Spike Lee’s ’80s reboot
Spike Lee goes back to the future. He has rebooted his breakthrough 1986 movie “She’s Gotta Have It” as a 10-part half-hour Netflix series (TV-MA). Despite the passage of time, “She’s Gotta Have It” feels entirely contemporary. In fact, given recent trends and events, it’s probably more timely than Lee intended.
DeWanda Wise plays Nola Darling, a beautiful female Brooklyn artist. She’s confident enough to take three lovers, very different men who want to possess her. Jamie Overstreet (Lyriq Bent) is her older, rich sugar-daddy; Greer Childs (Cleo Anthony) is a gorgeous specimen but hilariously self-absorbed; and Mars Blackmon (Anthony Ramos) is a much younger motormouth bike messenger, funny and romantic at the same time.
Nora’s inability to consider monogamy drives these men to crazy extremes that propel the comedy in this series.
Lee has fun playing with the changes to Brooklyn and to society in the decades since his film. In one scene, Nola has drinks with her best girlfriends, a knowing nod to “Sex and the City,” and a reminder that Nola’s character predated the musings of Carrie Bradshaw and the polyamorous appetites of Samantha Jones by several decades.
Characters often speak directly into the camera, delivering their thoughts in monologues. This device dovetails with Lee’s habit of having his characters indulge in manifestos instead of dialogue. Nola also has the odd habit of talking like a film critic.
The first episode begins and concludes with Nola noting all the ways that strangers — men and women — shout and whisper sexually aggressive taunts in her direction as she goes about her business. This awareness of the constant and degrading treatment of women, combined with Nola’s strident ownership of her sexuality, makes “She’s Gotta Have It” perhaps the most relevant new series of the post-Harvey Weinstein era.
Contact Kevin McDonough at kevin. tvguy@gmail.com.