Big stars up front

AGUSTIN AND LOCSIN. Topbill “Obsession” and “The Legal Wife,” respectively.

It’s only the start of the new entertainment season, but this early, it already looks like 2014 will be one of the most keenly competitive show biz years ever.

A key indication of this is that the leading TV networks’ new shows have some of their biggest stars up front, raring to stun the competition into meek submission.

For instance, ABS-CBN’s “The Legal Wife” has Angel Locsin and Jericho Rosales headlining. No, it isn’t a hot-to-trot movie, it’s a new teleserye that fully aims to become one of 2014’s most controversial scorchers.

Its characters aren’t gender-benders, but within the parameters of “straight” romance, passion and ardent contention, they intend to show that some men and women can take their combustible relationships into pretty sinuous and sensuous nooks and crannies, too!

For its part, GMA is fielding no less than its beauteous drama queen, Marian Rivera—but, without Dingdong Dantes, for a change. To test the waters in terms of novel casting combinations, Marian’s new series, “Carmela,” has tyro male lead, Alden Richards, pushed to the forefront as Marian’s latest screen consort.

Will the relative newbie rise up to the momentous occasion, or will he fold and fail to measure up to the considerable challenge of being Marian’s latest screen squeeze?

On TV5, there’s a production being whipped up with no less than Nora Aunor and Tirso Cruz III in its stellar cast. In our view, this is an inspired move, because decades after their Guy and Pip heyday, Tirso and Nora have both become exceptional actors.

Longtime fans

So, even viewers who aren’t their longtime fans would want to see them in a drama together, to appreciate how well they’ve separately honed their thespic skills.

On the comedy front, ABS-CBN is scoring a coup of sorts by starring no less than sitcom and rom-com “prince,” John Lloyd Cruz, in its new weekly series, “Home Sweetie Home.”

Other stars like Toni Gonzaga, Sandy Andalong and Rico J. Puno are involved, but the series is clearly banking on Cruz’s proven talent in romantic comedy, and his deft comedic timing, which only a few young actors are similarly lucky to possess.

For its part, GMA has its own “wife” drama series, “The Borrowed Wife,” with Rafael Rosell, Camille Prats and TJ Trinidad topbilling. On a TV promotional guesting stint recently, the leads intimated that Charee Pineda and Camille would be “switching faces” or identities early in the series’ plot progression.

At TV5, Bianca King and Marvin Agustin headline the psycho drama, “Obsession.” It’s good to see Marvin in intense dramatic mode again, after a rather long interval spent hosting cooking shows and such. Marvin showed how good a thespian he could be in Marilou Diaz-Abaya’s last two (religious) films, so we hope that his new TV series makes full use of his exceptional talent, and leads to his being “rediscovered” by film producers and directors