'Selena: The Series': Did the family storyline upstage the singer's rise to stardom?
Spoilers for 'Selena: The Series'
When you think of Netflix's title 'Selena: The Series', you think of a soft biopic about Queen of Tejano Music, Selena Quintanilla. After Jennifer Lopez's 1997 adaptation of the singers' stardom runs through your head, you're keen on wondering how the new 2020 series would showcase the singer any differently. Unfortunately, while Selena Quintanilla's (Christian Serratos) rise to fame is part of the series, it at times doesn't have center attention as the family angel is explored a lot more - sometimes ever overshadowed.
The first few episodes showcase the family in a struggling stance. As the economy crumbles, Abraham Quintanilla (Ricardo Chavira) decides to make a move on the band that he's created with their children. He is played out to be a strict, determined and orderly man who makes sure that Selena would sing Spanish songs, that his son AB Quintanilla (Gabriel Chavarria) will write a hit song that makes it to the radio and that his other daughter Suzette Quintanilla (Noemi Gonzalez) would play the drums with no attitude. He insisted on the family fun as a band, and while we know that a normal person would have had some sort of fear of missing out when they had to grow up quicker than they needed too, Selena didn't show much. Her school refused to have her away for so long, so she was pulled out.
Her mother even asked her how she felt about working while other kids her age were out with their friends. She couldn't speak Spanish fluently and was made fun of on TV. But none of that kept on screen for more than 10 minutes combined. At times it feels like the story belonged more to the patriarchs of the Quintanilla family, Abraham and AB, as Suzette and mother Marcella Quintanilla (Seidy Lopez) barely get any attention either. Even in the last episode when Chris Perez (Jesse Posey) is being fired, you hear Abraham say, "you are not going to destroy everything I've worked for". It's interesting since the talent his kids had is what took off Selena's career.
While the 1997 film managed to speak of Selena's successes and trials, it had failed to bring Selena as the woman that touched many hearts to the discussion. But with a series we expect a bit of Selena's story, not her story regurgitated. We almost barely learned anything of Selena unless it was tied to her career or her family - at times, even that wasn't done to a full extent. Her siblings and she have a huge age difference between them and while we see AB. and Suzette try and come into their own, we don't see anything when it comes to sibling rivalry or arcs. Selena Quintanilla didn't steal the spotlight when she was alive, she earned it and the series barely shines her bright career, rather she's barely given the spotlight even when Serratos is playing her onstage. Since this was a series, it's safe to say that we as the audience were expecting more about Selena, rather than so much of how she got famous. Hers is a story told before, and 'Selena: The Series' didn't do much to shed new light on the icon.
'Selena: The Series' is now available to stream on Netflix.
