Now comes the hard part

PINEDA. Own understanding.

Finally, after months of intense honing and hoping, the latest “StarStruck” ultimate survivors have been named—Klea Pineda and Migo Adecer. After congratulating them, how else can we possibly help them smoothly slip into the groove of being potential show biz stars?

First, Migo should work triply hard to lick his “Tagalog problem”—which, if not immediately attended to, will limit his stellar options. There are simply too many promising male starlets out there for directors to bother to help smooth out a newcomer’s limitations.

On the plus side, Migo’s boyish good looks make him appealing to young viewers. But, in his past acting exercises, he’s lacked focus and confidence and the ability to go beyond the script and directors’ instructions, to arrive at his own insights into the characters he’s played.

For her part, Klea is a better thespian, but she too needs to go beyond “instructions” and come to her own understanding of her roles.

Another key observation: Neither Klea nor Migo came across as particularly outstanding singers and dancers, so the vaunted dream of “total performance” that “StarStruck” bets are supposed to aim for (hence the many tests in each area of performance) is still beyond their ken. Realistically, therefore, they have to initially focus on making it stellarly as actors, which is why they must overcome their limitations in this regard.

Obligation

Their problem is the fact that there are already a number of promising starlets out there who are already doing what they aim to do—so, their additional challenge is to figure out how they can stand out. After picking them, GMA 7 has the obligation to showcase them in attention-calling productions—even as it’s still trying to turn them into total performers.

ADECER. More focus and confidence.

Everyone’s role model in this regard should be past winner Sarah Lahbati, who does everything well and is really lovely to boot—which is why she’s become a real comer, despite the usually restricting fact that she’s a young mother.

A final word: This batch of “StarStruck” bets hasn’t been all that outstanding, so the talent search should firm up its act, to discover much more stellarly promising finalists, the next time around.