The Selena Netflix Original series is something we were all excited for and all awaited with anticipation. The series dropped last Friday December 4th, and it took the internet by storm with many negative comments on the over all looks of the actors, the scenes being too comical or cheesy, and people being displeased with this production. Here is a dispute to those arguments:
The lineup of actors are incredibly talented latino/hispanic actors including the lead role herself Christian Serratos who we have seen on The Walking Dead. Many people are bashing the series making fun of the way she looks, saying she looks nothing like Selena Quintanilla herself, stating that Selena had more curves, a little more weight on her or that Christian is simply too thin for this role. Many people claimed that she looked nothing like her from the face, that the producers did a poor job choosing her as an actress. From watching this entire series I understood that the purpose of this show was not to impersonate the superstar that Selena was, but more so to tell a story. In 1997, when the Selena The Movie hit the big theaters, the producers had a very short period of time (less than two hours) to tell her story. They did an incredible job choosing actors and actresses that looked very close to what the real life people looked like. Jennifer Lopez herself spent months with the Quintanilla family to try an impersonate and bring to life this role of Selena to the big screen. This Netflix series is not quite that, but a little bit more than just an attempt to impersonate their lives.
Early on we see the struggle of Mexican American parents trying to raise their children in Texas with a recession, something that many of our parents lived and went through in the late 1980's. We see them moving from town to town pursuing their passions and we see in more depth to what extreme they endured hardships to get to where they needed to be. This is something that we were not able to see in the Selena Movie. Something that really stood out to me that I did not know before is how important A.B.'s role in band was. Without him there would be no Como La Flor or Bidi Bidi Bom Bom. To me A.B. is just as important as Selena herself in this series, in getting the band to where it needs to be. Selena's Dad of course, the mastermind behind it all, in the movie we only saw what was a grumpy manager side of him. In this series we see Abraham Quintanilla's passion, drive, ambition and hunger to get his family out of their poverty and into a better life by pursuing this dream of music. We know Selena the superstar that we love and admire so dearly, but now we are getting to know all the people who were behind her success, all the people she loved and worked with so closely. We are getting to see in depth all the struggles they had to endure as a family, and what it actually took to get to the top.
Lastly, part one of the series ends on the firing of Christopher Perez in the band. Selena's dad finds out they are dating and he immediately kicks him off the bus and dismisses him from being part of the band. I want to say I was very worried about how they were going to approach his story. Early on him the year Chris Perez took to instagram to voice his concerns that he was trying to be erased from the history of the band and that some of his memorabilia was being removed from the Selena Museum In Corpus Christi. Read HERE for more information on that. But once I saw how they took on his role and the relationship with Selena I was very pleased. I could tell that the writers pieced their relationship from many sources close to the couple and really made an effort to show a side to Chris that we did not really get to see in the movie before. In the movie he is somewhat setup to fail Selena and is given too much of a Rockstar persona. In this series we really get to see why Selena fell in love with him and how their relationship came to be.
Overall this series was well put together. As a musician myself and someone who has been in a band for years I love to see this come up story and how they rose to success. What it took as a family and as a business to get to where they wanted to be. I also really enjoyed seeing individual roles like Suzette, Pete, and many others. I highly recommend you watch this series and don't pay attention to the people online who just want to see a Selena impersonator. Pay attention to the details, the story, the message, and how beautiful it all is.
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