Mixed emotions

CLOCKWISE: Sid Lucero, Jaclyn Jose, Ina Raymundo and Robert Arevalo

It’s with decidedly mixed emotions that we’re writing about the new soap, “The Millionaire’s Wife.” At the top of its short list of plus points is the stellar portrayal of Robert Arevalo as the wealthy widower who ends up marrying the “lovely but lowly” nurse who has healed his body, heart and soul.

Trouble is, he has “monster” grandchildren (Ina Raymundo and Sid Lucero) who do their best and  worst to prevent his lady love (Andrea Torres) from getting her fair share of his vast fortune.

They’re so horribly vile and vituperative that they make Cruella De Vil look like Mary Poppins! The male apo (Lucero) has the additionally vexatious motivation of lusting after his lolo’s  bride—what a cad and crud!

Now, “monster” characters on TV, we can take—if they’re believably limed. But Ina and Sid are so over-the-top in their depiction that we end up dismissing them as the loud and livid caricatures they are.

This saddens us, because Lucero used to be regarded as a promising actor. In this current outing, however, he’s overweight, and resorts to shallow melodramatic plays and gambits—where has the “promise” gone? We hope that he will come to his better senses and remind himself of his thespic  priorities on his next acting assignment.

As for Ina, she’s a returning talent, so we’d like to encourage her—but her screechy, “eye-popping” performance here can’t be countenanced—so, we must again go on “better luck (and artistic judgment) next time” mode.

What about Andrea Torres? She isn’t as “guilty” as Raymundo and Lucero, but she doesn’t score plus points, either. She plays her character too weakly kawawa to give the soap series the focus and dynamism it sorely needs. Yes, she’s the series’ resident victim, but enough already.

If her character, as expected, will eventually learn to fight and bite back, she should do it now,  or we’ll lose interest completely.

Thank goodness, Arevalo is all present and accounted for, because he’s the major reason why the series remains viewable, despite its many excesses and  inadequacies.

Arevalo is such an astute player that he’s been able to make his initially brash and arrogant character empathetic to viewers, who understand why he turned out that way.

Now that he’s changing and fighting for the young woman he’s learned to love, against all odds, viewers are completely on his side, and rooting for him to persevere and triumph.

He may be a bit long in the tooth to come off as a true-blue romantic hero—but, given the other, lousier losers at hand, he’s our best bet for empathetic “identification,” by far.

Let’s hope that the drama series won’t end up shooting itself in the foot by later calling Robert’s character’s motivation into question.

It could be a delicate minefield to navigate—if the character is still “physically potent,” how far will the storytelling go into this natural turn of events—and what will his young inamorata’s reaction be to his advances?—(Artistic) decisions, decisions!