‘Dream Dad’ makes good first impression

AGONCILLO AND MARUDO. Winning combination.

The premiere telecast of the new drama series, “Dream Dad,” introduced viewers to local TV’s newest pint-sized charmer, 5-year-old Jana Agoncillo, who’s cast as the orphan girl who yearns to find her dream and real adoptive father in the series’ lead character, played by Zanjoe Marudo.

Cute, little Jana had still to make her formal appearance on the show last week, but its trailers indicate that she’s quite a winsome, winning discovery—so, things are looking up on the new series. For his part, Zanjoe showed in the show’s first telecast that he was well-suited to his title role, exuding a similarly winning combination of strength and vulnerability.

He’s cast as the only son and scion of the owner of a big dairy farm, but he wants to live a simpler life as a veterinarian. However, his father insists on his taking over their company, even if it means giving up the quiet life he dreamed of—and the woman he wants to marry.

So, how does “Baby” (Jana) enter Zanjoe’s character’s life? On the way to a big corporate event, the scion is forced by unexpected circumstances to help a pregnant woman (Yen Santos) give birth to her love child (being a vet, he’s completely up to the unusual task!).

We expect that subsequent telecasts will show Baby being put up for adoption, and when she’s 5 years old, her path will “fatedly” cross with that of the stranger who helped her make her entry into the world, the “dream dad” she’s longed for since early childhood.

Obedient

With good leads like Zanjoe and Jana, the new series has generally made a good first impression. However, we felt a bit ill at ease over how “automatically” obedient Zanjoe was to his autocratic pater (Ariel Ureta), even practically jilting his fiance just to do his dad’s bidding. Won’t this cause viewers to like the series’ main protagonist a bit less, despite Marudo’s otherwise focused and well-motivated portrayal?

Aside from Ureta, other regular cast members introduced to the TV audience included Gloria Diaz as Zanjoe’s more enlightened mother, and Beauty Gonzales as his hypercompetent office assistant.