When Netflix announced that their platform was going to be the home of Selena: The Series, many fans in the LatinX community were thrilled to see Selena Quintanilla receive the recognition she deserved. On Dec. 18, 2018, a short 15 second clip on Netflix’s Instagram gave fans the green light to the show’s production.
Although many fans were excited, the casting choice quickly gave an insight on the direction Netflix was heading. When Netflix casted Christian Serratos to play Selena on Nov. 12, 2019, many supporters pointed out that they felt Netflix was white washing the late singer.
Because Netflix gave other shows big budgets, such as The Crown, Stranger Things, and Sense8, fans were expecting the first season of Selena: The Series to be as detailed-oriented and high quality because this show is shedding light on a prominent figure in the LatinX community.
On Dec. 4, 2020 the series came out and unfortunately, Netflix did not bring Selena Quitanilla’s memory justice as fans were quick to point out that the execution of the show was not properly executed. Selena Quintanilla was a big figure for the LatinX community and Netflix had the chance to introduce her to a new generation in a deeper way than the movie Selena (1997) was able to do.
The outrage on social media, such as TikTok and Twitter, flooded the feeds with memes and videos mocking the series.
Putting aside the reaction that the show received from viewers, many realized that Netflix has not been properly advertising the series on their Instagram page that currently has 26.5 million followers in comparison to shows Instagram (@selenanetflix) which has 277 thousands followers. Because of the lack of promotion on the series, this can elude that it wasn’t as important to Netflix than their other shows. There was no promotion leading to the series premier, instead there were a lot of Stranger Things and The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina posts. The only proper advertising that the show received from Netflix’s Instagram was the day the show premiered.
Netflix is one of the top streaming services in the game with 203.7 millions subscribers around the globe. However that being said, that does not mean the content represents their subscribers that are in the LatinX, Asian, and Black community. When logging into Netflix, and going onto the Netflix Original’s category, a subscriber would only be predominantly shown shows and movies that aren’t a part of these communities.
Hollywood reinforces stereotypes which hurt people of color because stereotypes put people in boxes and once you're a box you’re used as a prop instead of a valuable character. Netflix should take into consideration the response they received from the LantinX community and use it to represent them better.
The viewers are always watching but maybe it’s time Netflix watches the lack of representation they provide in their platform.
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