‘Commercial Garden?’ Ads spoil ‘Meteor Garden’ nostalgia

Screengrab from ABS-CBN’s YouTube account.

MANILA, Philippines – Netizens were bitten by the nostalgia bug Monday afternoon especially after watching “Meteor Garden,” the hit Asianovela that was first aired ten years ago.

But their nostalgian turned to irritation on Twitter, supposedly because of the long commercial breaks that interrupt the hit show.

The Asianovela made a comeback on Monday in ABS-CBN, which first aired the show back in 2003.

The hit Taiwanese show tells the story of a poor teenage girl Shan Chai (played by Barbie Hsu) who fell in love with Dao Ming Si, the leader of an elite group F4. The members of the F4 – Dao Ming Si (Jerry Yan), Hua Ze Lei (Vic Chow), Mei Zuo (Vanness Wu) and Xi Men (Ken Zhu) – were heirs to influential Taiwanese businesses.

The reminiscing was such that hashtags related to Meteor Garden flooded Twitter, ultimately setting the trend among the country’s Twitter users.

Viewers were so engrossed to the show after ABS-CBN announced that it would run for one and a half hours.  Turns out commercials took a huge bite on the one-and-a-half hour run.

Viewers also thought the run this afternoon would be composed of more than one episodes, but apparently the run only aired the Asianovela’s pilot episode – cut by lengthy commercials.

The irritation was such that netizens branded the show as “Commercial Garden.”

One netizen even said the show only ran for 30 minutes, while the advertisements ate up one hour.

This was not the first time the show made a comeback since it first aired. ABS-CBN’s rival network GMA-7 acquired rights to air the Taiwanese soap opera in 2007.

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