‘Probinsyano’ traverses tricky turf

GANDA. Compromised credibility.

To date, the “Ang Probinsyano” action-drama teleserye has extended its storytelling for additional months by coming up with a series of “chapters” or subplots, anchored on specific cases that its resident cop protagonist, played by Coco Martin, is assigned or compelled to solve.

More to the pertinent point, each chapter topbills a name guest star like Anne Curtis and Cesar Montano, whose popularity adds to the “extending” series’ appeal and clout.

The latest chapter’s stellar draw is comedian Vice Ganda, whose current participation is taking the show in an interesting new direction.

The fact that he’s a comedian makes his chapter “lighter” than the others—but, the show is basically an action-drama series about crime and crimebusters, so it can’t be too cheeky and frivolous.

Sinister portrayal

That’s the tricky turf that the chapter has to traverse—so, how is it faring in that key regard? To his credit, Vice has tempered his sassy delivery and bothered to come up with a more sinister portrayal of his assigned scammer and blackmailer character.

On the other hand, his occasionally “entertaining” dialogue and delivery have sometimes diluted the drama too much. As for the “action” element, his chapter has had little of that, to date.

More distractingly and unbelievably, Coco’s character is made to think that Vice is a “real” woman, and in fact gets a “crush” on her.

The fact that he’s supposed to be a tough cop who’s seen it all makes this gullibility in “her” case most unlikely, especially because Vice is so much bigger and taller than Coco himself.

This compromised credibility makes their scenes together sometimes feel awkward and ungainly, so the sooner the cop realizes whom he’s really dealing with, the better for everyone.

In a film he starred in years ago, Coco was paired with Ruffa Gutierrez in an “other woman” role, and they were so visually mismatched that their scenes and relationship ended up looking unintentionally “funny-strange.”

We don’t want that to happen to Coco and Vice in this instance, so we hope that the ungainly disconnect is mitigated and resolved forthwith!