Storytelling picks up speed, tempo on ‘The Gift Giver’

EDDIE Garcia dominates the screen with his simple but textured and felt portrayal.

Since she’s the “glue” that has held the family together, it starts to unravel, with the children attending to their own affairs, leaving the family patriarch (Eddie Garcia) in the lurch.

A subplot

As of last week, he has fallen ill and his children were mistakenly led to believe that he had cancer, so they decided to sell off some of his properties (without his knowledge), in anticipation of the huge medical bills that they thought were forthcoming.

In addition, the limited series brought up as subplot Eddie’s desire to adopt the boy who more or less took care of him in his “busy” children’s absence, but they were cold to the idea.

Finally, his youngest son was shown spiriting away what looked like a land title without anybody else’s knowledge, so more complications could result from that!

Since the limited series could end before the Yuletide month is over, its storytelling can be expected to speed up even more. We trust that, upon its conclusion, viewers will be more aware of the plight of old people left behind and alone, and the need for family members to help each other more, because that is what being part of a family entails.

On point of performance, Garcia dominates the drama series with his simple but textured and felt portrayal. It’s really quite inspiring to see the awarded veteran still coming up with such a focused performance, at a time when many of his contemporaries are no longer with us, or have stopped acting!

Still waiting

As for the series’ younger cast members, it’s good that Aiko Melendez is making her comeback to TV acting by way of this show, but we’re still waiting for her portrayal to really catch fire and acquire true grit.

The same pretty much goes for the series’ other regular cast members who, for the most part are still turning in merely proficient performances.

We trust that they will soon get their act together, so that the show’s senior lead player doesn’t have to “carry” the series pretty much by his lonesome. He can do it, why not?—but, it would be nicer if he had more help!

What we asked for

Meanwhile, on “Forevermore,” we’ve occasionally expressed the wish that the popular series would not be so thin in its storytelling—and now, we’re happy to report that we’re getting more of what we asked for: On Dec. 2, an earthquake hit the series’ hotel and farm locales, and Liza Soberano’s character ended up trapped with a woman she was trying to rescue.

Meanwhile, Enrique Gil “senses” that his dear friend is in danger, and we can expect him to locate and save her from her gravely dangerous predicament.

The complication is definitely welcome, because it’s at least more physically active and dynamic than the usual fare that the “drama” series features.

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