 23, Netflix released season two of the charming rom-com series “Nobody Wants This.” Produced by Erin and Sara Foster, season two of this comforting series embraces a more dramatic tone, focusing on difficult family dynamics and the importance of romantic compatibility throughout the series’ 10 episodes. “Nobody Wants This” season two introduces new characters, fewer romantic cliches, and relies on comedic charm to keep audiences engaged. Caution, spoilers ahead…

Season one of “Nobody Wants This” follows Joanne (Kristen Bell), a sex-positive podcaster living in Los Angeles, who finds the possible love of her life at a dinner party. However, this mystery man turns out to be a rabbi. This puts a wrench in Joanne’s plans to pursue him due to religion being a key part of his life and making her unsure of a potential relationship. However, the chemistry between these two characters, Joanne and Rabbi Noah Rocklov (Adam Brody), is undeniable despite their obvious religious incompatibilities. 

Joanne at first pursues Noah, showing up to his temple and agreeing to go out with him despite the news that he has recently broken off a serious relationship. Joanne’s insecurities throughout season one are apparent and make her a relatable and refreshing character. She and Noah, despite their familial and religious differences, balance each other out and grow into a strong couple throughout the season. They embark on many adventures together, including attending basketball games, visiting adult stores, a Jewish summer camp, and spending time with each other’s families. 

Joanne and Noah’s tumultuous relationship is put into question in the season finale as the couple becomes completely divided over whether or not they have a future together, because Joanne is not Jewish and is unsure she will ever convert for Noah. 

At Noah’s niece’s bat mitzvah, Joanne decides to leave Noah despite her love for him because they are holding each other back. However, Noah, playing the rom-com hero, chases after Joanne, catching up to her, acting as though he had just run a marathon, and tries to win her back. The series closes in a dramatic, and rather close-up kiss, giving audiences closure that the two will remain together in season two. 

Season two feels like a forced trek through cringeworthy and unnecessary moments of discomfort and disagreement in Joanne and Noah’s relationship, only for the two to end in the same unsure place as season one, just a different location. The small differences in style and approach feel more and more apparent even within the first episode, in which Noah and Joanne host a dinner party, where the pressure is on to present their perfect relationship. From nervousness over lighting to “censoring” of what can and cannot be shared on Joanne’s podcast, it is clear that the two lovebirds are constantly walking on eggshells to please each other. 

The relationship between Joanne and her sister Morgan (Justine Lupe) was the only positive relationship in season one but was overly dramatised throughout season two. The sisters fight about their podcast, and Morgan’s problematic new relationship she seemingly rushed into with her former therapist (valid crashout, Joanne). This once-loving, endearing relationship, just like Joanne and Noah’s, begins to fall apart, leaving viewers with a lack of faith not just in romance but in the merits of sisterly love.

Similarly, another fan favorite relationship between Sasha (Timothy Simons), Noah’s older brother, and Esther (Jackie Tohn), his wife, falls to shambles when Esther becomes jealous over the unlikely friendship, with possibly more between Sasha and Morgan. While the relationship between Sasha and Morgan was never romantic, it was certainly more passionate than Esther’s and Sasha’s marriage, making Esther feel insecure. Sasha and Esther recognize this and make a solid effort throughout season two to rekindle the love they once had for each other. Unfortunately, their efforts prove faulty in the final episode, where Esther tells Sasha she needs a break to figure out who she is on her own. 

Esther and Sasha’s breakup is not the only one writers had in mind for the  “Nobody Wants This finale. Joanne and Noah have yet another anti-climactic breakup, viewers could have seen coming since the first argument they had together in season one. Joanne and Noah’s relationship is held back in every episode because Joanne has not converted to Judaism for Noah. In the finale, Joanne and Noah once more end their relationship, leaving viewers rolling their eyes at this sad attempt at a second breakup. Been there, done that.

The third pair to break up is Morgan and her therapist fianceé, Doctor Andy (Arian Moayed). This side plot felt random and unrealistic (possibly illegal?) compared to the tone of the rest of the series. The whole show is about positive relationships and making things work even in the face of life’s difficult hardships, whereas Morgan and Dr. Andy’s relationship was a ploy to expose creepy, love-bombing, and too-good-to-be-true, toxic one-sided relationships, in which Dr. Andy knows everything about Morgan, but Morgan knows nothing about Dr. Andy. It was giving male manipulation and did nothing but stir the pot. Put down the spatula; nobody wants this.

Throughout season two of “Nobody Wants This,” the series’s most heartfelt relationships are put through the ringer as not one couple or family member has their fairytale ending, and are too focused on perfecting the future rather than building the foundation of their relationship in the present. 

While the characters have potential, and the show’s comedic timing elicited a few laughs, the series needs to establish a clear direction —either a rom-com or a mock reality drama —before producers begin the next chapter of Noah and Joanne’s relationship in season three. Conflict is key to almost every scene of the series, making the show’s once romantic and refreshing vibe feel like an afterthought and earning the series’ newest season two out of five feathers.