Nice guys (aka Adam Brody) break your heart

Unless you’re hot and crazy. Just ask CW.

I have a confession to make. My first email id until I went to college was ilovethe_oc@hotmail.com. We didn’t have CW in India, but I would secretly watch The OC on bootleg pirated DVDs when my parents were not at home. When we would discuss our crushes at sleepovers, my friends thought Ryan was so hot. BUT I was a Seth Cohen girl through and through. 

*heart beats faster*

I didn’t get it: why would you want broody, boring Ryan who never had anything interesting to say when you could have smart, sensitive, sweet Seth with his sarcastic one liners, and niche interests, and big dreams. I loved how close he was to his family, and what a hopeless romantic he was. He was the perfect guy, and the archetype of all my middle school crushes. 

And then in 2008, I met Dan. Who was basically the East Coast Seth Cohen. He cared about school, he was a writer, he got published in the New Yorker, he was quippy, he was also a hopeless romantic. How could I not fall for him?! 

And how could we collectively as a female species, not fall for Adam Brody as the ‘Hot Rabbi” on the Netflix show, Nobody Wants This, who is basically an adult version of both of these teenage crushes. Hot Rabbi has a real job, he owns his home, he is in touch with his emotions, he doesn’t run away from his feelings, he keeps pursuing the girl, he shows up for his family. You know he doesn’t have a Raya account or a well curated aesthetic IG feed and he’s been to therapy several times. Oh and he is voting for Kamala.

Hot Rabbi is the reminder to all of most late 20s-mid 30s women of the type of guy we should fall for. You don’t need that 6”5 finance guy, who has three different 22 year old girls in his DMs at any given time, and a table at Keinemusic in Ibiza this weekend with his boys. Go for the nice guy instead!! Now even my Ryan loving friends have switched over to this side. 

But while we are falling for him, let’s take a closer look at who the Nice Guy is falling for. 

None of these guys end up with the smart best friend with whom they have great chemistry and so many shared interests. Seth rejects Anna, Dan rejects Vanessa (who arguably in Season 1 was not that awful of a choice), and Hot Rabbi breaks up with Rachel who waited for him, got along with his family, valued his ambitions, and did everything right. 

Instead, Seth is obsessed with Summer, Dan falls for Serena, and Hot Rabbi can’t help but love Joanne/Kirsten Bell. And all of these women are the quintessential hot one.