Selena: The Series is still a disappointing family drama in Part 2, rather than a revealing biopic series

The A.V. Club

"Despite (Christian) Serrato’s best attempts to capture Selena’s many emotions while balancing her growing stardom, business obligations, and family, it remains clear that any expansion of these feelings is still mired in the Quintanilla family’s control," says Marissa De La Cerda. "Like Part One, Part Two is made up of nine episodes, limiting how much of the storyline can actually be about just Selena. Though the time jumps are less frequent this time around, the show continues to oscillate between her two siblings, Suzette (Noemí González) and A.B. (Gabriel Chavarria), further fleshing out their story arcs and the contributions they made to Selena’s career. Whenever the story seems like it’s going to probe deeper into Selena’s psyche, here comes a scene about A.B. struggling to write a song. While it can be enjoyable to learn more about Los Dinos and their creative processes—certainly, seeing how Selena’s hits came to life is rather amusing—the Quintanillas and showrunners Moisés Zamora and Jaime Dávila have yet to deliver more than what is already known about Selena from her biopic and biographies. These limitations can, in part, be attribute to the fact that Selena is not around to expand on her journey or the issues she faced growing up in the spotlight, or more notably, the intricacies that come with being a young, married woman. But even where there is opportunity to explore these feelings—like when she fears she has to put her life on hold for tours, or she and Chris experience jealousy or marital problems—the series refuses to go beyond the surface and instead shifts the focus back to tracking her career milestones. Though a cultural icon, Selena was, after all, a human being, and it’s this that the series never seems to grasp for more than a few minutes."

ALSO:

• Selena: The Series aimed to be "respectful" with its ending: “I think it was very important to everyone to only show what was necessary. I think that’s the respectful thing to do,” says Christian Serratos. “This isn’t the story of a tragedy; it’s the story of a wonderful, beautiful woman and I think watching it, knowing what happens, you’re already hit with emotion so it doesn’t need to be gratuitous.”
• Christian Serratos says her goal was to make the director cry: "I’m very sinister, but that’s kind of how I gauge at work if what I did was compelling," she says. "I know it’s really good if Hiromi (Kamata, who directed several episodes of both Parts 1 and 2) is crying. That’s always the goal: Make the director cry."
• Yes, that Beyoncé and Selena Quintanilla mall encounter really happened