by Mike Hilty, Contributing Writer
Welcome to Cross-Platform Partners! In honor of a new movie release, I have selected a TV show to watch to pair with the movie. Think of it as a way to get hyped for the new movie, a preview of things to come, a means to tide you over if the movie won’t be released where you live for a little while, or a change of pace if you’ve run out of related movies or sequels.
For August, I paired She’s Gotta Have It with Highest 2 Lowest.
I sometimes wish we had more time with Spike Lee’s characters in certain movies. Many of his characters end their stories at a crossroads, which makes it hard for me not to wonder where they go next. Lee never dives into TV, so when an opportunity to showcase his one television show came up, I jumped at the chance to check it out. I’d never seen the movie She’s Gotta Have It before, so I watched it in honor of Lee’s latest feature, Highest 2 Lowest.
The movie She’s Gotta Have It focuses on Nola Darling (Tracy Camilla Johns) and the three lovers that she’s juggling. Throughout the film, Nola talks about how each of her lovers makes her happy, but she doesn’t want to be tied down to any one of them. She’s a free spirit and an artist, and doesn’t want her expression stifled. At the end of the movie, you wonder what Nola is going to do next after she decides on her relationships. Thankfully, Netflix has a series that can answer that.
The TV show She’s Gotta Have It again follows Nola (DeWanda Wise) and her three lovers, Mars (Anthony Ramos), Jamie (Lyriq Bent), and Greer (Cleo Anthony). Each lover represents very different things that Nola is looking for in a partner; however, she doesn’t want to be weighed down by the expectations of exclusivity. Thankfully, Nola also has a blossoming art career, friends that she talks to regularly, and a community struggling with issues involving class, race, and well-being.
Nola is a more fleshed-out character in the show than in the movie. We see all the aspects of her life that shape her into the person she is. Unfortunately, the movie really only focuses on her relationships, and deprives the audience of genuinely getting to know her as someone beyond the people she sleeps with. But Lee does an incredible job building out all the other aspects of Nola’s life. She’s not just an aspiring artist, but an up-and-coming one making waves in New York City. In addition, she has varying levels of friendships in her life. Some friends are there to go out and have fun with, some inspire her to be a better artist, and some push her to be a better person.
The show’s greatest strength in developing Nola lies in its portrayal of how she reacts to the events unfolding in the community and the world at large. Season One focuses a lot more attention on her tiny corner of Brooklyn, which is having issues around gentrification and racism. It all comes to a head when she has a situation where a Black friend of hers is accused of doing something to a white neighbor. What happens to her friend, and Nola in turn, has a profound effect on how she views the world. Season Two focuses a lot more on events that happen, like what happened to Puerto Rico after Hurricane Marie, and the election of Donald Trump in 2016 to the U.S. Presidency. This gives the audience a richer tapestry that allows us to get to know Nola on a much deeper level than the movie did.
Moreover, each of her lovers has more of a backstory that helps us get to know them. Mars balances his business and his relationship with his sister, who happens to be his roommate. Some of Nola’s friends know Mars since he’s well known in the neighborhood, and we get to know how he met Nola in the first place. Ramos is a welcome member of the cast, and focuses on how he can have a stronger relationship with Nola above all else. Jamie, in turn, gets a backstory about his family situation and more about his responsibilities at work. Greer is the one person who doesn’t get more of a backstory or more to do. Regardless, all of this amounts to each character being way more developed than the movie ever tries to do.
She’s Gotta Have It also includes numerous Easter eggs for savvy viewers who are fans of Lee’s other works. Many mainstays in Lee’s usual cast of characters, including Rosie Perez, Joie Lee, and Spike himself, appear in the series. Two of his films that get mentioned frequently are Crooklyn and Do the Right Thing, which makes sense, since the series takes place in Brooklyn. Even Denzel Washington’s performance in Malcolm X is mentioned, since Nola is a massive fan of film.
Lee does a great job directing the series, but one of my favorite parts is how he incorporates the music and hashtags. After a song plays, a picture of the album cover is shown on screen, allowing users to see where the song came from. Hashtags are pronounced the whole series, with each episode being a hashtag, and each person usually has a hashtag follow them around. The style of this series is powerful, and I applaud Lee’s work directing.
I wish more directors would do what Lee did with She’s Gotta Have It: modernize the story, and expand the characters. The TV show is a modern retelling of the movie, helping us get to know each of the characters so much better. This isn’t a simple retelling of the story, but an expansion of the world beyond what happened in the film. Lee clearly enjoys this group of characters, and makes it feel like a cinematic universe of his other works.
You can read more from Mike Hilty and follow him on Instagram, Letterboxd, and Serializd