Started off great and fell so hard
It became more about the boring subplots with Mario, Raquel, Myrelys and Lola (albeit, her story line was actually good) than Celia. I was hoping for a musically filled homage with dramatizations of her life and how she got to where she stood as Queen of Salsa. I would've loved the subplots to be more on those who were relevant to her and her career like they did with Myrta Silva's short-lived, yet entertaining subplot and those from La Sonora. 1950's Cuba was well executed, the music was amazing. Then she got to NY and it was as if it was no longer her show. We got less of Celia and more of Mario. I wanted to see more of her work with Tito Puente, not 1 minute scenes of her singing 2 selections from their album together (none of which was her actual hit single with Tito).
How about the 1970's? Her prime, her debut with the Fania? I was anticipating so much to see that 10 year span in more than just 4 episodes. The 1950's Celia got 25 episodes, I was hoping the 70's had at least 15 episodes to showcase the friendly relationships she had with other artists such as Hector Lavoe, Ruban Blades, Willie Colon among others, and have their subplots shown the same way Myrta and members of La Sonora had. I wanted to see her perform not just Quimbara and Cucala, but also Isadora Duncan, Usted Abuso and many more. Showing actual footage of her Yankee Stadium & Africa concert was nice but I would've liked to see these scenes recreated.I wanted more music, more hype and excitement. But of course they failed, showing mostly Mario who never really existed. Myrelys and Raquel, they had no relevance to anything on the show. Myrelys was Pedro Knights ex, so it made sense to show her at first, but they went too far.
Lastly, Lola calvo left an impression, her music was good and the character's homage to La Lupe's performances was eccentric but she as a character wasn't needed at all. She was based on La Lupe who wasn't even Celia's friend nor her enemy. They just never really had anything to do with one another. The only negative encounter La Lupe and Celia had, actually occurred in 1978 when La Lupe jokingly claimed to a journalist that Pedro Knight was a santero which angered Celia. Her portrayal, though fun at times, was very disrespectful to La Lupe's legacy, music, persona and her family. La Lupe did not have a step father who raped her, she had both parents in her life who loved and supported her. I'm glad they did not even have the rights to use her name. They should've just given her, her own show and not include her in Celia's (PS I would love to see a biopic and or mini-series based on La Lupe).
I wish telemundo showcased more of the music and career than the useless and tired subplots that somehow became more of a focus than her actual life and career on the show. I heard of screwing up a biopic because of time limits, but how is it possible to screw up an 80 episode bio-series about someone's life?