This week:
- Netflix’s big rom-com series is back.
- Give this dance move an Oscar.
- One of the year’s buzziest films is now streaming.
- The TikTok trend that nearly broke me.
- A reunion for the ages.
Should You Keep Dating Nobody Wants This?
I admire the chutzpah of titling your TV show Nobody Wants This.
If it’s bad, you’ve led your series and its creative team directly to the pitchfork mob in the middle of the discourse town square, for critics and people on social media to shout, “More like nobody wants this show!!!” (A laugh track likely plays in the head of every person who thinks they’re clever for saying this.)
If one person doesn’t like it, or doesn’t like even just an element of it, there’s a smug, “Well, Iiiiii don’t want this,” a certain individual-centric righteousness that seems to thrive these days.
On the flip side, the title is perfect, albeit corny, marketing fodder should people become fans: “We think everybody is going to want this show!”
I spent a night watching Season 2 of the Netflix rom-com. (Say anything you want about the Adam Brody/Kristen Bell series, but it is nothing if not a brisk-and-breezy binge.)
After the first season—which centered around a rabbi named Noah and his girlfriend, Joanne, figuring out if they have a future together depending on whether she converts to Judaism—I definitely wanted a second season. It was charming, Brody and Bell exploded with chemistry, it was romantic and often hot (their first kiss is one for the ages), and it had moving, profound things to say about love, connection, and identity, particularly as people get older.
As someone who grew up Irish Catholic and is now a devout practitioner of the Church of Oprah, it’s not my place to weigh in on how the show portrays Judaism and the Jewish community, which stirred much debate in the first season. I do, however, currently live on the Upper West Side and feel as if I’ve finally discovered who I’m meant to be in this world: an exasperated, retired Jewish woman. So I feel a kinship.
There’s a scene in the second season where Noah is explaining to Joanne that one element of the Jewish faith is to question, to examine issues from all sides—perhaps even sometimes not arriving at an answer or full clarity.
I am by no means equating my binge watch of a Netflix rom-com to existential tenets of a major religion…but I am going to loosely borrow the idea to make a point.
At times during Season 2, I swooned—and swooned hard—at the relationship between Noah and Joanne: the respect they have for each other, the dignity they give to each other’s own questioning, and the unmissable spark between them. At other times, I whined, “Oy!” (Forgive me, I couldn’t resist.)
So much of their arc this season repeated what happened in Season 1. Are they two crazy kids you can’t help but root for, or indecisive commitment-phobes who need to s–t or get off the pot already?
I fell further in love with the supporting cast—Justin Lupe, Timothy Simons, and Jackie Tohn—while at the same time found much of their storylines to be quite annoying. The series is also a loving portrayal of life in Los Angeles, which is nice. It was to the point that some of the series made me actually want to move there, which I will not get tricked by!
Netflix’s specialty lately is shows that are good-ish. I don’t think that’s a pejorative, and I think it definitely applies to Nobody Wants This. I watched the entire season in one sitting, and truly enjoyed myself. At no point did I feel like I was watching a masterpiece, but also at no point did I think to complain that it was bad.
It was something to watch for a perfectly lovely evening. Sometimes, what I want is just that.
Get Ready for Your Jaw to Drop
I’m sorry, did you think I was ever going to shut up about J.Lo?
Whatever the box office tallies are for her new movie Kiss of the Spider Woman, there’s no denying that Jennifer Lopez delivers a transcendent, capital letters MOVIE STAR performance in it. I’m going to bang the drum for her to get awards attention for it until the Academy gets fed up with me and bans all percussion.
Case in point, please watch this moment from the film, which showcases just a fraction of what she accomplishes in it:
JLo makes things seem so effortless that people will forget this move can literally break your knees at 30 let alone at 56. pic.twitter.com/hlvTOUA2On
— Soum_designs 💚 (@SoumDesigns) October 20, 2025
I gay-gasped when I first saw the spin move in the theater. I’ve wondered in the time since the film came out and that clip has gone viral why it hasn’t become a TikTok trend to recreate the dance. But then I realized most people would die trying it, and I simply don’t want that blood on J.Lo’s hands.
A Very Curious Movie…
I’m intrigued by what people are going to say about the new movie A House of Dynamite, which is now streaming on Netflix—and how popular it might be on the service.
The film, directed by Oscar-winner Kathryn Bigelow, chronicles how government officials scramble to handle what could be an apocalyptic missile attack. And then it re-chronicles that same timeline two more times, from the perspective of different characters.
It’s gotten decent reviews at the fall film festivals where it played, and it’s been one of my favorite awards contenders to discuss and, more often, debate with some of my media friends and colleagues who have seen it. The opinions are strong.
One friend recently suggested that no matter how heated critics or journalists might get about it, it’s the kind of film that could really play well with the Netflix crowd, which would certainly rocket its Oscar chances. Like I said, I’m curious!
I Was Unprepared for This
As a proud graduate of the class of entertainment writers who came up watching and covering Glee, I am more than familiar with the art of the mash-up.
This one of the 4 Non Blondes ’90s hit—and Kevin Fallon karaoke staple—“What’s Up?” and Nicki Minaj’s raunchy 2012 rap “Beez in the Trap” that has gone viral as a TikTok trend is so wonderfully random that it’s a surprise that Ryan Murphy isn’t involved in its genesis. (I am both titillated by and shudder at the thought of Will Schuester and Sue Sylvester doing a Glee version of it.)
Both Minaj and 4 Non Blondes founding member Linda Perry have endorsed the song and the trend. I have no choice but to cosign the trend as well, after it gifted us with a version featuring Jimmy Fallon and a surprise guest that delivered quite possibly the most visceral physical reaction I’ve ever had to a TikTok video. Nothing will prepare you.
What’s going on, @Malala Yousafzai?! #FallonTonight #TonightShow #MalalaYousafzai #JimmyFallon
The Peace Summit of the Year
If you’re a Bravo fan, you’ll know what a seismic event the reunion of Real Housewives of New York City stars Carole Radziwill and Luann de Lesseps is. Finally, the world is functioning as it should again.
this is crazy pic.twitter.com/LL0ojRVQmF
— stan sheryl #Pray40 (@stansheryl) October 24, 2025
More From The Daily Beast’s Obsessed
Leslie Jones remembers how Donald Trump behaved on SNL. Read more.
The story behind the explosive Real Housewives cast mates sex scandal. Read more.
A swan song for one of my favorite characters on TV. Read more.
What to Watch This Week:
Bugonia: Turns out that Emma Stone is a pretty good actress! (Now in theaters)
Finding Mr. Christmas: It’s like American Idol, but for Hallmark movie hunks. (Mon. on Hallmark)
Hedda: This is such an unsettingly pretty movie. (Wed. on Prime Video)
What to Skip This Week:
Shelby Oaks: This is like every horror movie rolled into one. (Now in theaters)
It: Welcome to Derry: Stephen King, you deserve better than this! (Sun. on HBO)
The post Why We’re Still Swooning Over Netflix Rom-Com ‘Nobody Wants This’ appeared first on The Daily Beast.
