Meet, pray, love: Why everyone is idolising the ‘hot rabbi’

The title is misleading: Nobody Wants This. At the moment, clearly everyone does: this charming rom-com is sitting at number one on Netflix. It was only a matter of time before Fleabag’s Hot Priest was matched by a Hot Rabbi. This one certainly puts the sin back into synagogue.

Imagine the love child of Nora Ephron and Noah Baumbach (I know that is generationally icky, but it conveys the quality of the genre) and you have a pretty good idea of the calibre of humour, and the degree of chemistry and neurosis of the central characters. When the world is going to hell, it’s a welcome relief to have such a charm offensive unleashed on our screens, a piece of fluffy escapism that never takes itself too seriously.

For those who have not yet discovered this light-hearted and immensely likeable show, it tells of the instant attraction and developing relationship between Joanne, a nothing-is-off-limits agnostic WASP podcaster (Kristen Bell) and Noah (Adam Brody), a young rabbi who has a bright future ahead of him in his tight knit community.

Noah has recently broken up with his perfect JAP (Jewish American Princess) girlfriend Rebecca, while Joanne has been on the dating apps for some time and has a past history of poor choices. She’s been happy to have her fair share of meaningless sex (though probably nowhere near as much as her much blonder sister, Morgan, played faultlessly by Justine Lupe, who you will remember from Succession, in a thankless role that she made something of) while he projects a serious romantic intensity.