The Good Place reunion in Nobody Wants This didn’t go unnoticed!
On Sept. 26, Netflix released its new romcom series, which follows sex podcaster Joanne (Kristen Bell), who develops a relationship with newly single rabbi Noah (Adam Brody). The couple comes under fire, with naysayers claiming it won’t work out between them.
As fans may have noticed, the new series brought together five former cast members of The Good Place for a mini reunion.
Most remarkably, sharing the screen beside Bell, 44, was D’Arcy Carden, who played Janet in The Good Place. In Nobody Wants This, Carden, 44, plays Ryann, one of Joanne's friends who supports her new relationship with Noah.
Fellow Good Place actors Emily Arlook, Jackie Tohn and Leslie Grossman also appeared alongside Bell and Carden in the new Netflix series.
Arlook, 34, plays Rebecca, Noah's ex-girlfriend; Tohn, 44, plays Esther Roklov, the wife of Sasha Roklov (Noah's brother) who isn't too fond of Joanne's new romance with Noah; and Grossman, 52, plays Rabbi Shira.
Another reunion for Bell occurred with when Ryan Hansen, who shared the screen for Veronica Mars with Bell, made a cameo in episode 3.
The actor, 43, appears as Kyle, an old fling of Joanne’s, who brought back his rocker character Kyle Bradway from Party Down for the quick scene.
Erin Foster is the creator producer of the new Netflix series, and has said it is based on her own love story. In 2019, Foster decided to convert to Judaism for her now-husband Simon Tikhman, and he suggested she write a show about the experience.
On an episode of her and si -
ster Sara Foster's podcast, The World's First Podcast, Foster revealed the show was originally titled Shiksha (a term generally used by Jewish people to describe a gentile woman). She also said the idea “clicked” the second Tikhman brought it up, and although it is not biographical, it is a “love letter” to her marriage.
The Favorite Daughter founder used her husband as inspiration for Noah, and herself for Joanne, explaining that he was “emotionally available, chivalrous, old-fashioned… but also really funny and confident.” One thing she joked she had to give Noah was “rizz.”
Tikhman’s family life also mirrors Noah’s, with him being a son of Jewish Russian immigrants. "We didn't come from similar backgrounds," Foster said. "He came from a much more traditional place. I came from a more unconventional place. When we got together we were like, 'How's this gonna work?'"
One thing that was different between fiction and reality? Foster was accepted into Tikhman’s family with open arms. "You have to have conflict for a TV show so you have to create people pushing back against the relationship,” she explained on the podcast.
Other scenes, like the one where Noah brought a large bouquet of sunflowers to meet Joanne’s parents and Joanne and her sister Morgan (Justine Lupe)’s “icks” were also true.
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Nobody Wants This is now streaming on Netflix.
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