Your Pinoy Soap

It’s Thursday night. Once again I am playing Minesweeper while Mai (Ippo’s yaya) is switching channels in between commercials.

Every night, there’s a battle between channel 7 and channel 2 in our living room. My mom favors Bakekang and the rest of the channel 7 soaps. Mai likes Sana Maulit Muli and that soap with Bea and John Lloyd. If you ask me, I’ve always loved channel 7 since I was a kid. Right now though, I don’t like any of the soaps in Kapuso, so I pay more attention to the television when Kapamilya is on during prime time.

Sana Maulit Muli is on right now. The entire nation, plus the TFC subscribers all over the world just found out that Jasmine and Camille are sisters. Why does this not surprise me? On every Pinoy soap, the protagonist is always secretly related to another character. Just the other day, I learned that John Lloyd and Sam Milby are related (first cousins in Maging Sino Ka Man, if I’m not mistaken).

If the lead is not secretly related to the villain or whoever, there’s always an adoption, or some baby switching going on. This afternoon, I saw channel 7’s newest daytime delight, Princess Charming. Apparently, the ugly Charming is the real daughter of rich Carmina Villaroel. Carmina’s superstitious mother-in-law bought another baby in the hospital (Princess) because a fortune-teller warned her that Charming will bring bad luck to their family. There goes your baby swapping. Goodness, does this happen in real life?

And need I mention the rich girl-poor boy (or poor girl-rich boy) love story? The love story that will always involve a triangle, a quad or partner-swapping. This is just my opinion, but in real life, the rich are rarely in contact with the poor, so where’s the opportunity to fall in love here? And I don’t know of a haciendera who fell madly in love with her gardener in my circle. I think it would be more real to write a story about a young Filipina who becomes infatuated with an American correspondent or a “chat-mate.”

Soap plots are just so predictable. I’m sure the producers do research and hire talented writers. They must already know that they are presenting the same dish over and over again. They seem to be following a formula to ensure viewer patronage. I just wish that they could be bolder by trying out something more realistic. Viewers just might enjoy it. If they’re worried that viewers won’t buy it, then they should get a power house cast. After all, Pinoys are known to be smitten by stars. That should influence their ratings.

I’m only asking for them to give the sensible Pinoy a break and make better plots.

Written on Feb-8

Bianca, Bakekang, Alessandra And Renée

I don’t speak all that well, but I just have to comment on the Filipino soap actor’s diction.

As I was playing Minesweeper tonight, I could hear Sana Maulit Muli on tv. I was prompted to direct my eyes onto the screen when I heard one of the female characters (Bianca) deliver her line. “…Yur gads geef to weemehn.” I was surprised and disappointed.

I’m not a regular viewer of this soap but I’ve seen snippets of it because it’s always on our living room tv when I’m getting ready for work. Anyway, my reaction is such because I didn’t expect that kind of diction from a face like Bianca’s. Call me biased, but I happen to think that she has an elitist’s face. She looks so chic and I just couldn’t believe those words were coming out of her mouth. Oh, and that wasn’t the only horrific line I heard. She also said “eets nat my beesnehs.”

Here’s my two cents. People in the entertainment business should invest in personality development, particularly in communication skills. I wouldn’t expect so much from Bakekang or any jologs role but if the use of English language is necessary, then diction training is a must.

Suddenly, the faces of the de Rossi sisters flash on me. Have you seen Alessandra de Rossi’s sanitary napkin commercial? I can’t quite remember the napkin brand but I can’t forget the weird way she pronounces “pad.” It almost sounds like “pod.” I’m not attempting to bash her. I happen to admire her candidness. Anyway, I don’t have any cruel intentions. This is supposed to be constructive criticism.

Going back to the soap. It seems so pretentious when a sophisticated character speaks like she’s from the slums. It’s as pathetic as seeing your typical protagonist wearing braces when she is supposed to be poor and pitied.

There is one thing I admire among Hollywood actors (not all of course). I see that they put so much effort to prepare for their roles. I’m sure you are as amazed to see actors fatten up or shed pounds to fit their roles. Case in point, Renée Zellweger in Bridget Jones’s Diary, Renée Zellweger in Chicago and Renée Zellweger in Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason. Renée had to put on almost 30 pounds for both servings of Bridget Jones (from a size 6 to a size 14). She lost all of the weight after filming. Notice how slim and buffed up she was for Chicago? And with her British accent as Bridget Jones, could you tell she’s from Texas?

All I’m saying is that I think it would be great if Filipino actors would take their jobs seriously.

I just heard Glydel Mercado say “geeb me anader chance.” Enough said.