Photo: Hopper Stone/Netflix

Well, well, what an efficient little start to this breezy, autumnal romantic comedy Nobody wants that. In just under 26 minutes, series creator and writer of this episode, Erin Foster, not only introduces us to our two leads and lets us delve into their fully realized individual lives with some promising supporting cast, but also wastes no time in getting us there big, extremely lovable meeting is sweet and puts some major obstacles in the way of this completely mismatched couple. It’s a very productive (compliment) and charming start to this love story. If you’re not sold on the central romance by about the 17th minute, I really have nothing to say to you. This show is not for you – get out!

So let’s meet these people, shall we? Kristen Bell plays Joanne, who, alongside her sister Morgan (a perfect Justine Lupe), is the host of a successful sex and dating podcast that is about to be acquired by a huge platform. Now I know that “podcast host” is a legitimate (and sometimes lucrative) career path (and I know Foster also has a very successful podcast with her sister), but the older millennial in me still has a lot of work to do to accept , without rolling your eyes, that this will be what replaces the magazine writing job as the “woman’s job in romantic comedy.” But that’s my problem, okay? I’m afraid of change. I just want to be at the forefront as we embark on this journey together. Open and opinionated, Joanne really has no time or respect for the guys she met in the LA dating scene, and is described perfectly by her friend and producer Ashley (Sherry Cola), who is at one point at another Character speaks about her: “Her bad personality is strangely charming, isn’t it?”

Joanne’s family, who we meet all together at an anniversary dinner to mark her parents’ separation, are as far from repressed as they come. Henry (Michael Hitchcock) and Lynn (Stephanie Faracy) broke up after Henry came out, and Lynn is still very much in love with him and is quite vocal about it. She also makes a dire health announcement at dinner, informing her ex and her daughters that her sound therapist, Birch, has discovered that she’s missing the C sound when she speaks and that it’s related to sadness, in case you wanted to get a fuller picture of what that’s all about Lynn leaves. (I’m already obsessed with her.)

The other half of our would-be couple is Adam Brody’s Noah. Noah joins the (welcome) long line of popular TV clergy before him and is actually a rabbi. But he’s like a very cool rabbi – he says shit and is flirty as hell. At one point he jokingly goes into “playing up the Tora bad boy vibe,” a line I can’t believe anyone could say with a straight face, but Brody pulled it off. Also in the spirit of full disclosure, this OK The fan wants to openly say that I am always and forever a Ryan Atwood girlie, but I firmly believe that the greatest gift the series has given us is the relationship between Ryan and Seth (Sandy Cohen is close behind it) and I was thrilled to see Brody back on a TV show where the chemistry between him and each of his co-stars is sparkling.

Speaking of which: We meet Sasha, Noah’s brother, played by Timothy Simons, the Noah counterpart to Joannes Morgan, another perfectly cast supporting character in this series. Everything you need to know about Sasha is learned in the first two minutes of meeting him: When Noah says there’s something he wants to talk to him about, Sasha’s immediate response is, “Is Esther cheating on me?” “Anyway, I’m staying with her,” about his wife, and he, a grown human, also has no idea what’s so wrong with his mother still cutting his hair. My biggest gripe with this episode is that I wished it had a little more com in this romantic comedy, but I am confident that Sasha will do really well in this regard.

When the brothers arrive at Noah’s house, they find Noah’s long-time girlfriend Rebecca wearing an engagement ring that Noah bought but definitely hasn’t given to her yet. Not only did Rebecca look for a ring in Noah’s locked desk drawer and is now wearing it, but she has already started talking to Noah’s mother about wedding venues. She sees absolutely nothing wrong with that because the plan was to get married and she wanted to say yes, so why delay it? Noah can’t believe she treats their relationship like there’s a detailed checklist. Rebecca thinks it’s silly that Noah waits to feel something else. “That’s it, that’s the feeling,” she tells him. “I don’t think so,” he says.

And so newly single Noah ends up at a dinner party thrown by his neighborhood friend Ashley and meets a cute podcaster who’s wearing a ridiculous chinchilla coat because, admittedly, she “needs constant attention.” Noah and Joanne getting to know each other over a bottle of wine that Noah embarrassingly can’t open is a joy. The banter between Bell and Brody is so easy and natural, and they have instant chemistry. I honestly can’t believe they haven’t been paired in something before.

It doesn’t take long before Noah asks Ashley what’s going on with Joanne and, specifically, if she’s even a bit Jewish. Did I think there would be a joke about how Noah was able to put a Jewish bone in Joanne’s body? Surely. But I’ll forgive some of this episode’s disappointing jokes (a joke about being a Karen? Still?) because I’m so confident in the Noah and Joanne pairing.

When Joanne realizes at dinner that she mistakenly assumed who the rabbi was at the party and it turns out that she’s been unwittingly flirting with that rabbi the whole time, it doesn’t matter – you can already tell she’s in a bad mood him goes. This is exactly why she suddenly decides to leave the party. Just yesterday she promised to make healthier relationship choices, and for someone who doesn’t even believe in God, getting involved with a rabbi feels like asking for trouble. Still, she certainly doesn’t stop Noah when he says he’s leaving too and will accompany her to her car, which is parked near his. He makes it pretty blunt that even if they wanted to, it might be difficult for them to date the whole rabbi-gentile pairing – “We’re trying to repopulate a people, you know?” But it seems He also doesn’t mind when she talks about how she doesn’t get involved in the religious thing. In fact, he is very fond of it.

Joanne gives him a crash course on her life to see if there’s anything she could say that would put him off. He readily admits that she scares him: “Oh, you’re scary. You are an unfiltered, complicated, vulnerable, beautiful woman.” He also admits that his car was actually parked far in front of the house and he just wanted to go for a walk with her, which is so incredibly endearing, and yes, I get it, That says more about my low bar for men than anything else. but STILL. Joanne (and I) can’t believe how smooth “for a rabbi” this guy is. But more than just a strong flirting game: in just a few hours, Noah seems to understand Joanne better than anyone else may ever have. Unfortunately, she tells him that it will never work – they come from two different worlds – even if she really, really wants it.

AND YET we see a montage of the two going about their business over the next few days, clearly unable to stop thinking about each other. There’s even a moment where Joanne smells her chinchilla coat that Noah was wearing for a minute, which I think is serious but is actually crazy. Anyway, it’s no surprise that when Ashley texts Joanne that Noah has been inquiring about her while she’s on another terrible date, she runs off and goes to Noah’s temple where he told her that he would give the sermon that evening.

Not knowing Joanne would show up, Noah’s sermon is pretty pointed! He talks about being in the middle of God’s plan even if you don’t realize it, and that “everything can have meaning if you let it,” and that actually seems to be the case for Joanne. She’s addicted to this rabbi. And just as Noah drives away the swarm of Jewish mothers who force their daughters on the single rabbi in order to get to them, he too seems to be addicted. And then we meet what will surely be one of the biggest obstacles to our couple’s happily ever after: Noah’s mother (Tovah Feldshuh), who doesn’t look pleased at all to see her son maintaining a “shiksa” in the middle of their temple.