Selena: The Series

Christian Serratos is luminous as the Tejano music star who made such an impact in her tragically cut-short life, but the shadow of her early demise mars the sweetness of this family-approved series. The 1997 biopic Selena that made Jennifer Lopez a star casts a long shadow over this retelling of the life of Selena Quintanilla-Pérez, too, so the series wisely aims its focus at the singer's early family life as they struggle to literally go from rags to riches. Here, Selena: The Series has an advantage over its cinematic counterpart; the cast portraying young siblings Selena, Suzette, and A.B. are clutch, and manage to make could-be-cheesy moments like the Quintanilla family sleeping five-to-a-room in a relative's house charming instead.

But oddly, we get more of a lens on the Quintanilla's family life than on Selena herself. The real-life Suzette and Quintanilla patriarch Abraham are executive producers of the show; perhaps that's why the series' Abraham seems more the hero of the story than Selena herself. He's the guy with the plans and the vision, making decisions that his family often protests but that invariably work. Curiously, Selena emerges as a powerhouse behind the mic but a rather thinly drawn character away from it. She likes boys and dating...and? She wants to be like Madonna...why? It's as if even to her family, Selena's more of a symbol than a person. Whenever Serratos gets on the stage, we're able to lose ourselves in her performance; the family drama off-stage is absorbing too, but it's hard not to wish this series delved more deeply into Selena's inner life.