When the first season of Nobody Wants This premiered, it was a welcome shot in the arm to the genre of romantic comedies. Some discounted the rom-com in the years after Nora Ephron and Nancy Meyers helmed its golden age in the ’80s and ’90s. Upon its debut, Nobody Wants This turned out to be everything viewers had been missing, and it became an instant hit. The series tells the heart-swelling, yet refreshingly authentic, story of a hoop-shooting rabbi (Noah, played by Adam Brody) who falls for a fiery agnostic podcaster (Joanne, played by Kristen Bell, who also executive produces). The show, created by Erin Foster, became a critical darling, with an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Comedy Series, Emmy acting nods for Brody and Bell, and a 2026 Actor Award nomination for Brody.
Nobody Wants This inhabits a space between the rosy escapism of classic rom-coms and the relatable anxieties of modern dating. Part of what makes the show sing is the unforgettable supporting cast that circles the lovebirds, a troupe of bona fide scene stealers: Justine Lupe as Joanne’s cynical, wisecracking sister, Morgan; Timothy Simons as Noah’s loyal brother, Sasha; and Jackie Tohn as Sasha’s wife, Esther, a tough cookie with seemingly infinite one-liners.
Timothy Simons as Sasha, Jackie Tohn as Esther, Justine Lupe as Morgan
In Season 2, Nobody Wants This further breaks the traditional rom-com mold by following its supporting characters on journeys that are as complex as the central couple’s. If there was any risk of describing Sasha, Morgan, and Jackie as sidekicks in Season 1, they’re now firmly in the spotlight. “Romantic comedy films are 90 minutes long, and you don’t get to flesh the supporting characters out as much,” says Simons. “So it was fun to be able to see more of their relationship, beyond just the support. You get to know more about their lives.”
Creator Foster and co-showrunners Jenni Konner and Bruce Eric Kaplan were determined to make Season 2 more grounded than Season 1 — they wanted to go beyond the tidy first kiss, first “I love you” narrative checkpoints. In Season 2’s opener, Morgan goes into full ice queen mode on the very handsome and eligible stranger, Lenny (Miles Fowler), seated next to her at a dinner — despite Joanne and Noah’s efforts to bring the pair together. When Morgan later runs into the bachelor at a basketball game, he doesn’t hold back. “You didn’t even ask me my name,” Lenny tells her, as Morgan’s face falls. “I want to be with a real person.” Later in the episode, Morgan privately cries in a bathroom stall — behind her tough-talking exterior, her feelings can be easily bruised. “I think Morgan’s having a bit of an identity crisis this season,” says Lupe. “She’s going, ‘I’m in my mid to late 30s, and I’m alone, and my sister just found her romantic partner. Am I going to find that?’ ” Unsure of herself and at a crossroads, Morgan’s vulnerability leads her to rush into a shotgun engagement with her former therapist, Dr. Andy (Arian Moayed). The surprising romance allowed Lupe to reunite with her Succession co-star Moayed. “When we were thinking of people and Jenni [Konner] brought him up, immediately I was like, ‘Yes, he’s perfect for the part!’ ” says Lupe. “It turned out to be a really awesome part of this season for me and for the show as a whole.”
Tohn as Esther and Simons as Sasha
Morgan is seemingly blind to the huge red flags in the relationship with Dr. Andy, so it’s up to her sister, Joanne, to give her a much-needed reality check in a profanity-laced showdown in a bridal store. “I think Morgan feels the threat of Joanne leaving their codependent relationship in the first season,” explains Lupe. “Her sister knows her like the back of her hand, and I think that Morgan knows if anyone will see through this situation, it’s Joanne.” That tension couldn’t be more different from Bell and Lupe’s close IRL relationship. “Kristen is just a fun, playful, and present actress — and also a dear friend,” adds Lupe.
As Morgan emotionally flounders, she becomes reliant on Sasha as a pal, a confidant, and someone to share dumb memes with. This doesn’t sit right with Sasha’s wife, Esther — it reminds her of a closeness that she and Sasha once had. Diving deeper into Esther’s psyche as she struggles within her relationship was a treat for Tohn. “The thing I was most excited about in Season 2 was the multidimensionality that we got to experience from Esther,” she says. “She’s silly and goofy at times. She’s trying to be fun. She’s not doing great, but she’s trying, and she’s on her self-realization journey.” Since Season 1, Esther has been the type to crack a joke to diffuse awkwardness. (When the topic of fantasy threesomes comes up in a conversation with Sasha and Morgan, she snaps, “First of all, neither of you would be involved.”) But in Season 2, her bon mots often point to painful, deeper truths. “I’ve never gotten to play like this before,” says Tohn. “For a huge piece of my career, I was just trying to not be myself so I could get hired. I was like, ‘No, no. I’ll be less.” Then I came to this party, and it was like, ‘No, no, no. Do that. Be that. This is you, and this makes sense for you.’”
Arian Moayed as Andy, Lupe as Morgan
Soul-searching is always a challenge, but it becomes even tougher when you’re trying to keep a marriage’s spark alive. That’s the difficulty faced by Sasha, who’s convinced that having another child will restore the closeness he once felt with Esther. “What’s fun about this show is it’s not the wife who says we have to have another baby,” says Tohn. “The show does a really good job at turning these things upside down.” After Esther’s pregnancy test comes back negative, Sasha is bereft, and the couple must confront their problems head-on. “There are things that everybody in a long-term relationship deals with,” says Simons. “You grow, and you change, and you’re different people. Would you make the same decision at that moment that you did 20 years previous, when they are annoying the hell out of you? And then 15 minutes later you’re like, ‘Oh my God. This is the best thing ever.’ I think that did resonate with people, and it was fun to be able to explore that.” Reflecting on those decisions leads the couple to take a step back from one another in the season’s finale. “With Sasha and Esther, it’s almost like you’re seeing what [Noah and Joanne’s] relationship could be 15 years later, where it’s not as easy and you haven’t just met,” explains Simons. “That’s a very real, human thing that can happen in relationships, and it’s just showing you a different side of those things.”
The supporting characters’ arcs combine in Season 2 to create a lived-in and interwoven tapestry of relationships — knotty yet joyful, just like real-life chosen family can be. Foster’s efforts to make sure there were healthy dynamics between members of the full ensemble led to a natural feeling in all the show’s relationships.. “Kristen and Adam didn’t do chemistry reads with each other, but they did with the people auditioning to be the siblings,” the series creator says. “When it came to that, it was all about the chemistry between them.”
This nurturing attitude toward the show’s cast empowered Lupe to bring a new level of commitment to her role. “As someone who’s been a supporting character in TV shows before, I’ve just never been given this amount of trust or real estate to play with,” she says. “I was a little awestruck that they were endowing me with this bonkers — and also really soulful — storyline. What’s underneath it is quite deep, and it was really exciting to be given that amount of responsibility.”
