In the movie, Selena is always portrayed as her more well-known look of her straight black hair, while in the series we see Serratos who goes through Selena as a young teen with red or black curly hair, short black hair and then her straight black hair when she reaches her 20s. Many criticized Serratos’s physical appearance, but again, what the public fails to realize is that she is supposed to look like Selena and not Jennifer Lopez, the actress who portrayed Selena in the movie. I understand this is an incredibly difficult task but Serratos’ performance lacked some of Selena’s key characteristics. Selena’s on-stage charisma and dance moves were not showcased by Serratos which I feel are necessary when interpreting her, as this is what most of the public can remember about her besides interviews or public appearances. I wanted to write off the series as soon as I started watching when the opening scene was Selena performing a concert in Chicago, Illinois, with horrible lip-sync, along with the fact the audio used was actually from Selena’s last concert at the Astrodome in Houston, Texas.Ĭhristian Serratos, known for her roles in “Twilight” and “The Walking Dead” was tasked with trying to bring Selena back to life through these nine episodes and something is missing in her performance. Much of the immediate reaction towards this series was negative, which I totally understand, but it does have its positives. Ultimately, I think this series is… alright. This includes various performances Selena had with the same exact songs, outfits and settings.
It’s cool to go back and look through old interviews with different members of the Quintanilla family and hear the stories shown during this series. This is a new story meant to highlight Selena before stardom and much of the plotline is based on real-life stories the Quintanilla family provided that were not told during the movie. What much of the public is failing to realize, is that this series is not supposed to be a replica of the movie. The most difficult obstacle for this series to get past as for the approval of the public is the many comparisons this series is getting to “Selena: The Movie” which released in 1997 and has generally been well received by viewers.
On Friday, Netflix released “Selena: The Series” which revolves around the early beginnings of the late Selena Quintanilla, the Queen of Tejano music whose life was cut short in 1995.
Alejandro Barron, Staff Writer | December 8, 2020