The Fish with the Eyes of Gold 

Spoiler Warning

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.

Though often underwhelming as a whole, Nevertheless is worth the watch because of the relationship between Sol and Jiwan. It is a stunning, refreshing take on the friends to lovers trope that LGBTQ media has been missing.

The multifaceted musical represents America in the 1960s and the battle against bigotry as an ensemble cast portrays how to fight for the limelight.

2026 ranks highest in Oscars history for its representation of minorities in all categories, and that’s definitely something to be celebrated.

In addition to the cast being delightfully diverse this time around, the film was just loosely-plotted and action-packed enough to keep a casual fan like myself entertained. While I do agree that the writing of Cole left much to be desired for an original character thrust into a preconceived universe, none of the characters seemed particularly fleshed out in terms of personality; however, I think that's to be expected when you're watching a film literally inspired by a video game.