Recently, I finally got the chance to start watching Nobody Wants This, the Netflix romcom starring Kristen Bell and Adam Brody, and my one-word review is that it’s delightful.
Or “delightful,” if we’re strictly adhering to the one-word review thing.
While I wasn’t surprised by this based on the pedigree of Bell’s involvement alone, I’m genuinely impressed that this is a romcom that manages to generate consistent laughs – a genuinely rare feat.
For more on Pop Thruster’s top romcoms of all time such as Lovesick, Love, and more, check out the best 100 TV shows ever.
Then, while watching the third episode of Season 1, “Either Aura,” a genuine curveball situation occurred: Ryan Hansen pops up as Kristen Bell’s friend on the show.
But that’s not all: his character’s name is Kyle, and he’s wearing a Karma Rocket shirt.
Kyle. Karma Rocket.
Record scratch moment.
We’ve got a Nobody Wants This meets Party Down connected universe here all of a sudden, people.
Hansen as Kyle, of course, is a cast member of one of the undisputably best comedy TV shows of all time, and Bell herself popped up on Party Down a few times as an uptight manager at a rival catering company.
But back to seeing Kyle Bradway from the TV show Party Down pop up as the same character on Nobody Wants This. First of all, I appreciate that they just flat-out put him in a Karma Rocket t-shirt so that the Easter egg is on front street here. But more than that, how great is it that in this new incarnation, Kyle immediately heralds himself as “that guy,” as in a fortysomething dude who sits at home playing video games on a beanbag chair while wearing the t-shirt of the band he was in (likely) 10 or 15 years ago.
On a completely different note, I feel the need to point out that this is the second comedy show for Kristen Bell that involves religion in a semi-unusual but important way – the first being the also delightful and strange The Good Place.
And on that note, D’Arcy Carden pops up in Episode 4 of Nobody Wants This, though it appears she is not the afterlife robot guide (or whatever) Janet, but instead a mere mortal and (again) friend to Kristen Bell’s Joanne.
If you’re as slow to get hip to Nobody Wants This as I have been, you’re in luck as the second season was just released on Netflix in October, so you have some fun binge watching awaiting you.
Anyway: bring on more Party Down alums into the world of Nobody Wants This, I beg of thee. And by the way, I’m only on the fourth episode of Season 1 right now, so maybe that wonderful discovery awaits me when I get back to binge watching.
Bring on Adam Scott, bring on Lizzie Caplan, bring on Megan Mullally, and bring on my guy Martin Starr (who is also holding it down on Tulsa King these days).
The Nobody Wants This meets Party Down connected universe portal has been opened, and now we must let the collective partying down continue.
Let this be our collective Karma Rocket. Let this be our collective struggle.