4 Things I Loved About the Netflix Reboot of Spike Lee’s ‘She’s Gotta Have It’
Spike Lee’s cinematic debut, She’s Gotta Have It, premiered in theatres in 1986. Shot in grainy black and white and centering Lee’s beloved Brooklyn as as much a focal point as the film’s characters, She’s Gotta Have It is the story of a 20-something year-old Black woman, Nola Darling (DeWanda Wise), and her trio of lovers: Jamie Overstreet (Lyriq Bent), Greer Childs (Cleo Anthony), and Mars Blackmon (Anthony Ramos). The original feature-length treatment of the characters and the topics of polyamory, sexual freedom, and a woman’s agency over her own body and desires was not without what would soon become Lee’s familiar heavy-handed, message-laden approach to storytelling; his oeuvre teems with films and documentaries where subtlety is seldom found, and elements that would be considered subliminal in other filmmakers’ hands smack you across the face with neither apologies offered nor fucks to give. This is what makes Spike Lee a brilliant and equally bewildering auteur; this is what keeps those of us who love his work coming back for more—even enduring mishaps such as Da Sweet Blood of Jesus. We know Spike is gonna Spike, that he’s going to incorporate a level of boisterousness where a lighter touch would’ve been just fine. But this is why we can’t quit Spike, and without a doubt we’d be bored as hell with his work if it didn’t simultaneously irk and inspire.
Series star DeWanda Wise as Nola Darling in the Netflix re-boot of Spike Lee’s ‘She’s Gotta Have It’
In the Netflix iteration of Lee’s inaugural film, which emerged on the streaming platform on Thanksgiving Day (and this, I am sure, was no accident), Lee has managed to contemporize the original premise of the mid-‘80s film in a number of ways: The Netflix series is in color, infuses current issues and events (#BlackLivesMatter, that clown in the White House, gentrification) into the storyline, and makes interesting use of the technology to which most of us have become addicted. While there has been no shortage of criticism about the reboot—including the common theme that accompanies most of Lee’s output, that he’s too involved in too many aspects of it and really should fall back more than he is prone to do—much of the more casual chatter on Facebook and Twitter threads suggests that the revamped She’s Gotta Have It resonates especially well among the portion of the audience that may have seen the original, either when it was first released in theatres or sometime later on cable. There are obvious (and honestly, inaccurate) comparisons to Issa Rae’s HBO smash, Insecure, with a smattering of Millennials opining that Lee is somehow trying to copy Rae with his series, but the truth is that both Rae’s TV namesake and Lee’s Nola are not one in the same, despite some similarities.
With plenty having already been written about the series’ shortcomings, I wanted to shed light on the aspects of the She’s Gotta Have It re-imagining that work well. Here are the 4 things I’m loving about the series.
Spike Lee has always used music to extraordinary effect in his work, from his father, Bill Lee’s, gorgeous scores and original compositions to the soundtracks that accompany his films. With ‘She’s Gotta Have It,’ Lee reminds us that he’s not only nice behind the camera, he has an almost otherworldly connection with music that allows him to incorporate it in innovative ways. The Netflix series’ theme song that runs over the opening credits of each episode is the instrumental version of “Happy Birthday Nola,” a song Bill Lee composed for the original film. But the truest jewels are the songs interwoven within scenes—whether it’s an R&B favorite like Maxwell’s cover of Kate Bush’s “This Woman’s Work” or a popular standard like Frank Sinatra’s “Witchcraft.” The music selection is diverse, intentional, and serves as almost an omnipotent observer of the characters’ interactions and entanglements. Much like radio DJs back in the day would announce the song and artist as one track transitioned into the next, Lee drops album cover art into the scenes to provide visual information about the music. In a particularly brilliant moment, Lee punctuates a pivotal scene in Nola Darling’s late-season evolution with MeShell Ndegeocello’s poignant and haunting “Faithful,” setting his camera on the lead character as she rotates slowly before a deconstructed canvas of one of her paintings. For a full list of the songs featured in the first season, click here.
Bill Lee’s “Happy Birthday Nola” from the original film
You’ll be hard-pressed to find a Spike Lee joint that doesn’t feature some pleasant and surprising cameos from heavyweights across the entertainment and even political landscape. Lee’s sister, Joie Lee, appeared in the original film as Nola Darling’s friend and former roommate, Clorinda. In the Netflix series, Joie Lee portrays Nola Darling’s mother, Septima. Hip-hop icon Fab Five Freddy makes a quick appearance as a fellow artist showing at the Diastopian exhibit curated by 2017’s Clorinda (played by Margot Bingham), and of course, Spike himself shows up as a bartender. One of the most moving cameos, however, is that of Tracy Camilla Johns, who originated the role of Nola Darling in the 1986 film. Johns’ unnamed character approaches 21st century Nola at her art show and praises the younger woman’s work. Nola muses something along the lines of “you look familiar” to her past life counterpart, and while that line probably could’ve been left out of the scene it certainly didn’t ruin the full-circle moment. It’s also interesting to note that Johns makes a short appearance in Lee’s 2012 film, ‘Red Hook Summer,’ as Mother Darling, ostensibly reprising her role as the lover-ly Nola, but with an unexpected twist.
The Character Development
With the original film, we only got to know the core characters in relation to one another. Although we first met Nola Darling as she establishes to the audience that she’s not a freak or anyone’s property, and we experience her lovers primarily through their interactions with and reactions to her, there isn’t much in the way of backstory, family, or history. Blame it on the confines of storytelling on the big screen, where there often isn’t much time for expository information or fleshing out of every detail. With the Netflix series, we get to know the characters with a bit more depth. Nola has parents—actress Septima (Joie Lee) and musician Stokes (Thomas Jefferson Byrd); girlfriends Clorinda, Shemekka (Chyna Lane), Rachel (Elise Hudson); an unexpected mentor in the form of the fabulous, third-person referring Raqueletta Moss (De’Adre Aziza); and an old friend from high school, Papo Da Mayor (Elvis Nolasco), a fellow artist who returned from serving in Afghanistan to discover his beloved Brooklyn no longer belonged to him. While Nola’s lone woman romantic interest, Opal, served more as a foil to her harem of men and wasn’t given nearly the breadth her character deserved in the 1986 film, the 2017 re-working allows her to take up significant space in Nola’s life. Portrayed by Ilfenesh Hadera, this Opal is a single mother and successful business owner, and the only one of Nola’s lovers to actual set boundaries with her. The men also get more flesh, so to speak. We find out Jamie is married and has a son; Mars lives with his sister, a Yoruba priestess; and Greer is a photographer with an African American father and French mother and who has a penchant for painting his thumbs with silver gel nail polish.
Anyone who knows Spike Lee and his work knows he loves Prince. Why else would he have tapped the artist to submit an entire soundtrack for Lee’s 1996 release, Girl 6? But beyond incorporating Prince’s music into his works, Spike Lee and Prince enjoyed a particularly symbiotic relationship: Prince was one of the celebrities who helped Lee fund Malcolm X when the studio wouldn’t provide any more financial support; Lee directed the video for Prince’s “Money Don’t Matter 2 Night” from the Diamonds and Pearls album. Their unique brotherhood afforded both with a much-needed entertainment biz ally and friendship, so it’s only right that Spike would choose to pay tribute to the Purple Yoda in the series. The first episode kicks off with the iconic countdown from “Raspberry Beret,” and in a memorable scene from one of the season’s later episodes (penned by Radha Blank) Nola name checks Prince as one of the numerous beams of light extinguished by the ultimate fuckboi, the year that was 2016. In the series’ final episode, which takes place on Thanksgiving, Nola places a pin fashioned like Prince’s legendary love symbol guitar at each of the four place settings on her dinner table. Mars, the first of Nola’s boo thangs to arrive for dinner, presents her with a vinyl copy of the Around the World in a Day album, her “favorite.” At dinner, Nola and her men affix the pins just above their hearts, and in an uncharacteristically nod to the aforementioned always absent subtlety, Lee dresses all of the characters in various shades of purple. Even the drape covering the painting Nola will reveal to the men after dinner is purple, in stark contrast from the beige and soft greens throughout the rest of her apartment. To bring the episode and season to a perfectly purple close, the cast dances around Nola’s home to “Raspberry Beret” before collapsing onto Nola’s bed, with each man disappearing and finally leaving Ms. Darling along while Prince’s rhythm guitar—punctuated by finger cymbals—strums as the scene fades.
So, what’d you think about Netflix’s She’s Gotta Have It series? Are you hoping for a second season?
