Adam Brody’s return to TV was a moment made for millennials: ‘People love a comeback story’

Adam Brody’s renaissance feels like somewhat of a perfect storm. Two decades after he brought Christmukkah and Death Cab for Cutie to the masses as Seth Cohen in The O.C., Brody is picking up where he left off: winning the hearts of millennial women.

The 45-year-old actor charmed audiences with his portrayal of Rabbi Noah Roklov in Nobody Wants This opposite Veronica Mars star Kristen Bell. The romantic comedy series, which premiered on Netflix in September, quickly became a streaming sensation. As the “hot rabbi,” Brody’s character falls in love with Bell’s Joanne, a brash sex podcaster and atheist, following a breakup. The Erin Foster-created series is as heartfelt as it is funny and as endearing as it is relatable. It’s been praised for breathing life back into the rom-com genre and is up for a Golden Globe in the Best Television Series — Musical or Comedy category. Its two leads nabbed acting nominations as well.

Fans have likened Roklov to a “grown-up” version of Seth Cohen, the affluent Southern California high schooler who loves emo music and comic books who Brody played on The O.C. from 2003 to 2007. The actor disagrees with these comparisons. “I do not think Seth Cohen would’ve been a rabbi,” Brody told Yahoo Entertainment in a recent interview.

It’s ironic that Brody stars in a show called Nobody Wants This when it seems like in reality a lot of people want this. Everybody wants him.

Since the show’s release, Brody’s been profiled in myriad publications, including GQ and InStyle. He sent fans into a tailspin with his cover shoot for the December issue of the U.K.’s Stylist magazine and was featured in People’s 2024 Sexiest Man Alive issue. Vogue called him “the defining millennial crush.” He and Bell, who’ve been praised for their “insane chemistry,” also set the internet ablaze with “the greatest kiss of all time.”

“We’re looking for someone who’s going to make us feel safe. Someone who’s going to make us feel seen,” Jane Owen, the founder of Jane Owen Public Relations, told Yahoo of Brody’s appeal. “He’s good-looking in an accessible way where you could have gone to school with him. He could be the guy that you fancied in high school, your best friend’s older brother kind of good-looking. … It really pulls at your heartstrings.”

The year 2024 has been a strong career one for ’00s Heartthrobs of Teen Dramas Past. Dawson’s Creek mainstay Joshua Jackson set sail as a newly hired doctor aboard a luxury cruise ship on Doctor Odyssey. One Tree Hill star Chad Michael Murray put his six-hour dance lessons to use in the Magic Mike-coded rom-com, The Merry Gentlemen. Josh Hartnett, who got his start on the ABC drama Cracker and became a heartthrob after appearing in films like The Faculty, The Virgin Suicides and Pearl Harbor, plays a charismatic serial killer in M. Night Shyamalan’s latest film, Trap.

“All these guys represent a simpler time,” Owen said. “They harken back to our youth. They, in some way, kind of make us feel comfortable because we know them a little bit. People love a comeback story. They love to think of people being able to have a new lease on their careers. People rally around [celebrities] that they remember fondly from their childhood as being a poster on their bedroom wall or someone they had a crush on.”

“Millennials are very attuned to the fact that they’re getting older,” Erin Meyers, who researches celebrity, new media and audience cultures at Oakland University in Michigan, told Yahoo. “At the same time, [they’re] looking back and [realizing that] these things we loved before are still a part of our lives. ‘Here’s [Brody] and he still looks good and I still look good too.’ … [It’s] the idea that you’re kind of watching your favorite stars grow along with you.”

Brody, himself, does not have any public-facing social media accounts, but his online presence is bigger than ever. Not only was he No. 3 on Google’s list of most searched actors globally in 2024, but he’s beloved on platforms like X and TikTok, where screengrabs and fan-made videos of Cohen and Roklov, both separately and spliced together, have been created and shared by fans en masse.

As millennials continue to age, they’re still staying connected to pop culture online. While TikTok is traditionally believed to be a Gen Z haven, its number of millennial users in the 30-to-49 age range is increasing. Fans in this demographic are using the social media platform to reinforce their connections to Brody and, in turn, bolster his online presence.

“It gets played off as this place where the Gen Z-ers are, but it’s really a place where millennials, in particular, are also really finding their connections to pop culture,” Meyers said of the Brody buzz on the platform.

Today, lusting over your celebrity crush is a more digital undertaking compared with 2003. Rather than sifting through an issue of Us Weekly for photos of Brody offscreen, Meyers explained, social media allows fans to see more of Brody — whether it’s behind-the-scenes footage from the set or a photo of him out and about in Los Angeles — whenever they want. With options to repost, like or comment, fans can also engage with this content more personally.

“We don’t just want to see [actors] doing their thing onscreen. We want to see them in ‘real life.’ We’ve always wanted that,” Meyers said. “We’ve wanted paparazzi pictures and blog culture of the early 2000s but now it’s [looking] at them on Instagram, talking about how [Brody] is their favorite. I think it’s a participatory audience thing that social media helps us with, [giving] us a way to engage beyond just watching.”

Celebrity culture has changed substantially since Brody’s first brush with fame. Our craving for authenticity has intensified, Meyers said.

“The rise of things like influencers and other kinds of digital stars are all about being authentic and ordinary, and so we want to see that side of celebrities too. To feel that they’re just like us,” she said. “Our celebrity culture is really obsessed with authenticity.”

The continuation of Brody’s renaissance is dependent on how he’s “valued in the marketplace” and if he’ll continue to take on roles in “well-funded TV shows and movies,” Owen said. With Nobody Wants This Season 2 on the way and a potential Golden Globe Award to his name, Brody’s future looks bright.

“He’s the right guy at the right time and the right place in our zeitgeist,” she said. “No matter what side of the aisle you’re on politically, socially, economically, religiously, you can all say, ‘Yeah, he’s a great guy.’”

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