Melodramatic plot twists hobble Nora Aunor’s miniseries

AUNOR. Her character’s reformist initiatives lack dynamism.

By the time you read this, Nora Aunor’s comeback starrer on TV5, “Sa Ngalan ng Ina,” shall have ended its five-week run. We’ll have to watch its last three episodes (this is being written on a Tuesday) to sum up the entire miniseries and its cumulative quality and impact more completely, but we can share that the show came off best on its first and second weeks.

We liked the way that it probed into the complex machinations of provincial politics, Pinoy-style. And Nora’s protagonist character was well-limned and focused, with the series’ writing giving her many opportunities to remind viewers why she’s regarded as one of the local screen’s best thespians.

By the end of the second week, however, other characters, both supportive of and antagonistic to Nora’s “reformist governor” persona, were more dynamically introduced and developed, and thus blurred the story’s central flow and focus.

Efforts

We also noted a rather “helpless” lack of real dynamism to Nora’s reformed initiatives. Her enemies, both seen and unseen, seemed to be able to run circles around her and her supporters, foiling their earnest efforts to reform and redeem their province. The scripting said that they were successful, but the villains generally remained unpunished, and they continued to do their worst in threatening Nora’s administration and terrifying the populace.

Goodness, even the assassination of Nora’s husband, which started the storytelling off a month ago, had yet to be solved up to the start of the series’ final week!

True, in this country, the political powers-that-be are difficult to beat at their own game, but so much helplessness enervates dramatic progression and frustrates viewers from fully “trusting” reformist characters to really deliver the goods.

In addition, the slow staging of some scenes aggravates the feeling of lack of real dramatic action. Take the key scene in which Nora was fighting for her life against her assassin: As she was trying to elude him, her relatives were shown talking about looking for and helping her, but it took an agonizingly long time for them to really do something about it!

It was also frustrating to see the series’ main villain, played by Rosanna Roces, feeling free to sow so much seething and horrific evil without compunction or fear of reprisal. It made the good guys in the story look even more helpless, and gave Roces’ character much more importance than she deserved, while Nora was restricted to merely reacting to her latest horrific assault.

Yes, protagonists have to be pushed against the wall to dynamically bring out the best in them, but the process took too long in Nora’s case, leaving her little room and time to dramatically and penultimately rise to the dramatic occasion.

Violent act

It was also disappointing to see that the series, which started off as a really substantial and significant drama, chose to turn much more melodramatic on its last two weeks. One killing or violent act followed another, the victims piled up, Nora was trapped, bludgeoned to within an inch of her life but miraculously survived, her no longer unidentified assassin was cornered, and Roces’ character was revving up for her final, maniacal assault.

So much action and melodrama distracted and detracted from the series’ substantial artistic and thematic plus points—and from the success of Nora’s comeback bid.