TV & Streaming

[Editor’s note: The following story contains spoilers for “Nobody Wants This” Season 2, including its finale.]

Of the many pleasures in Netflix‘s smash rom-com series “Nobody Wants This,” Joanne’s (Kristen Bell) ability to see beyond her own petty foibles and romantic mishaps does not often rank. But when something is so obvious and so wrong that even Joanne can’t ignore it? Now we’re cooking.

In the fifth episode of the second season of the series, such a moment arrives in the most benign of places: a bowling alley. As Joanne squints and stares at her boyfriend’s sister-in-law Esther (Jackie Tohn), we also squint, stare, and labor to see what’s different. “I mean, are we just, like, not gonna talk about this?,” a gobsmacked Joanne asks Esther, Noah (Adam Brody), and Sasha (Timothy Simons). “You got bangs!”

Don’t sniff: As Joanne immediately notes, such a snip signals a “major life transition.” And Esther? Oh, she’s going through it.

In its first season, the Erin Foster-created series was repeatedly called out for its depictions of Jewish women, including Esther who, at best, reads as abrasive. At worst? She’s a damaging stereotype: a demanding shrew, a gossip, and a meddler. And it didn’t help matters that she was pitted against a sassy blonde in the form of Joanne’s sister, Morgan (Justin Lupe), who enjoyed a flirty friendship with Esther’s husband Sasha that, quite frankly, seemed to take everyone by surprise.

That included Foster herself, who was quick to quash chatter about the two “loser siblings,” telling The Hollywood Reporter in October 2024 that, for the series’ second season, “We’re going to wrap up their weird ‘Is it romantic?’ thing. Because we want to see them together in Season 2, hanging out. We want to see Esther. I think we went down that road enough that now we’re going to pull back and reposition so we can have them all in scenes together without [Morgan] being, like, a full homewrecker.”

No, Morgan is not a “full homewrecker” this season — not even half a homewrecker! or a quarter of one! — and while audiences might initially miss the spark of Morgan and Sasha’s bond, it’s eventually Esther whose charm and sass prove to be the best foil for Sasha. (Of note: This season has added a pair of new showrunners in Jenni Konner and Bruce Eric Kaplan.)

That doesn’t mean it’s all sunshine and rainbows, though.

Esther has been softened this season, affording her a bit more grace as she and Sasha navigate some rough waters. And while the turns their relationship take are heartbreaking, there is something infinitely more satisfying about watching a long-term couple hash out their problems in a series that is built on the joy of watching a new couple try to work things out.

In the Season 2 opener, Joanne and Noah opt to throw their first joint dinner party, an extremely literal way to join their disparate friend groups and further meld their lives. Of course, some of those party guests already know each other, like Morgan, Sasha, and Esther, and the latter two bicker beforehand about how to best approach the Morgan-sized elephant in the room. Esther, so comfortable being in charge, even coaches Sasha on how to say hello to the woman.

And yet. And yet. When the trio descend on Noah’s house, they’re almost immediately pushed into a single room together to hash things out. Morgan is relaxed. Sasha hopes for a threesome. And Esther? She’s something else. Esther, so fired up in the first season, comes to release her anger. She’s just sad about the flirtation, she tells Sasha. But her sadness isn’t necessarily the result of her getting over it, but maybe fully getting around it.

No one can deny it: Morgan and Sasha enjoyed a fun and, yes, flirty relationship, “I’m fun!,” Esther yelps when Sasha dares to invoke the f-word when describing his bond with another woman in the first episode of this season. It’s maybe that element that hurts the most: that by thinking someone else is fun, Sasha is showing that he thinks Esther is not. Esther tries her damndest to prove her fun bonafides early in the season: dancing alone at that horrible dinner party, changing up her Purim costume (from her classic Queen Esther to a sexy cat get-up, all pleather and fake whiskers), and opting for those damn bangs.

By Valentine’s Day, Sasha is trying too: taking Esther to a dance class, after she mentioned all the things she can’t wait to do when they become empty nesters in just five years (dancing, moving to a cool neighborhood, sleeping in on Sundays). But as sweet as the gesture is, it doesn’t quite land. In the following episodes, that becomes a trend.

As Morgan and Sasha chat it up at Noah’s family’s Purim party, a sad-eyed Esther stands off to the side, quietly watching the interaction. (It’s a far cry from earlier this season, when Esther demanded that Sasha spend just two minutes in Morgan’s car with his fellow “loser sibling” when she shows up at their home begging for relationship advice.) When Joanne strides over and asks Esther if she wants her to break it up, she says no.

And when Joanne asks her if she’s mad, she says no again. She means it.

Toning down Esther’s abrasiveness certainly helps batter back criticisms of her character, but there’s also some compelling character work here: It’s not just Esther loosening up about Sasha and Morgan, it’s about her actually not caring. Jealousy might be a bad look, but at least it’s a passionate response. Esther’s apathy? That’s really scary.

As the distance between Sasha and Esther begins to grow, we learn more about their romantic origin story, which further clarifies Esther’s reactions to Morgan. When Sasha attempts to pass off his bond with Morgan as being purely a friendship, Esther reminds him that they too were once “just friends” … until they weren’t. Esther isn’t using their beginnings as a weapon, but as a lesson.

We also learn that Esther and Sasha married quickly — the undercurrent being “before they were ready to” — when Esther got pregnant with their daughter Miri. While Noah and Joanne fight constantly about the ways in which they’ve acted in previous relationships (a similar problem befalls Morgan and Dr. Andy too), it seems that Sasha and Esther have no other basis for their quibbles — their marriage is their only real point of reference.

A last-ditch effort to bond them — as inspired by Sasha and Noah’s perpetually meddling mother Bina (Tovah Feldshuh) — results in a quick flirtation with having another kid. But Esther doesn’t want that. That’s when she gets the bangs. That’s how bad this all is. And when she tells Sasha that she doesn’t want to try for another kid? The pain she feels, that Sasha feels, that the audience feels? It stings.

Noah and Joanne’s problems are myriad, but they all stem from one central conflict — itself the very backbone of this entire series and Foster’s own experiences — regarding their religious affiliations. No one who has watched all two seasons and 20 episodes of “Nobody Wants This” could possibly labor under the delusion that, if Joanne simply converted to Judaism, everything would be perfect, but it sure would sew up some bigger problems right quick.

Sasha and Esther’s problems are both more nebulous and more painful. There’s something wrong here, but no one can quite name it. That doesn’t mean it’s not obvious. And that doesn’t mean it’s not threatening their relationship. By the time the season finale rolls around, and Esther and Sasha (major spoiler alert) break it off, or at least opt to take a break from their marriage, it feels like the only right course of action. It’s also the one that hurts the most.

Consider this: Noah and Joanne know who they are, and they’re trying to figure out the ways in which they can fit together. But by the end of Season 2, the compatibility question of an entirely different couple has taken center stage. Sasha and Esther don’t know who they are, and that makes it impossible for them to fit together. That’s real heartbreak.

All episodes of Season 2 of “Nobody Wants This” are now streaming on Netflix.