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With new roadies now following the band, episode 7 of Selena: The Series part 1 sees Selena and the others preparing to head out as Chris rocks up slightly late. Selena is dazzled by his arrival while Abraham exchanges a knowing glance to AB. He senses something is up with Chris and tells him to clean the boy up before the show. There’s a lot of pressure on AB, thanks largely to Abraham, who tells him he needs to mix up the productions going forward with different instruments – but never to lose the distinct sound. “Do we ever get to enjoy it?” AB eventually asks, exasperated. It’s obvious that this earlier rift between them is starting to grow, and it sees AB forced to work harder to try and evolve the band’s sound. Suzette can sense that her brother is tired and losing his edge. While he may be losing his edge, Chris and Selena continue to grow closer together and sharpen theirs. As the band continue to party and enjoy time together, Abraham interrupts them all with big news from Jose. He calls AB away from the hotel room where he’s hanging out and reveals that he’s none too happy with him having fun and partying. Abraham warns him that it’s making the band look bad. Anyway, the real reason he’s there is because a couple of “bigwigs” are heading to the TMAs in a bid to help them with their crossover record. Abraham wants more innovation in time for this – they obviously need to write, rehearse and play a new track – and it means doing all of this now. AB continues to struggle and finds himself up to his neck in work, determined not to make the band – or his Father – look bad. It’s an awful lot of pressure and one that sees him struggling to come up with something original. After Selena wins another award, Abraham speaks to AB about his new material and it’s obvious he’s struggling with the gravitas of this situation. While he does, Selena speaks to Chris out on the beach after they get some time away from the others in Miami. There, we learn more about his outlook on life and how he lives for the moment and likes to go with the flow. He laughs, telling Selena they could never be together as the pair start flirting. Unbeknownst to them though, Suzette happens to be watching from afar. Eventually she confronts her sister and tells Selena she can’t be romantically involved with Chris given he’s in the band. Selena scoffs at the idea though, telling Suzete that they’re just friends and denying her own feelings. Obviously they’re not just friends, especially when Selena speaks to AB and asks him to relay on a question to Chris over whether he likes her. When AB feeds this on to Chris, his quiet and shy behaviour hints that he definitely does. AB even gives Selena a thumbs up afterwards. After their most recent show, Chris and Selena decide to hang out again. Only, that hanging out leads to so much more when Chris kisses her. Just as he does, Abraham calls the entire band out and calls them out for professionalism. As Chris and Selena exchange worried glances, one of the roadies is fired for bringing drugs onto the bus. This one act causes Selena to begin worrying about what this means for her with Chris. On the back of this incident, Chris and Selena meet again and decide to nip this in the bud before it becomes something more. Despite their clear affection for one another, they agree to stay friends.
The Episode Review
The added element of romance is a nice touch that helps to add more to Selena’s character but really, a lot of this show has kept her in the background in favour of Abraham and the rest of the band. Of course, this means a lot of shared characterization along the way but also doesn’t really explore much of Selena’s passions or dreams – or even what she thinks and feels before a show. Instead, AB and his estranged relationship with Abraham is given much more weight here and for those expecting an in-depth look at Selena herself may be left disappointed. However, as a biographical drama depicting what happened to the family, this does do a pretty good job of showing just that.
