Plainlands 

Netflix’s Shadow and Bone has a complicated relationship with race. It has a diverse cast, but not without its problems. Based on Leigh Bardugo’s two book series, the show features characters from the Shadow and Bone trilogy, which is very straight and white, and the Six of Crows duology, which is much more diverse. When bringing together a cast and writing about these characters, the team behind the show expanded upon some of the representation missing from the first trilogy, then seemed to take away representation from the duology. Shadow and Bone seems to play a bit of a push and pull game when it comes to portraying diversity onscreen.

Zoe Saldaña is a CIA operative who leads a special program that recruits women to infiltrate and dismantle international criminal enterprises, with a QRT(Quick Response Team) providing operational security that shoots people and blows things up on a weekly basis.

Lucifer is a show with both comedy and drama, but most importantly, has charm. Well aware it’s following a silly premise, the show does so in a way that’s entertaining. Sure, sometimes it can be cheesy, but fun cheese.

When long-time couple Jenny and Nate break up so Jenny can pursue her journalism career, Jenny leans on her two best friends for one last epic night in the city. 

The differences in these films could not be more blatant, and yet Gus Van Sant has found a way to portray the same messages and use the same techniques in each.

The sequel to the 2010 live-action movie focuses on sibling rivalry.