In Nobody Wants This, Justin Lupe’s Morgan as Joanne’s sister is her “best friend and worst enemy”. (Photo: Hopper Stone/Netflix)
When you’re in love, it doesn’t seem enough to just feel it and keep it to yourself — you want to shout it from the rooftops or, less dramatically, at least gush to your best friend/sibling about it. And so begins the side character arc.
Netflix’s 10-episode smash hit romcom Nobody Wants This presents the latest example of a supporting cast that is endearingly irreverent and impossibly entertaining. The show, starring Kristen Bell as Joanne and Adam Brody as Noah, prompted murmurs about the return of the romantic comedy in all its “true love can conquer all” spirit — in this case, apparently even the vast ideological differences between an agnostic sex podcaster (Joanne) and a rabbi (Noah). The ingredients are all there — crackling chemistry, organic banter, two people who could not be more different and, most importantly, a stellar supporting cast of family and friends. After a long time, we have the perfect entertainment cocktail.
Drama and comedy genres are known to do the supporting cast better than romantic comedies — by virtue of the villain angle in dramas that allows for a more layered narrative (the Joker in The Dark Knight; Tom Wambsgans in Succession) and a larger main cast in comedies to add to the chaos for humour (Friends, Community). The significance of a capable supporting actor cannot be understated here — Heath Ledger’s Joker is a case in point, for which he received the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor posthumously in 2009. Abed Nadir (Danny Pudi) of Community elevated the show from being yet another ensemble comedy. His quirky interests and obsession with recreating film/show scenes with his best friend Troy (Donald Glover) — another iconic supporting character — led to many memorable meta-humour moments and distinguished it from its contemporaries — Modern Family, Parks and Recreation, Glee and others — released in the same year (2009) .
Few romantic comedies do side characters well. Apart from some classics — George (Rupert Everett) from My Best Friend’s Wedding who successfully transcended the “gay best friend” trope; Arthur Abbott (Eli Wallach) from The Holiday, who famously pushed us to be the “main character” of our lives; Michelle (Kathryn Hahn) who was the opposite of “Cool Girl” Andie (Kate Hudson) in How To Lose A Guy in 10 Days; and a few others like the trio from Bridget Jones’s Diary that adequately supported and unsupported Bridget’s (Renée Zellweger) choices — most are merely plot points to move the narrative forward.
Not that that’s a bad thing per se, but the pleasure of watching a movie or a show with fleshed-out, well-developed characters far outweighs merely sticking to the formula — spotlighting the lovebirds. It makes you look forward to not just the scenes with protagonists flirting but also those that loop in the sister’s dissection of the banter: “No WAY, did he actually just casually use love in that conversation? Was it like a haha love or like a serious face love?” Which, to be fair, is also part of the fun IRL in the early stages of a relationship.
In Nobody Wants This, Justin Lupe’s Morgan as Joanne’s sister is her “best friend and worst enemy”. The divorced and more jaded of the lot, Morgan is essentially Joanne’s sounding board, pushing and pulling the right strings of Joanne’s dating life. There are interventions where necessary — for instance, when Joanne ghosts yet another guy, Morgan reminds her of the “emotionally unavailable” men she tends to prefer, prodding her to “make healthier relationship choices”. There is ample support, for when Joanne needs an ally to win over Noah’s friend group, with alcohol and jokes. And there are fights and make ups, when Morgan is lied to and consequently repeats false information to Joanne, which upsets the protagonists’ dynamic. All this to say, Morgan is a terrific supporting character to Joanne’s main character.
On the other side, Noah’s brother, Sasha (Timothy Simons) is a giant teddy bear, unencumbered by societal labels, living a traditional Jewish life in domesticity. You can tell that this is a simple man (who maybe likes to engage in harmless gossip once in a while). As a sidekick to Noah’s leading man, he does a very convincing job of playing the slightly clueless yet happy brother who only ever has good intentions for Noah.
Sasha and Morgan, along with the rest of the families, supply more banter, more drama and most of all, they provide the lightness to a story that could very well have ended badly. A stricter Jewish family would have ended things before they started and a judgy Morgan could have interfered enough to frustrate Joanne and end the romance.
Main characters, therefore, may be setting the agenda, but the side characters can make or break the mood. And, in this case, they truly made us believe in a story that seems so unrealistic, it could really only happen in the movies.
adya.goyal@expressindia.com
