Nobody Wants This review: Kristen Bell and Adam Brody spark in rare TV rom-com

Despite the popularity of rom-coms as a genre, they are rarely made as a TV series.

A TV show is a serialised format that, ideally, will run over several years, which makes it hard to sustain a believable will-they-won’t-they dynamic that doesn’t end up being a little bit frustrating.

Some of the most iconic TV couples spent years teasing audiences about their eventual hook-up, and then break-up and maybe a happily ever after.

Ross and Rachel took 10 years to finally get off merry-go-round of whatever they were, Mulder and Scully didn’t kiss until season seven (although, yes, yes, there was the deleted scene in the 1998 movie but that’s not canonical), and Sam and Diane were on-again-off-again for four years.

Romance on TV tends to be subplots involving its single lead character or within a wider ensemble – Jim and Pam’s flirtation was never the only thing happening on The Office US. That’s the TV model, it needs many stories and many characters to stretch it out.

Which makes it harder to be a pureplay rom-com.

Colin From Accounts is one, Netflix’s Love, starring Gillian Jacobs and Paul Rust, is another. Starstruck with Rose Matefeo is one of the best. You’re the Worst started that way but then expanded its raison d’etre in later seasons.

So when it happens, it’s magic, the gift of focusing on one couple over the span of a series, giving you hours and hours to follow their story. They’re not just seducing each other, they’re also seducing us.

Nobody Wants This is winningly captivating. Starring Kristen Bell and Adam Brody, it’s the Veronica Mars/Seth Cohen crossover you didn’t know you wanted – but you do. They’re both devastatingly charismatic so you’re immediately on their side. You want this to happen.

Plus, Bell and Brody bring the familiar contours of their break-out roles, some of the most beloved characters of the mid-2000s – her slightly prickly defiance, his droll smarts. Whoever thought to pair these two together should win an award, like an Emmy for casting.

Inspired by the real-life experiences of its creator, Erin Foster, Nobody Wants This follows the story of Joanne, a sex podcaster and agnostic, and Noah, a modern and open-minded rabbi who has just come out of a long-term relationship.

On paper, they don’t work. In person, the sparks are irrepressible. There’s such an ease and naturalism to Bell and Brody’s onscreen chemistry, and this might sound trite, but it’s kind of like watching two good friends fall in love.

The courtship is not without obstacles. Joanne’s sister Morgan (Succession’s Justin Lupe) is against it because she thinks it makes their single-girls-about-town podcast less interesting while Noah’s family, except for brother Sasha (Veep’s Timothy Simons), is appalled at this shiksa in their midst.

Across their religious and cultural divide, Joanne and Noah must discover if everything that makes them compatible is enough to overcome the ways they seemingly aren’t.

Nobody Wants This is a sweet and funny rom-com that goes down so smoothly, peppering it with the right amount of laughs, supporting characters and conflict. But it never takes its eyes off the main prize.

You’ll fall in love with it.

Nobody Wants This is on Netflix now