‘Probinsyano’s Paloma’: A case of questionable visual context

MARTIN as Paloma. INSTAGRAM PHOTO/ERIC JOHN SALUT

When “Ang Probinsyano” thought up the unexpected plot twist of having its tough protagonist, Cardo Dalisay, pretend to be a woman to crack a white slavery case, we joined others in cheering the innovative move.

Indeed, lead star Coco Martin’s first scenes as the sexy Paloma hit the spot, because savvy styling, staging and framing enabled him to pass muster as a rather dishy dame.

Unfortunately, the carefully calibrated illusion was soon marred by the female company Paloma was made to keep, with all of the other conscripts of the white slavery ring being exceptionally lovely, sexy and slim starlets.

Seen in the context of their nubile company, Paloma looked distractingly too bulky and chunky to still pass for female, frustrating the production stylists’ best efforts.

Despite this obvious visual dissonance, however, all of the criminal characters in the series were still made to fall for Paloma’s now improbable ruse, which gravely diminished their astuteness—as well as the clarity of their vision!

To make things worse, the cops and other good guys in the show were ostensibly also duped.  Even Cardo’s own sister-in-law, Carmen (Bela Padilla), couldn’t see through Paloma’s disguise, to viewers’ consternation.

The reason for all of this cluelessness, of course, is that Cardo needed to successfully hide behind his Paloma alter-ego to save Carmen and all of the ring’s other victims—and to crush the gang’s top guns!

Unfortunately, in the dramatic trade, everything has to be believable. —If it’s less than that, viewers realize that the actors are just pretending.

When this happens, the drama’s sense of risk and danger is dissipated, and viewers’ genuine and all-important empathy or “feeling-for” can’t fully kick in.

Disparity

If the production had surrounded Paloma with bigger or less “softly nubile” women, the jarring disparity would have been diminished.

Also weighing the series down as it rushed pell-mell to its finale was its need to stage “big” rescue scenes to pump up its penultimate action.

Unfortunately, some of the scenes were so big and involved so many conflicting groups that the staging fell apart.

Last Monday, for instance, the cops, after being tipped off by the “embedded” Cardo-Paloma, finally raided the gang’s posh lair as the girls were being “auctioned off” to filthy rich DOMs—and the extended action wasn’t cohesively dramatized and covered.

The cops were able to penetrate the lair’s security much too easily, which cast aspersions on the supposedly bigtime criminals’ competence.

In addition, the rescue soon took a more personal turn as Cardo zeroed in on saving Carmen from her “buyer,” who much too quickly sped off with her on a small yacht.

“Ang Probinsyano” is a very popular treat for viewers, so it deserves to end with a big and convincing bang!