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Though there’s one thing concurrently uplifting and unhappy about watching the struggles of younger Selena Quintanilla (performed by “The Strolling Useless’s” Christian Serratos) and her household — figuring out that stardom, and tragedy, wait on the opposite facet — the present carries the overly manicured really feel of a licensed product.
As a consequence, the sequence is each earnest and dramatically flat. The title however, a lot of the main target is on the Tejano star’s dad, Abraham Quintanilla (“Determined Housewives'” Ricardo Chavira), starting with him recognizing his daughter’s expertise as a toddler and pursuing a bet-the-house technique (mainly actually) on her success.
That quest unfolds so slowly that the episodes — most of which run lower than 40 minutes — exhibit a conspicuous lack of momentum. Tensions do exist throughout the household, and finally questions come up about Selena relationship as she matures below her father’s watchful and protecting eye, however not in a approach that elicits constant involvement due to the scarcity of dramatic inflection factors.
There’s, not surprisingly, lots of music, and key little moments, like the choice that Selena ought to carry out in Spanish. But a number of of the episodes do not actually arc towards something, however moderately abruptly finish earlier than transferring on to the following chapter.
It is tempting however probably not truthful to attribute that to the writing, because the present (created by Moisés Zamora) clearly needed to function with the equal of 1 hand tied behind its again. The episodic format advances at a snail’s tempo — not like film biographies that by necessity race to the good things.
Like “Elvis,” although, the sequence underscores that nostalgia for musical icons has its dramatic limits, tending to work extra successfully as a tribute than a TV present. It is a reminder, too, that within the period of infinite streaming shelf house, providers too typically assume that something price doing is price overdoing.
“Selena” premieres Dec. 4 on Netflix.
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