‘Nobody Wants This’ Season 2 Is Missing This One Important Thing
[Warning: The following contains MAJOR spoilers for Nobody Wants This Season 2.]
Could anyone contest that Nobody Wants This offers one of the all-time great TV kisses in Season 1? Noah (Adam Brody) and Joanne (Kristen Bell) got their flowers for their replay-worthy smooch in Episode 2, which is a feat in and of itself. For other shows, it can take seasons of buildup for them to deliver a kiss that feels as gratifying as Noah and Joanne’s first lip lock. It’s a testament to the actors’ undeniable chemistry.
Taking that into account, you’d be right to assume that Nobody Wants This Season 2 has been marked on our calendars for months. But after we eagerly devoured its second season, we felt like something was missing. Don’t get us wrong: The interfaith rom-com takes an “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it approach” this time around, which you won’t find us complaining about. But where, oh where, was that cinematic, butterfly-inducing kiss?
Of course, Season 2 had big shoes to fill after what Joanne describes as “the single greatest kiss of [her] entire existence.” It sets the bar impossibly high from start to finish. First of all, the buildup is just as important as the kiss itself. In Season 1, Joanne and Noah decide to go to dinner strictly as friends, messy as it is with his unsupportive family and recent breakup. But their dinner turns into an ice cream run, which is when Joanne remarks that it’s crazy they haven’t kissed yet.
“Yeah, I’m very aware that we haven’t kissed yet,” her hot rabbi responds. (Immediate swoon. Noah’s non-threatening confidence needs to be studied.) We have no notes on Noah’s wind up, which involves him putting Joanne’s ice cream aside and demanding that she put her bag on the ground. It gave us high expectations, and thankfully, he absolutely follows through.
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Perfect angles and stellar music complement the subsequent (and inarguably perfect) kiss. The way he cradles her face! The closeup! The pan to his hand on her back, pulling her close. The sheer passion that ensues over the course of the 30-second smooch — which should be the minimum for a standout onscreen kiss — is what really makes it all come together. And then they go back in for seconds, which is just the cherry on top.
Though we weren’t sure anything could top that kiss, we expected the show to at least attempt it in Season 2. We wanted a kiss that we would think about for days. But while we can still recall Noah and Joanne’s sidewalk smooch with perfect clarity, not a single kiss from Season 2 sticks out in our mind. Not one.
That’s not to say the show’s sophomore outing is devoid of swoonworthy moments. That would be impossible, considering Bell and Brody’s chemistry is strong as ever. Take the ending of Episode 1, when Noah, unprompted, buys his girlfriend a nightstand for her “tower” of bedtime essentials. It results in a sweet and steamy kiss, but it’s brief. It’s not cinematic. In the way of smooches, the following nine episodes don’t offer anything more impressive.
We’ll concede that Season 2’s finale kiss — which takes place after Noah and Joanne once again choose to be together in a dramatic fashion — might come close to being as memorable as Season 1 Episode 2’s masterpiece of a scene. However, while Noah’s “you’re my soulmate” line did get a squeal out of us, the camera zooms out too quickly once their lips touch. It’s a tragedy because from what we could see, that kiss looked damn good, even if it didn’t hit the 30-second mark.
Maybe it’s impossible to capture the magic of a first TV kiss in general. Maybe the fire just isn’t quite the same now that Noah and Joanne have settled more into their relationship, and the will-they-won’t-they element is gone. Either way, Season 1’s kiss, which we’ll always look back on fondly, reigns supreme. Who knows? Maybe Morgan (Justine Lupe) and Sasha (Timothy Simons) will give Noah and Joanne a run for their money with their first kiss. (If they finally decide to give into their tension next season, that is.)
Nobody Wants This, Season 2, Now Streaming, Netflix
