Failure to fly

REYES. Made her evil character more conflicted and vulnerable.

THE “ANGELIC” drama series, “Nathaniel,” ended its extended run last week, as improbably “miraculous” as ever. During its stint on the tube, we appreciated its efforts to “inspire” the viewing populace by showing how its resident cherub from heaven (Marco Masa) helped many conflicted people solve their problems—and redeem themselves.

However, the show’s actual inspirational value was decidedly blunted and limited by the implausibility of the solutions it came up with, which were much too “miraculous” to be believed.

This blithe tendency and dependency was made even more incredible in the series’ big finale, which featured multiple changes of heart, even by the worst villains in its turgid tale. Even less convincingly, the show’s special effects people tried to whip up a big Battle to the Finish between a host of angelic “warriors” and their “devilish” counterparts! We know that they were aiming for a big-bang climax, but it turned out to be more anticlimactic than anything else.

Real problems

If some of the show’s viewers were moved to redeem their own lives, wonderful. But, it would have been more genuinely inspiring if the series had tackled more real problems—and if the solutions it dramatized were more difficult to effect, as they sadly are, in actuality.

The series would also have done better if it had made its resident angel not as wise and loquacious as he was depicted to be. The facile “motherhood” and “brotherhood” pronouncements he spouted only made the show a more dubious viewing experience. Even more unfortunately, it also limited the impact of the new child actor’s portrayal. —He came off as simply too blandly good and eloquent to be true.

The series’ main stellar “survivor” is Coney Reyes, because she bothered to make her evil character more conflicted and vulnerable than the others, so that, by the time her big “change of heart” came, it was less incredible than the rest.

Alas, her costars weren’t as fortuitously fortunate, so the show ended up being a downer for the likes of Gerald Anderson, Shaina Magdayao and Isabelle Daza. Yes, they didn’t write the series’ overly unreal and fatuous script, but their shallow or unfocused portrayals added to their “angelic” show’s ultimate—failure to fly.