She’s Gotta Have It (2017-2019) was a Netflix series based on the 1986 film of the same name by Spike Lee that lasted two seasons. The hour-long episodes focused on the main character of Nola Darling (played by DeWanda Wise), a black polyamorous artist in Brooklyn juggling three male lovers without going steady with any of them, and how that freedom affects her art and life.
Nola is open, honest, and proud of her pansexuality, boldly embracing her attraction to both men and women. She is daring and dynamic, both in her art and in her relationships, welcoming anyone into her “loving bed.” Each of her relationships with her male lovers is unique, without compromising her values or acquiescing to their requests for monogamy. While much of the series centers on Nola and her trio of lovers, one episode focuses on her pansexuality and her relationship with a woman named Opal Gilstrap (played by Ilfenesh Hadera).
Nola doesn’t shy away from her attraction to Opal, who is a love interest from the past, and this is not a fleeting interest in a single woman, since earlier in the series, she eloquently discusses the beauty and eroticism of the female form. Though her relationship with Opal doesn’t last (due to the latter’s biphobic slurs and disillusionment with Nola’s ethical non-monogamy, which she sees as commitment issues), it’s clear that Nola’s attraction to women is not just a passing phase.
Regarding Nola’s pansexuality, DeWanda had this to say about it to BET:
The first time I heard the word pansexual was about Deadpool. How much research did you have to do?
I did not have to do a ton of research. A number of things kind of fell into place. When it comes to sexuality, I have friends all across backgrounds, identities, and genders. When it comes to Brooklyn and New York, I was an urban studies major. I went to school here. And thankfully I had played two characters who were from Brooklyn; one in a play in 2013 and one in an independent film called “How To Tell You’re a Douchebag”, she was like a feminist blogger. That was the film Spike watched before I even auditioned for the role.
Ultimately, Nola is a free-spirited woman who knows a whole lot about who she is and what she wants and is not afraid to be open about that, including her pansexuality. Lee and the rest of the writing staff still give her plenty of faults to make her a three-dimensional character (she is one seriously impulsive character), but enough fleshing out to celebrate her instead of judging her. She is an excellent and rare example of a poly and queer woman of color in the modern television landscape.