It’s hard to believe it’s been 25 years since Selena Quintanilla’s life was cut short in 1995 at the tender age of 23. Selena made a name for herself as “La Reina de Tejano Music” (the queen of Tejano music) and rose to the top of the charts at such a young age. By the age of 23, the Tex-Mex artist had taken over Tejano music, a completely male-dominated field. She was well on her way to an English crossover and her posthumous English material was proof of that.

Since her passing, Selena Quintanilla has influenced and inspired many of today’s fashion, music, and culture. Selena was the first artist to reveal the power of the Latino audience. In many ways, her success and the outpour of love after her death formed the catalyst for the “Latin invasion” in the late ‘90s.

Over the weekend (December 4), Netflix launched Selena: The Series. Created by Moises Zamora and executive produced by Suzette Quintanilla, the first part of this two-part series followed the rise of the Corpus Christi-born singer’s family and their experience in the ‘80s and ‘90s as a Mexican-American family. The show features Ricardo Chavira as the dad, Abraham Quintanilla, Gabriel Chavarria as Selena’s brother AB, Noemí Gonzalez as Selena’s sister Suzette Quintanilla, Seidy López as the mom, Marcella Quintanilla, Madison Taylor Baez as a young Selena, and Jesse Posey as Chris Perez.

Leading up to the release, like many, I thought Selena: The Series would be an adaptation to the 1997 film, Selena. However, I was wrong. Within the first few episodes, I realized this wasn’t the case. The series takes it back to the beginning of Selena’s story when her father Abraham realizes her eight-year-old daughter has a strong connection to singing. He then gets AB and Suzette to form a family band in their garage and he coaches Selena how to sing and fill her on-stage presence. In the show, we also see a glimpse of Abraham as an over-protecting, controlling father who has big expectations of his kids and who failed at his own music career.

Midway through the series, we also see AB being pressured to write hit songs for his little sister. As for Suzette, she tries to find ways to fit into the group as the drummer yet knowing she’s being limited with her talent. Later in the series, we get introduced to Selena’s love interest and band member Chris Perez, who would later become her husband. However, a lot of what we see between Chris and Selena in the series contradicts the way Chris explains his relationship with Selena in his book, “To Selena, With Love.” That’s not to say that as a fan, we knew their relationship but if you’ve read the book then you know there are two sides to this story. Needless to say, by the end of Selena: The Series, Selena is a Billboard chart-topping artist with thousands of fans but she has an increasing number of struggles and insecurities.

I feel Selena: The Series failed to explain who Selena was as an adult. Not the singer but as a normal human being and maybe, the title of the series was a bit misleading as well. However, if you want to learn a different perspective from those who shared life with Selena then Selena: The Series is for you to watch.