Teleserye plots thicken–and ‘quicken’

Anne Curtis makes a splash as the adult Dyesebel

The big news on “Dyesebel” late last month was the long-delayed, and thus much-awaited, appearance of the series’ adult stars: Anne Curtis, Gerald Anderson, Sam Milby and Andi Eigenmann. Previously, the new series bided its time and twiddled its thumbs with excessive focus on its child characters.

While they were cute, smart, peppy and all that, they talked a blue streak and were made to sound too wise and “knowing” for believability’s sake. So, it was a decided relief to finally be able to bid them a less than fond farewell (we didn’t say good riddance).

To be fair, the show has made some strong points about the need to protect our waterworld’s environment. We trust, now that the adult characters have taken over and will expectedly pay more attention to affairs of the heart, that this central focus will remain firm.

Louise de los Reyes is sincere and warmly empathetic

Empathetic

On the “other” mermaid drama, “Kambal Sirena,” lead player Louise de los Reyes is turning out to be a sincere and warmly empathetic performer, but her costars are failing to keep up with her.

In addition, some scenes’ weak staging is proving to be a distraction, like a recent sequence in which Louise’s mermaid character escapes from a hut without anybody seeing her—even if her captor’s father steps on her fishtail, causing her to cry in pained, teeth-gritting silence!

How is it possible for him to be so blind and insensate?

On “The Legal Wife,” Jericho Rosales and Maja Salvador have finally launched into their secret affair, so the proceedings have become more passionate and “charged.” It really is about time!

Angel Locsin is doing well as the suspicious wife

However, since “wife” Angel Locsin is clueless about their steamy duplicity, everything remains seethingly beneath the surface, so we’re impatiently waiting for everything to come to a big, explosive and melodramatic head.

That may not happen for quite a while, however, because Angel’s character has gotten it all wrong: While she’s correct about suspecting her husband of cheating on her, she thinks it’s another woman, a high-class hussy ironically named Digna (Niña Dolino), who’s the culprit.

Delicious

Actually, it’s her best friend Maja who’s guilty, and the show recently made a big, ironic deal about it in a scene in which Angel confronted Jericho and “Digna”—with Maja in tow!

That’s the stuff of which “delicious” passionate melodrama is made, so more of the same, please!

Angel is doing well as the suspicious wife, but Maja is turning out to be too lightweight a performer as the other woman. For one thing, right after the devious deed is done, she feels severe pangs of guilt and remorse, and wants to end the affair, pronto.

This gives her good “guilt-wracked” scenes to bite her thespic teeth into—but, her depiction of her character’s “sexy wiles” isn’t as charged and “dangerously” seductive as it should be.

As for Jericho, he has a lot riding on this series’ success, so it’s good to note that it gives him the perfect opportunity to do his urgently dramatic best, because he’s the man whom the show’s female leads are fighting over.

However, as of this writing, his portrayal is still too “hidden,” “guilty” and controlled to be dramatically dynamic. Let’s hope that he forcefully breaks through and goes for the thespic jugular—real soon!