TV Review- Selena: The Series Spotlights The Family Behind The Star

Premiering December 4 on Netflix, Selena: The Series, as helmed by the Selena Quintanilla’s family, promised to be a nuanced look at the icon’s beginnings, and it 100% is. You learn sweet details to her life that will make fans absolutely smile like how her parents they thought she was going to be a boy and got her name at a hospital from the woman, next to them, who thought she was having a girl but had a boy. Yet, I was kind of thrown off by how sugary and banal the series is; not that I expected an absolute melodrama of pure chaos. Still, at times, it felt like a Degrassi Episode on what it takes to make it in the music industry.

Each episode kind of ran like a 90s description of a teen drama: “On this episode, Selena learns to bedazzle her own jacket but her record label disagrees with her fashion. Feeling pressured, Selena wonders if she made the right choice in signing with them.” While I loved that Canadian 90s series, it was cheesy, of which, at times, the series can be. I guess I expected more dazzle and constant astonishment, which might be because, as a fan of Selena, we are always in awe of her and what she meant to us. That awe is why, no matter what, I, and everyone else, will blindly LOVE this series, but will still be slightly disappointed at how slow and simple it can be for a woman that is seen as a cosmic force and whose movie is constantly on VH1.
Selena: The Series | Official Trailer | Netflix

I mention the movie because Christian Serratos has two odds against her; not only will she be compared to Selena but she will also be compared to Jennifer Lopez’s portrayal of her. This is rough because Jennifer Lopez was phenomenal and went on to become her own legend; with a star-power that matched Selena’s presence. Yet, that was a two hour film that came out within a year of the Tejana Queen’s death. Not only did it ride the wave of a fanbase still on the cusp of its grief, but it was also helmed by the family in a moment of rawness. There was a true beauty  to the film that felt glamorous and mournful, and eager to paint her story as it was: not make a “pretty picture” because her tragedy was already so ugly. Yet, the series takes on a different note; a family dramedy of a teenaged girl gaining the wisdom she needs to become a woman. Therefore, it will take time for people to warm up to Serratos’ Selena and also accept that, unlike the movie, this series focuses very little on her “forbidden love” with Chris (Jesse Posey), which was the favorite storyline, for many, of the movie. 

Serratos plays Selena as very sweet, goofy, innocent, and warm which was HER! She carries Selena teen years with a naivety that reminds you, as a viewer, she died at 23. We see her image as a woman, but Selena was really young as she lived through so much like, standing up to a label that saw her talent but constantly doubted her vision for herself. Serratos ability to see ambition and self-belief do not clash with one’s kindness and openness to others is why, by the end of the series, you’ll say, “Yeah, she’s a good Selena.” In truth, Selena had so much growing to do, despite her maturity, because she yet to understand that not everybody who says hello to you should receive your welcome. In this sense, the series sentimentally explains why the family was so over-protective of her. She was 100% that wild, silly little sister that was the center of the home, which, in a way, is why the series may be presented as about Selena, but really it is about the family, particularly Abraham Quintanilla (Ricardo Chavira).
Selena – Amor Prohibido (Official Music Video)

I did not know the Quintanillas were on welfare and spent most of Selena’s childhood trying to economically survive and build her star. For this, Chavira’s Abraham comes off as a man that really wanted one person or, at least, his generation of kids to know what it was to have a dream come true. The nobility of that desire really struck me because it made the Quintanillas feel like every Latino family in the US; working really hard in hopes that, one day, one of its members can work in what they love. Thus, you understand Gabriel Chavarria’s take of A.B. as a really nervous young man determined to write the music that will make his sister iconic, but feeling he is not growing fast enough, as a talent and man, to do so. You also understand Noemi Gonzalez’s amplified loyalty and love for Selena because they were each other’s only friend. For a long time, the Quintanillas did not have a home, beyond the road, because they could not afford anything but their car. Thus, why not go on a music tour, if all you can do is drive?
Selena: The Series | Every legend begins with a dream | Netflix

Ultimately, the series made me feel really bad for a family I already felt devastated for. Selena truly was their world and it was not because she was also their economy, as some believe. The series does well to show this was a poor, hard-working family descendant of even poorer, hard-workers that also did not know what it was to have a dream come true. They knew to survive struggles but did not know the feeling of getting what you wanted for yourself and seeing yourself become what you wanted. Selena was the first, in their family history, that did that, which is why she felt legendary to them. In a family of hard-workers that dreamed, she was the hard-worker that saw her dreams come true, and, for a bit, you forget they will be dashed. I have to say it was nice to see a part of Selena’s story not bound to her death or her murderer, but instead completely bound to her dreams for herself.