Adam Brody plays the “hot rabbi” on Netflix’s “Nobody Wanted This.”
The rabbi he plays falls in love with a shiksa played by “Veronica Mars” star Kristen Bell.
The romantic comedy revived each of their careers, especially Brody’s. He was best known for playing Seth Cohen on “The O.C.” a million years ago.
But now, thanks to Brody’s quote in GQ, the party is over. As “Nobody Wants This” gets ready for its third season premiere on October 22nd, Brody has squandered all of the show’s good will. A lot of that good will was based on Brody being Jewish, fully, even bar mitvahed.
When asked about the Gaza situation in GQ, Brody responded that Israel was committing genocide. Mind you, he has never said a word about what happened on October 7th, when it happened or now.
He said, “Put me down as thinking it’s a genocide. Put me down as wanting a free Palestine. It’s awful that it’s taken so much death and misery, but it does feel like it’s reaching a breaking point that it should have a while ago. I’m hopeful that another administration can really do some good and correct some of these policies that are helping that situation be as awful as it is.”
What Brody and Netflix should fear right now is that their audience, by and large, will turn off further seasons of “Nobody Wanted This.”
The word is spreading quickly. The audience for that show is suburban American Jews, not haters like Hannah Einbeinder or Wallace Shawn (who praised the Nazis yesterday in his own interview). Suburban American Jews are dealing with acts of violence at their synagogues, and heavy security. There was just a shooting in Toronto. I don’t think they will find this amusing or politically accurate.
The actors who drop quotes blithely don’t seem to recognize that “genocide” talk does nothing to destroy Netanyahu (who no one backs) but creates an atmosphere of antisemitism for less educated followers who are only looking for a reason to express hatred. They don’t differentiate between “Israel” and “Jews.” It’s all the same to them.
So now we’ll see what blowback there is for “Nobody Wants This.” Netflix already has trouble keeping viewers beyond its shows first seasons. This will not help.
