She's Gotta Have It (2017)

She’s Gotta Have It melds Lee’s studied vision of Brooklyn in the age of sexting with the intimate yet ubiquitous inner thoughts and feelings of a generation of young, black artists and professionals without overtly praising or diminishing either.

Lee has successfully expanded and altered the original film for a series format. Episodes have arcs. The season does as well. And while the men may steal focus from time to time, the update makes sure no one will forget Nola Darling anytime soon.

The show stands as a textbook example of how major filmmakers can and should adapt their work for television: by not trying to rewrite the rules of another medium, but by finding a way to make their signature style flow through those rules.

She's Gotta Have It is a sumptuous character portrait, a deep and rewarding study of a black woman in our current era, this time portrayed by the dazzling DeWanda Wise. ... It manages, most importantly, not to feel dated. Its examination of topics including street harassment and gentrification feels vital.

The series is awash in bursts of expressionist color, on-screen text, the breaking of the fourth wall, and riffs that allow Lee to revel in the actors' chemistry and in the intuitive power of his own imagination, leading to tones that daringly crash into one another.

The show quickly asserts itself as a generous rom-com, granting Nola and the boys their own journeys. Lee's returned to this material with purpose. [17 Nov 2017, p.46]

As the show explores Nola's life and choices at its own pace, there’s a sustainable, lingering quality, even when certain subplots drag, or the filmmaking pushes the idea of “raw” right next to the idea of plain clumsy.

Wise glows with such confidence and poise in every scene that even when Nola is many sheets to the wind, you can’t help but forgive her. The actress makes her too fun, too seductive and too much of everything to turn away.

It’s both binge-able yet also easy to consume one bite at a time. How involved you become in the show depends on how much you’re beguiled by Wise’s charming performance and her character’s informative dialogue.

The new “She’s Gotta Have It,” which drops on Netflix on Thursday, is a lovely expansion of the original, as it explores the eternal clashes between gender, sex, and romance, as well as the current tsunami of gentrification and its racial impact in Brooklyn.

One of the virtues of getting to make a TV show out of a movie is the opportunity to expand the world of that movie, to give each character his or her due. In She’s Gotta Have It, Lee does that, giving time not only to Nola but her lovers, her friends, her family, and her neighbors—ultimately giving us a sense not only of a woman but a community in flux.

Yes, there are times when excess gets the better of this series. Pace occasionally becomes a problem, as we move from episode to episode that could be more tightly edited. Yet the sheer vitality of the performances keep us fully engaged.

Lee, who hasn't committed to scripted TV this extensively before, gains confidence as he goes. The closing three episodes move the furthest from the movie's storyline and feel the most free and experimental. She's Gotta Have It is already a very good show and maybe a second season could rewrite some rules the way the movie did.

The movie was about the sex. The series is about the work. Differences are enormous, also welcome. The series is also far more confident--understandable insofar as Lee was just starting out back then--but confidence helps the still-slight story.

The series changes tone and genre so often that it’s hard to keep track of all the different iterations that it passes through as you watch it. ... That’s Spike Lee for you: He does his thing, and you can take it or leave it, and it’s the take-it-or-leave-it attitude that inclines me to take it.

The 2017 model is more than the sum of its references. More expansive than interior, more defiant than dreamy, it’s a vibrant if uneven work in heated conversation with itself. ... But Ms. Wise is a unifying presence.

Some of it is well-meaning but didactic and sledgehammer-y, with the episode about words that kids should stop saying feeling at times like the actors stepping out of character to recite position papers. Some of it is so jarring--like the end result of Nola’s friend Shemekka (Chyna Layne) exploring bootleg cosmetic surgery option to further her dancing career--it’s a wonder nobody talked Lee out of it. And a lot of it is utterly stunning in how it combines words and music and pictures to create what feels like a new audiovisual language.

Even when it gets preachy and repetitious, this is a gorgeous character study. [13-26 Nov 2017, p.17]

She’s Gotta Have It proves a charismatic cast can make a shaky premise watchable.

The main reason to watch is Wise, who captures Nola in all her complexity -- defiant, sexy, resistant to labels and vulnerable. The notion of a woman approaching sex so freely is less "freak"-ish than it was in the mid-'80s, but there's still a thrill in seeing a star in the making.

The new She’s Gotta Have It is smart, refreshing, and trenchant in some specific ways. Lee, who directs all 10 episodes, is well able to create memorable and even stunning set pieces throughout the season. ... Even with Lee’s directorial skill, there’s something almost mediocre about the reboot; his style has become so iconic--and has been so thoroughly imitated--that his signature style feels less like his muscular vision and instead another attempt to be like Spike Lee.