Okay, so I just finished watching the Selena: The Series on Netflix. Here are my thoughts and I would love to hear yours...
FYI there are spoilers but not really because we all know her story.
Negatives:
1. Aside from not really looking like Selena, Christian Serratos makes very little effort to match the vibrancy and power that Selena commanded on stage and in life. Probably why the camera constantly panned to the audience when she was on stage. Her lip-syncing is very obvious and her attempts to perform Selena's dance moves, sometimes fall flat. It is also very apparent that they stuffed her butt, because the actress is so petite and thin that her body type wasn't even close to the curvaceous Selena. So I guess in an effort to remedy this, they decide to give her a J.Lo booty but because she is so thin, it looks very awkward.
2. You can tell that they made no effort to even try and get Chris's input because their romance is awkward, unnatural and at times unbelievable. He as a character is very bland, underdeveloped and unimpressive.
3. Spookie, looks SUPER awkward and weird with long hair and is a terrible lip-syncer.
4. There is a lot of bouncing around through the years, but you don't know it's happening, until about 2 minutes in because they give no timeline or explanation.
5. The pacing is not great. Sometimes they drag things out longer than they should and sometimes they speed through things to where you have no idea what just happened.
6. I'm still not sure what year or years any of it is happening because they don't give a year, except at the very beginning. There's no way of knowing how long they've been touring, which tour they're on, which album AB is writing songs for, etc.
Positives:
1. Although Ricardo Chavira isn't as intimidating as Edward James Olmos, I feel he gave a more well-rounded depiction of just how determined Abraham was to be a success. Although they'd never make him a villain, Ricardo makes it a point to show that Abraham wasn't the most loving or caring father, but was a man with a vision and this vision sometimes didn't take his kids needs or wants into account.
2. The dynamic between the 3 siblings is great and believable. They each constantly support one another and have each other's best interest, whenever making decisions that could affect the family.
3. Seidy Lopez, who places Marcella Quintanilla, the matriarch of the family, is exceptional. She does nothing but support and love her children and keep her husband grounded. I LOVE Constance Marie, who played her in the 1997 version, but she wasn't fleshed out enough to be significant to the plot or story. Whereas, Seidy is the complete opposite, you really feel her significance to Selena and Abraham's careers.
4. The series does a good job in showing us that Selena wasn't just an overnight success, although she was never without fans since she released her first single, she wasn't selling out the Alamodome right away. We see how adamant she was to make an English album and how the record label kept coming up with reasons to not let her.
5. Can we just talk about how AB is the unspoken hero of Selena's career? Like, she wouldn't have even had a miniscule career, if it weren't for A.B.'s constant work with songwriting, working with the band, finding band members and producing. A.B. became a one man, album making machine.
6. Spoiler Alert, but not really. I kind of enjoyed how they end it before her unfortunate and tragic death. I mean, if you know ANYTHING about her life, they give plenty of clues in the last 2 episodes that allude to her future but end the first half of the series on an optimist note, of a forbidden love.