Megan McLachlan explains why Netflix’s Nobody Wants This reminds us that romance doesn’t die between the ages of 40 and 50.
In Episode 3 of Netflix’s Nobody Wants This, Noah (Adam Brody) sheepishly joins his parents and former-future-in-laws in a hospital waiting room. His ex-girlfriend (or ex-fiance — in her eyes) Rebecca (Emily Arlook) injured her wrist in a car accident caused by the stress of their breakup.
“You’re old enough to be grandparents,” says Rebecca’s father. “What the hell are you waiting for?”
It’s a statement that reminds you that, yes, in some circles (maybe Mormon Housewife ones), Adam Brody might be old enough to be a grandparent (please scoop me off the floor and put me in a casket). But it also serves as a reminder that Nobody Wants This caters to a growing demographic of single people that have been forgotten for far too long: fortysomethings.
In Netflix’s new buzzy romantic comedy from creator Erin Foster, Brody’s rabbi Noah meets a cute sex podcaster Joanne (Kristen Bell) at a party — both are single, never married, with no kids, and played by two actors in their early 40s.
Just last year, the Pew Research Center reported that a quarter of 40-year-olds in the United States had never been married before, marking the highest figure to date (notably, it was 6 percent in 1980 — the same year Kristen Bell was born).
With more and more millennials opting to be single, Nobody Wants This feels fresh, marking a shift in romantic comedies. Since the dawn of Meg Ryan, 40 has been the cut-off, the apex of where romance goes to die. “And I’m going to be 40!” Ryan cries in When Harry Met Sally, as she laments her ticking biological clock (she’s 32 at the time). In Sleepless in Seattle, Ryan’s Annie debates with a co-worker the truth behind the false Newsweek statistic that “it’s easier to be killed by terrorists than it is to get married after 40” (a statistic that only feels true according to Rosie O’Donnell).
When fortysomethings are included in the romantic comedy genre, they’re usually hot divorcees with children entertaining younger lovers (see: The Idea of You, HBO’s Mrs. Fletcher, I Could Never Be Your Woman) or characters trying to be younger or hiding a secret (Younger, 40-Year-Old Virgin, Crazy Stupid Love). There’s also the sub-genre of fortysomething-date-nights gone wrong (see Date Night and Game Night). But I can’t recall ever seeing a film or TV series depicting two fortysomethings having never been married or had kids.
In fact, whether they’re single and childless or not, fortysomethings are completely shut out of the rom-com conversation — period. Even for rom-coms depicting “later-in-life love,” fortysomethings are often excluded.
Put it this way: an IMDB list of romantic comedies with middle-aged couples kicks off with Hope Springs — about a couple seeking counseling after 30 years of marriage (the list also includes Sarah Polley’s Away from Her for some inexplicable reason). It’s like between the ages of 40 and 50, dating doesn’t exist. Notably, even Nancy Meyers’ movies — queen of women-of-a-certain-age depictions — pick up with heroines in their 50s, like Something’s Gotta Give and It’s Complicated.
That’s why Nobody Wants This feels so new and original. For pronatalist nightmares like me, you’ll feel seen, and for romantic comedy fans in their 40s, they finally have something to enjoy somewhere between the age groups of Zendaya and Robert Redford.
Season 1 of Nobody Wants This is streaming on Netflix.
