Kristen Bell as Joanne and Adam Brody as Noah in Nobody Wants This
STEFANIA ROSINI/NETFLIX
Nobody Wants This creator Erin Foster has opened up about the future of the show.
Last week, it was revealed that the hit Netflix rom-com had been renewed for a second season, after winning over critics and pulling in huge viewing figures with its initial run.
The show was loosely inspired by the early days of Erin’s own relationship with her now-husband, for whom she converted to Judaism before marrying.
Despite its success, Nobody Wants This wasn’t without its controversies, with some suggesting that it perpetuated stereotypes relating to Jewish people, particularly when it came to its female characters.
In a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Erin shared that certain characters would be developed more in season two, though she maintained this was not in response to any particular criticism.
Erin Foster in 2021
via Associated Press
She explained: “I think if you look at the show as a whole, a lot of the criticism wants to ignore that we have a female rabbi who is really accepting of Joanne. We also have a lot of really flawed characters who are not Jewish; Joanne is a really flawed character.
“There’s this hyper focus on the female Jewish characters being stereotypes, but there’s a real lack of acknowledgment about how strong they are as women, and how they’re the matriarchs of the family. They’re not these passive housewives who don’t have opinions and or a say in their family. They’re the authoritarian in their relationship in a way that’s cool.”
Erin continued: “Esther is a really loyal friend to Rebecca, that’s why she doesn’t like Joanne. Not because Joanne isn’t Jewish. She doesn’t give a shit. She’s loyal to her friend Rebecca.
“So, we’re going to continue telling the story in season two and fleshing those characters out as we always planned to do, and not as a reaction to criticism. Because I think the majority of people see that this is a net-positive for Jewish people in general.”
Jackie Tohn and Tovah Feldshuh as Esther and Bina in Nobody Wants This
STEFANIA ROSINI/NETFLIX
Erin also opened up about the writers who worked on the show, describing them as a “real mish-mosh of people”.
“[Some of them] had converted to Judaism as adults, [there were] people who grew up Jewish, people who were Jewish but had spouses who were not Jewish, people who grew up in more conservative households or less conservative households,” she recalled.
“And really, the irony is that it was typically Jewish writers who were saying, ‘Let me make sure the parents feel like real Jewish parents’.
“I think it’s sort of you’re damned if you do, you’re damned if you don’t. Because if you go against stereotype then you’ll be accused of not knowing how to write Jewish characters. And if you go towards stereotypes, I guess people are going to be upset about that as well.”
Erin first addressed the criticisms levelled at Nobody Wants This last month.
“I think it’s interesting when people focus on, ‘Oh, this is a stereotype of Jewish people’, when you have a rabbi as the lead. A hot, cool, young rabbi who smokes weed. That’s the antithesis of how people view a Jewish rabbi, right?” she said at the time.
“If I made the Jewish parents, like, two granola hippies on a farm, then someone would write, ‘I’ve never met a Jewish person like that before. You clearly don’t know how to write Jewish people, you don’t know what you’re doing, and that doesn’t represent us well’.”
She added: “What I really wanted to do was shed a positive light on Jewish culture from my perspective – my positive experience being brought into Jewish culture, sprinkling in a little fun, [and] educational moments about things in Judaism that I love without it being heavy-handed.”
Erin will remain an executive producer of Nobody Wants This for season two, although former Girls bosses Jenni Konner and Bruce Eric Kaplan will be taking over as the new showrunners.
