Unexpectedly counterproductive moves in popular dramas

COCO Martin and Anne Curtis

ON “ANG Probinsyano,” the introduction of a new character played by Anne Curtis was supposed to add to the popular teleserye’s star value—and to its melodramatics, because her character was so nasty, spoiled and demanding, thus giving series lead Coco Martin a lot to get hot under the collar about.

In addition, Anne’s obvious good looks and desirability, in radical contrast to her “nega” and turn-off character, imbued their fledgling relationship with probable “love-hate” undertones that should make the show more feisty and thus interesting.

Unexpectedly, however, Anne’s in-your-face and really talkative and loud performance became more of a turn-off than a plus factor.

She kept complaining, throwing her weight around and yakking away—even in really “dangerous” moments, with bullets flying all over the place and everybody’s life in danger!

It was so unrelievedly loud and unreal that the temptation was strong for viewers to end the unrelieved stress, and switch channels.

To make things worse, Coco (as Cardo) got so ticked off by his argumentative and demanding “protectee” that he shouted at her, as well, subverting his usually laconic portrayal in the process!

We know that Anne was just playing her character “as written,” but her execution was too blatant, shrill and unrelieved.

She did get the nasty point across, but enough already.

That plea also goes out to the series’ director, who should know better when “enough” is—too much!

Focus problem

On “Princess in the Palace,” the problem isn’t volume and excessive dialogue, but lack of focus.

In particular, we wonder why the daytime soap is giving too much importance to its “comic relief” characters, like the gay “fashionista” portrayed by Joey Paras, and his similarly all-over-the-place subaltern.

Their fussy and even “crazy” outfits steal scenes from the series’ major characters, and too much is being made about their verbose opinions and florid actuations. Sense of perspective, people?

For its part, “Dolce Amore” is generally still doing well, but its “foreign” component, which has the characters played by Liza Soberano, Cherie Gil, Matteo Guidicelli and Ruben Maria  Soriquez  speaking  so much dialogue in Italian is getting to be a big bother.

It used to be impressive at the start, because it showed the lengths the show was prepared to go to make its foreign locales and characters believable.

However, the show has been indulging in it too much of late, so some reining in, editing and refocusing is needed.

Authentic foreign context is important, but it’s even more crucial to remember that this is a Filipino production for the local TV audience.

On “That’s My Amboy,” the basic improbability that limits the production is that tall, hunky and handsome Andre Paras’ character could fall for the radically petite and vertically challenged damsel portrayed by Barbie Forteza.

Again, we know that their mismatched love team is a hit with some young viewers, hence this follow-up series to their previous TV costarrer, “The Half Sisters.”

But watching them together in implausible lovey-dovey situations is still an uncomfortable experience, so the show shouldn’t just present their love story as a given (take it or leave it!)—but should work harder in terms of writing, staging, direction and performance to make it much more believable.