Mixed results for historical ‘teleserye’

Our reactions to the first telecast of the new “historical teleserye,” “Ilustrado,” last Monday, Oct. 20, were decidedly mixed. On the plus side, we were glad that Dr. Jose Rizal’s life was finally being dramatized on a weeknight basis, to inspire viewers to be similarly selfless in their own lives.

We also appreciated the new series’ attention to period detail in its locales, costumes and props—achieved at no small expense, we imagine.

Finally, we liked the series’ occasional incursions into the poetic realm of “magic realism,” especially in the scene in which, as an adventurous child, Rizal actually or metaphorically dared to investigate the paranormal world of Laguna’s “hidden” nighttime forest and mountain creatures.

RICHARDS. Imprecise casting.

On the other hand, we found the first telecast’s progression too skittishly sketchy and unfocused, jumping from one “formally historical” event or “subjectively humanizing” anecdote to the next.

We sense the cumulative effect that the show is aiming for, but its scattershot technique confounds us.

We think that the child actor cast as the young Pepe was a good choice, because he’s a livewire and Asian, as Rizal actually was. But, we see a problem looming when Alden Richards takes over the role in teen and young-adulthood: Alden is much too tisoy to be believable as Rizal—and, he has “irrelevant” dimples, to boot!

Our producers really have to realize that physically believable casting of an actor to suit a well-known historical figure isn’t just preferred, it’s required if the actor and production are to do full, empathetic justice to the material at hand.

Another instance of imprecise casting is the key character of a powerful Spanish frayle being played by Lito Legaspi, who is all too obviously trying to awkwardly inhabit the ill-fitting role. The similarly important role of Pepe’s Kuya Paciano is also unproductively given to a so-so actor—and that’s really too bad, because it was Paciano who, by his passionate example, first took the young Rizal to potentially heroic heights.

The series does better when it tries to place its early, bucolic narrative within the necessary context of colonial oppression and violence. But, the show is concurrently trying to do many other things, so its focus on colonial context comes off as woefully sketchy and abridged. It has to be made in excessively fast and brief bursts of action, and thus fails to come to a thematic head.