Unproductive penchant for ‘secrets’

“TWO WIVES.” Big secrets should have an intriguing, beguiling effect on viewers.

Television drama series have to continually keep viewers intrigued about their upcoming twists and turns, but their current penchant for doing so by way of “secrets” to eventually reveal is turning out to be dismayingly unproductive. Can’t drama series’ writers think up something else—and better—to keep viewers viewing?

For instance, on “Ang Lihim ni Annasandra,” the very first telecast revealed what the female protagonist’s big, hush-hush secret was—at dusk, the lovely lady (Andrea Torres) would be transformed into—a wild pig!

With the big shocker already out of the bag, what else does the new show have to glue viewers to their TV sets? Many other things happen on the show, but they’re mainly of the predictable sort, so an infusion of real creativity and exciting complication is urgently needed.

Even “Hawak-Kamay” has a big secret brewing that involves its protagonist, played by Piolo Pascual: Now that Iza Calzado has agreed to marry him and his financial prospects are looking up, he’s discovered that he’s seriously ill (with cirrhosis of the liver)!

Big problem: Does he tell Iza and his adoptive kids, and thus turn their happiness into grief? Or, does he manfully keep his terrible suffering to himself—and pray for a miracle? “Hawak-Kamay” being a drama series, our advice is for him to opt for the latter, since miracles do happen—especially on teleseryes!

On the new show, “Two Wives,” the big secret is that Erich Gonzales has solved Jason Abalos’ financial problems by hiring him to pretend to be the long-absent father of her little daughter.

Jason says yes because he has a lot of bills to pay—but, can you imagine how his wife, Kaye Abad, will react when she suspects that he has another “family” on the side?

“Two Wives” is based on a Korean telenovela, so we presume that its development won’t be Xerox-ing the hot-to-trot events on the recently concluded “Ang Dalawang Mrs. Real.”

Innovations and departures include a younger, “sexier” and “more realistic” approach to storytelling, recently exemplified on the new series by a scene in which Jason was taking a “baring” bath, and Kaye was “tinkling” on the toilet “throne.”

Married couples do this all the time, but it was still a bit surprising to see the “realistic” juxtaposition of intimate acts on local TV.

In all of these instances, the big-deal secrets aren’t having the intriguing, beguiling effect on viewers that they were meant to have, partly because the cat has been let out of the bag too early.

Perhaps the better ploy would have been the tack that a few other TV-film productions have favored—namely, a secret that’s kept even from the viewing public, so everyone is productively mystified before the big mystery is solved!

This is the tack that the current film, “Gone Girl,” has chosen to take, and the fact that it’s the top hit of the month attests to the astuteness of its decision.—Keep everybody in the dark, why don’t you?