Confounding mix of contradictory honors

MANILA, Philippines – Groups that hand out TV awards at about this time of year have been increasing in number, with many of the new award-giving organizations belonging to schools. Some of them may be motivated by a sincere desire to boost, acknowledge and reward quality work on the small screen, but others are merely envious of the attention that existing groups have been getting, hence the desire to jump onto the trendy bandwagon!

If the awards went to deserving winners, the proliferation wouldn’t be so bad. But, this isn’t happening, so the result is a confounding mix of contradictory honors, making it difficult for TV buffs to determine who the rightful honorees should be!

Well, we just have to decide for ourselves which verdicts to believe in, and which to completely reject.

The problem gets worse in the field of drama, because the popularity of teleseryes has given birth to a new kind of “acting” that makes it difficult for even the best actors to come up with integral performances.

Standards

When even our top actors perform in teleseryes, they often have to compromise or downright lower their standards, because the roles they play, as written, are difficult to make much consistent thespic sense of.

A character may start out well-motivated, but as the series unfolds, illogical changes are made in terms of plot and character progression to sustain and even further heat up viewers’ interest and involvement in the show.

When a character is thus adjusted or “pushed,” what is the actor assigned to play him to do? Make the necessary motivational and emotional adjustments, of course.

In the end, the character has been altered so much, for varying and sometimes conflicting reasons, that the hitherto “acclaimed” actor throws up his hands, plays the role in full, spectacular, super-melodramatic mode—and consoles himself with the thought that he’s being paid a lot of money to “sell” his artistic soul to the profligately generous teleserye imp!

Focus

The worst-case scenario is when a series becomes a big hit and is extended for months, or even goes into Book Two overdrive. The original shape and focus of the character becomes a vague memory, and the actor just keeps playing it more lushly than ever, never mind consistency of conflict, motive and theme.

Indeed, since all of the major characters in the extended series are being played full-throttle by the actors assigned to them, the acting in a hit show ends up as a veritable thespic “battle,” with the actors involved each laying it on as thickly as possible, just to keep up with the “competition!”

On top of all this, the TV award-giving bodies tend to honor the most floridly melodramatic and over-the-top actors, so the least subtle and most in-your-face actors are even rewarded for their execrably excessive portrayals!

It’s enough to make even the most passionately loyal couch camote cry—and switch his TV set off for good!