One riveting revelation after another in Bea Alonzo’s new TV starrer

Bea Alonzo’s new TV soap, “Sana Bukas Pa ang Kahapon,” started off well last June 16—but what about its subsequent telecasts? We watched the show’s entire first week of installments and appreciated the brisk pacing, with one major development or revelation following hot on the heels of another.

The drama series’ biggest surprise and bonus to date is viewers’ realization that Bea’s painfully lonely character, Rose, whom she depicted with impressive creativity and subtlety, wasn’t her only role in the show: As early as the third telecast, the versatile actress essayed the very different role of Emmanuelle—an older, very accomplished lawyer whose initial problem was her neglect of her family in favor of a very hectic work schedule.

Gratifying

It was gratifying to see Bea seamlessly shuttling between two very distinct characters—

Rose is gauche, while Emmanuelle is smart and beautiful—a thespic feat that most other actresses couldn’t succeed at accomplishing.

At the end of the first week’s series of telecasts, viewers were shown snippets of a violent explosion in which one of the two women ends up with a shattered face, and it was intimated that the other woman, after restorative plastic surgery, will take her place in order to solve a series of crimes.

Now, that’s an even more remarkable plot and character development that finally answers the question of why Bea had  to portray these two very distinct characters in the first place.

As for the other actors in the cast, the vivid first impression that kontrabida Maricar Reyes made was sustained in the other telecasts, but the actress sometimes resorted to predictably “evil” tricks that watered down the originality and dynamic verve of her initial “attack.”

It was also a downer that she was given too much “power” in the storytelling, including her dubious ability to throw her stepfather, played by Chinggoy Alonzo, off a high balcony to his death, because he preferred Rose to her!

Still, Maricar makes a beautifully scary villain, so her performance to date passes muster, despite the less than overwhelmingly appreciative notes we’ve raised.

Bea and Maricar are still doing well, but Paulo Avelino hasn’t risen to their level. His complex hero-antihero character was given dramatic things to say and do, but his cautiously “underacted” approach didn’t make them dynamic and powerfully moving.

Too idiosyncratic

An even weaker impression was made by Albert Martinez as Emmanuelle’s husband. It’s instructive to try to figure out why male characters in teleseryes pale in comparison to their female counterparts. What do you think?

On the other hand, the belatedly introduced character of Rose’s lolo, played by Eddie Garcia, is too idiosyncratic for comfort. Why, he’s even made to surround his house with a battery of weapons that can be automatically triggered by an unwelcome visitor’s intrusion! Too many implausible and attention-calling gimmicks, if you ask us.

Still and all, “Sana Bukas Pa ang Kahapon” continues to hold viewers’ attention and involvement, and could end up as one of the most significant successes in lead player Bea’s decadelong career to date.

Well, she deserves it!