She's Gotta Have It
Season two of Spike Lee’s She’s Gotta Have It hit Netflix late May and ya girl had to binge watch the entire season just so I could let y’all know my thoughts! Although I watched the entire season in only two days, it’s taken this long to truly unpack and put everything I’ve been feeling into words. After the series premiere of this show in 2017, I was left needing more. I wasn’t exactly sure what that “more” was until I started getting into & unpacking season two. If you haven’t tuned into season two just yet, no worries there’s only one small spoiler in this article!
When I first sat down to write this article I had a sure idea of what I was thinking and what I was going to write. Something stopped me and I found myself on good ol YouTube watching various videos from other people who watched the series and it really opened eyes to different perspectives. Its crazy because in a lot of TV shows and movies these days, the main character is someone you should actually hate but they convince you to love them. Despite the bad and sometimes even horrendous things that these characters do, the fact that we are being fed the story through their perspective makes us root for them no matter what. The same can be applied to our beloved Nola Darling.
I began to realize that Nola wasn’t all that I was building her up to be in my head…don’t get me wrong, I still love her though! It’s just that I actually started to see her as a human who made human mistakes. It’s been no secret that Nola was having an affair with the married Mr. Overstreet in season one, and honestly I feel like no one batted an eye at it simply because we were seeing everything through Nola’s eyes and not anyone else’s. All I could see was this free spirited and liberated Black woman and that was enough for me to forgive and forget. This is exactly what writers do, they make you fall so in love with the characters that nothing they do seems that bad. Hell, even when Overstreet’s wife confronted Nola on the street about the affair in season two, I was rooting for Nola to just cuss her ass out or something even though she was clearly in the wrong! In reality, I would never think like that and I’m sure a lot of other people have the same thoughts as I. We put these characters on a pedestal and refuse to see them as humans.
Nola is this regal and artistic being with what seems like an unlimited amount of wisdom at times yet she’s just as bad as the rest of us heathens here in the real world. Let me know y’all, I can’t be the only one who would put these fictional characters on such a high pedestal, can I? Take Issa from HBO’s Insecure for example: women all over the world tuned into the series for all of it’s seasons and never viewed Issa as the bad guy at all. Even when she cheated on Lawrence! Which we clearly knew was wrong but because it was her, it was deemed okay in our eyes. It’s crazy how TV & movies can make us believe certain things just because of the perspective they tell the story in (apply that to real life, y’all!!!).
The overall personal lesson that I took out from this season is that we, including myself, are multifaceted in numerous ways. This is something I’ve always known but this season of She’s Gotta Have It has really made me reflect on that lately. Nola can make these seemingly outrageous and selfish mistakes time and time again, yet still be this worthy and capable strong Black woman. In this season, Nola was held accountable by many people and she was viewed from countless perspectives yet she remained NOLA through and though while also allowing herself to grow internally. Something about that is extremely admirable. Watching the show and all of the characters throughout the season made me want to allow myself to evolve and improve in more ways than one, and I’ve done just that. I’m definitely going to watch the series through a couple more times not only for the colorful storyline but for the internal lessons I gain within each episode.
See, only one spoiler! Now go watch season two, it’s been months already!!
Words by Maya Clark // @mayaexplains