‘Bagito’s’ cautionary blues
AGUAS. His drama series teaches teens how to learn from their mistakes.
Only a couple of weeks after it started telecasting, the “unwed teen dad” series, “Bagito,” has already subjected its young protagonist, played by Nash Aguas, to a veritable gamut of daunting experiences that should have a decidedly cautionary effect on male teens watching the show! The series is subliminally telling young viewers, “Don’t be as clueless as this loser, it just isn’t worth it!” We trust that the cautionary message is being received—loud and clear!
Aguas’ clueless character simply doesn’t know what he’s gotten himself into—and it’s too late when he finally realizes that he’s in way over his head!
Protagonist
It all starts quite “innocently”: A college student the teen protagonist has a crush on gets drunk, he has to take her to her house, one drunken thing leads to another, and they have sex—once. Well, that’s all it takes!
Some weeks later, the free-spirited college student discovers that she’s pregnant, her callow, young friend is shocked to realize that he’s the, ah, impregnator—and all heck breaks loose!
His inadvertent fatherhood is particularly galling to his folks, because his mother (Angel Aquino) had also given birth to him out of wedlock—so, the last thing she wants is for history to repeat itself in his case, as though absolutely no lessons had been learned from her own, sad experience! —But, life is sometimes like that—and they just have to make the best out of a very bad situation.
Along with the series’ teen protagonist, young viewers are learning from watching the show to still behave responsibly even after the excrement has hit the fan. As the teen dad’s adoptive father (Ariel Rivera) shows him, one mistake shouldn’t lead to others, and there’s always the innocent love child’s welfare to think about.
So, they take care of the pregnant girl, even if she’s no longer their son’s beloved. In addition, they pay for her delivery and other medical bills—other “disgraced” young mothers should be so lucky!
Adoptive father
To further complicate matters, it turns out that the teen dad’s adoptive father was once the fiancé of Agot Isidro’s character, who now runs the school where he teaches. She still resents his duplicity, but agrees to help him when his family’s additional expenses due to his son’s love child get to be a huge problem.
Again, it is hoped that young viewers will learn from this that the “right” things have to be done by responsible adults, no matter how strong the subjective temptation is to do the contrary.
Thus, “Bagito” is turning out to be, not just a series about thoughtless teens making huge mistakes early in life, but also about how they can learn from those mistakes, act responsibly, and eventually become adults in the true meaning of the word.
If this means growing up practically overnight, so be it—because there’s an innocent, vulnerable child to take the best possible care of!
All told, therefore, “Bagito” is living up to its promise of being a valuable albeit cautionary viewing experience for young people experiencing the trouble-prone urges and surges of puberty. Parents and teachers of teens and tweens should discuss its episodes with their young wards to reinforce its key insights, so that the right lessons are persuasively learned—before more “mistakes” are made!
