Still Watching...Or Not.

"Nobody Wants This," "Wolfs," "Slow Horses," "The Old Man," "Kleo," rewatching updates and more.

The bar for my rom-com entrance might be higher than average, but mostly what I’m asking is let this be funny and smart, not schmaltzy. I feel like that’s not asking too much but, as you may have figured out, it gate-keeps a lot of movies and TV series right from the start.

Ah, but Kristen Bell? Come on, she’s bankable. She knows how to do this. Her comic timing is impeccable. (“The Good Place,” “Veronica Mars,” etc.).

Still, I didn’t rush to “Nobody Wants This,” the 10-episode rom-com on Netflix that dropped last week. I was watching movies, and as I noted below, watching and doing a lot of random things that were mostly life affirming, excellent choices:

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But I did finally get to Netflix’s “Nobody Wants This” and was thinking about giving it the Two Episode Test but in truth those first two episodes went down like candy and wine (okay, maybe don’t try that), and both were funny and delicious and an immediate “yes,” so no need to go on and on about it with a Two Episode Test.

I will only add this caveat, which I’m guessing will not be an issue — series creator Erin Foster (you should probably just look at her Wikipedia page), who wrote the first two episodes, doesn’t write any of the other eight episodes. And I only just burned through the first two last night, so if it goes off a cliff, I think we have a reason.

Actually, I did want “Nobody Wants This,” and you might as well.

But I’m not at all expecting that. Steven Levitan (“Modern Family,” etc., etc.) is a co-executive producer, there seems to be a robust writer’s room and the template is set down pretty clearly and convincingly by Foster: be funny, be fast, lean into the premise, which is actually based on her life.

“Nobody Wants This” is about Joanne (Bell), a dating-and-sex podcaster who meets a young, good looking and very funny Jewish Rabbi named Noah (Adam Brody, “The O.C.,” “Fleishman Is In Trouble”). With Bell and Brady riffing flawlessly in the two (very short) half hours, there’s really nothing to dislike here. It’s smart, it’s funny, there’s actual chemistry and a strong ensemble cast, notably Timothy Simons (“Veep) as Sasha, Noah’s brother and Justine Lupe (“Succession”) as Joane’s sister and podcast partner, Morgan (plus Jackie Tohn “Glow” as Sasha’s annoyed, meddlesome wife, Esther).

I’ve decided to put FX’s “The Old Man” on the bench for a bit, having watched four episodes of this second season (after mopping up the final three from S1), and finding that there’s almost as many minuses as pluses (weirdly a lot, offsetting each other, compared to anything I’ve seen recently).

Mostly “The Old Man” is struggling because of some casting issues (Alia Shawkat seems a tough fit, plus a couple of more minor characters) and, while its pace is not exceedingly slow, it is one that focuses a lot on chunks of dialog (which spotlights the casting issue) and then tosses in a bunch of rapid action shots (which spotlights that most of the central characters are, well, old). Still favorably interested, but definitely needed to come back to it after a break, given Ep. 4’s manifesting all these issues at once.

In case you missed it, I watched “Wolfs,” the AppleTV+ movie starring George Clooney and Brad Pitt that just dropped, and came away thinking about some accidental issues it brings up:

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