Mini Review: ‘Selena: The Series’

I wasn’t thrilled when I first heard about Selena: The Series. After all, the 1997 movie starring Jennifer Lopez was adequate and Selena is now on more people’s radar than ever before. More than that, though, Selena’s family never seems to let her rest. Selena is everywhere and that’s thanks, in large part, to her family’s efforts to make sure she’s never forgotten. 

I suppose that’s maybe the point of Selena: The Series. In it, we get a behind the scenes look at the inner workings of the Quintanilla family, of the Tejano music scene, and of what Selena and her family overcame in their rise to fame. For those of us intimately familiar with Selena’s story, it’s the same calculated and Quintanilla-constructed narrative we’ve always heard. For those who need additional context and backstory, the show certainly enlightens, especially since it includes so many lesser-known songs from Selena y Los Dinos’ early days. But in the end there’s nothing terribly earth-shattering uncovered in the series. The production quality is also pretty lacking, but you can thank Netflix’s discriminatory practices for that.

If there’s anything worthwhile about Selena: The Series, it’s that it forces you to remember that Selena was a daughter, a sister, a wife—a human being—before she was ever a superstar. That we even have to be reminded of this is probably one of the more devastating results of a story like this. 

Because Selena has been so mythologized by both her family and her fans, we only get half the story most of the time. The family and the fans often hold so tight to Selena and her legacy that it’s hard to get a sense of who she truly was underneath it all.

There’s no doubt in my mind that the Selena we all saw was genuine, but the family dynamics—which have played out very publicly over the years—had to have taken their toll on her. In death, as in life, Selena is shielded from her truth. And so are we.