Netflix’s Neon Addresses the Whitewashing of Reggaeton — & I Want Another Season

When I first heard about Netflix’s Neon, a series about reggaeton music, I felt nervous. Reggaeton is a genre and culture that is very precious to Latine, especially Caribbean Latine, people: Many of us grew up with the sound, so we all have memories and feelings about the genre. Moreover, the reggaeton music industry is notoriously problematic, as the artists that historically make it big across Latin America and the Latine diaspora tend to whiten the Black and Caribbean origins of the genre. That said, I was hesitant because I wanted to watch a TV show that was honest about the genre while also exploring how much Latines love the sound and its meanings, despite its flaws. I didn’t think Neon would deliver. Thankfully, I was wrong.

Neon is a heartfelt, authentic and important exploration of reggaeton and the people who make it. Following the professional and personal trajectory of an exceptionally talented reggaetonero from Fort Myers, Florida, Neon isn’t invested in hiding the problems embedded in the reggaeton industry. Co-created by executive producers Shea Serrano (Primo) and Max Searle, the TV show tells the story of Santi (Tyler Dean Flores) and his two best friends, Ness (Emma Ferreira), and Felix (Jordan Mendoza), who move to Miami after Santi’s reggaeton song goes viral on YouTube. Hoping to close a record deal with record label representative Mia (Courtney Taylor), Santi has an unwavering belief that he is meant to be a reggaeton star — but the tough music industry proves to be harder to break into than the three friends previously thought. 

Santi, played by up-and-coming Puerto Rican actor Flores (Miguel Wants to Fight) is the perfect protagonist for Neon: a visibly brown man whose talent is only recognized because of the Internet’s virality, accurately depicting the scrappiness of music artists just starting out in the genre and the precarious ways they become famous for their skills and sounds. 

We first meet Santi as he is dreaming of success while napping on his way to Miami, where he and his two best friends have a meeting with a representative for a massive reggaeton record label. They’re incredibly excited, but budgeting is key in their adventure – they don’t have extra money to blow off in case Santi doesn’t get signed or things go wrong. Being a young artist, even in a space where your culture is being honored and recognized as important, is a precarious affair, particularly for communities of color. 

In fact, it is this very precarity that leads Neon into its most interesting and daring storyline. Though Santi struggles to get a record deal, he is noticed by world-famous pop star Isa, who decides to use Santi and his reggaeton credibility to launch a new era of her music where she honors her (never mentioned publicly before) Latine background. Isa and Santi embark on a fake publicity relationship to garner attention for Isa’s new musical era (any resemblance to Spanish singer Rosalía and Rauw Alejandro is a mere coincidence, I’m sure).

Before enlisting Santi into her publicity stunt, Isa never really cared to talk about her Latine background. Isa is clearly unmoved by the reggaeton beats they play with in her studio, until Santi shares a song he just finished producing. The song is called “Corillo,” a banger where he pays homage to his two best friends, Ness and Felix. The song is catchy and relatable, but most importantly, it’s art that came from Santi’s heart – it goes hard because it came from such a deeply personal place. It’s a celebration of his friends, where they come from, and where they want to arrive together. For Isa, though, Santi’s new song is an opportunity to make money and launch herself into the reggaeton industry. 

From a business perspective, this is smart since reggaeton is the fifth-biggest genre in the U.S. Isa pounces at the opportunity of making Santi’s “Corillo” a love song instead of a homage to platonic friendship and support. The new version of the song becomes a duet that doesn’t make any sense — most of the lyrics are maintained despite the fact that they were not originally about romance, but Isa doesn’t care about the authenticity that makes reggaeton successful as a genre. Isa’s heartless poppy production makes the song “objectively worse,” in the words of Ness. In Neon, though Santi is the writer and producer of “Corillo,” Isa becomes the more palatable spokesperson for the genre because she is a white woman. 

I was excited to see this tackled in the show because whitewashing in the reggaeton industry is an all too common marketing tactic, thus erasing the Black and brown creators of the genre. As a viewer, it's evident the roles consultants Katelina Eccleston, of Reggaeton con La Gata, and Suzy Exposito, music and culture writer at the Los Angeles Times, played in ensuring this story is told authentically, addressing on screen what both critics have discussed on their respective platforms throughout their careers.

As Santi is falling down the rabbit hole of Isa’s plans for his career, we also get to see more of Ness and Felix. Played by Ferreira, Ness is a queer Afro-Latina who wants to help Santi succeed but also has her own life beyond her friends. Ness is a really fun character, as she is prone to get distracted by attractive women and her banter with Santi is delightful. And when Felix, played by Asian American actor Jordan Mendoza, gets some space from Santi, he starts a friendship with Mia (Taylor), an assistant to a record label representative who pretends to be able to sign Santi to her boss’s record label simply to make friends. I really hope Netflix gives Neon a second season because I want to know more about the adventures these four characters will get up to.

Reggaeton is a valuable part of Caribbean, Latine, and Latin American culture, and in Neon, it is recognized as such. The reggaeton cameos sprinkled throughout the show also made sure that industry legends got their flowers (as an aside, who knows if reggaetoneros can act since they were all playing themselves?), plus it’s fun for the audience to spot our favorites in the genre. It’s clear that Neon is a TV show that knows its origins, and I can’t wait to see more. I’m hoping for a second season where Santi becomes famous and other aspects of the music industry are explored.  

Most of the characters are from Puerto Rico, so it wasn’t very diverse. However, I think this makes a lot of sense because of the subject matter, as reggaeton was created in Puerto Rico. I also appreciated that the series took place in Florida, given the large Puerto Rican population in the state and reggaeton’s long history there, but it would have felt more realistic if Santi was from Central Florida, a city like Orlando or Kissimmee, where most Puerto Ricans reside and where reggaeton production has thrived long before it became mainstream. It felt obvious that there weren’t many people from Florida behind the project.

I loved the banter in Spanish between Santi and Ness, usually to exclude Felix. I also loved the way some of the reggaetoneros spoke Spanish and English in the same sentence.

Two of the main characters are of African descent (though still light-skinned), which isn’t something you see very often, even in TV shows that promise to be diverse or center Latine experiences. 

Neon draws on the long history of reggaetoneros and drug trafficking in a pretty humorous way, which I really enjoyed. 

I really like Neon and would recommend that you get into it as soon as possible.