Karen Maine takes female desire seriously without making comedy solemn. We like her warmth, though Nobody Wants This shows how an appealing couple can make it easy to overlook questions the writing has barely considered.
Fi1m perspective
In Yes, God, Yes (2020), shots from a girl's point of view keep her curiosity at the centre of the film. Maine's restrained camerawork makes room for confusion and pleasure without treating either as an invitation to laugh at her. We rate the sympathy behind that choice. Her comedy gives women desires of their own, and takes an interest in how awkward those desires can be to understand.
That interest was already there in her writing work on Obvious Child (2014), about a stand-up comedian facing an unplanned pregnancy. Yes, God, Yes was her feature directorial debut, which she also wrote. She then directed the pilot and first season of Starstruck (2021), working with its creator and star, Rose Matafeo. With Rosaline (2022), she paired Renaissance visuals with modern dialogue and shifted the attention towards an overlooked woman. Moving into more familiar romantic comedy has not required her to abandon that perspective.
Nobody Wants This (2024) suits that approach, though Maine directed two episodes, so the series' success cannot all be credited to her. Kristen Bell and Adam Brody are the chief reason it works, with a funny supporting cast around them. We warmed to Bell and Brody because their attraction makes us care about the couple getting together. For a romantic comedy, getting that much right counts for a good deal. It is an easy series to enjoy, and one we recommend when that is what the evening needs.
The writing makes too little of the religious differences it puts between the couple, however, and that matters when those differences are meant to complicate the romance. The series gives us less to think about than its premise promises. This is where our enthusiasm has a limit: we want the script to spend more time on what might keep these people apart, having made us care about their being together. Choose Nobody Wants This for Bell and Brody, with modest expectations of how far the writing will test them.
Biography
Karen Maine (born 15 June 1985) is an American film director, screenwriter and producer. She graduated from Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts.
Maine co-wrote the 2014 feature Obvious Child and its 2009 short-film source. She wrote and directed the 2017 short Yes, God, Yes and its 2019 feature expansion. She directed the 2022 film Rosaline and episodes of the television series Starstruck (2021) and Nobody Wants This (2024).
