Time to refocus for ‘heroic’ drama series

RICHARDS. Major stumbling block.

Because its avowed goal is to make National Hero Jose Rizal’s life and values come dramatically and vitally alive for young televiewers, we’ve been watching “Ilustrado” on a regular basis.

After more than one week of sustained viewing, what’s the verdict? All told, the new and well-intentioned series is sometimes visually arresting, but it’s been unproductively painting itself into little “interesting” corners instead of coming up with a larger and deeper picture of the complex pressures and factors that made Rizal’s life so heroically inspirational.

For instance, on a recent telecast, the show made too big a to-do over the boy Pepe’s being traumatically embarrassed at a gathering because he sang badly. Years later, the teenage Rizal was similarly abashed when he sang poorly during a harana.

A big to-do is also being made over Pepe’s love for Leonor Rivera. We understand that the show needs to underscore Rizal’s romantic bent to make the series “accessible” to teen viewers—but, not at the expense of more contextually important considerations.

Now that Alden Richards has taken over the Rizal role, his being tisoy has become, as feared, a major stumbling block. It throws the period’s entire colonial context out of whack. If the “oppressed” sort of look like the “oppressors,” the central conflict become theoretically and dramatically academic, at best.

It also doesn’t help that Richards doesn’t appear to have tried hard enough to “capture” Rizal’s character and ethos. The production’s scripting similarly doesn’t help by too often making its protagonist come off as rather clueless and sometimes even silly and stupid.

Again, this may be done for comically diverting and “humanizing” purposes, but—there goes the heroic territory!

As “Ilustrado” unfolds, we remind ourselves to be grateful for its intent. But, our determination not to be niggardly and peevish is foiled by the irritants that distract us from watching the show with full focus, like poorly blocked scenes involving too many people to comfortably fit the “intimate” TV screen.

Some performances are also too two-dimensional to be “stylistically” convincing. Aside from Richards, teen leading lady Kylie Padilla comes across as too modern and with-it for comfort.

It’s even more disappointing to see “name” performers like Jaclyn Jose turning in merely perfunctorily “arch” and snide cameo portrayals of “colonial” characters. It’s a good thing that the show occasionally features more textured character performances, like the Spanish officer who appreciates young Rizal’s artistic gift.

All told, therefore, “Ilustrado” is well-intentioned but needs to refocus its energies and attention on what really matters—or else, its expensive foray into hero-appreciating dramatics could end up unheroically—shooting itself in the foot!