Christmas ‘teleserye’ off to a brisk start

“IKAW Ay Pag-ibig” stars Louise Abuel, Mutya Orquia, Zaijian Jaranilla and Xyriel Manabat

The first telecast of ABS-CBN’s “Ikaw ay Pag-ibig” last Monday, Nov. 21, briskly introduced viewers to many of its key characters and to its central conflict. We appreciated the lively storytelling, because we’ve had it up to here with teleseryes that start one or even two generations in the past, so that we get to meet their protagonists as young adults only by their third or fourth telecasts.

Happily, “Ikaw Ay Pag-ibig” is less backstory-oriented—probably because it’s a limited series that’s meant to be enjoyed only for the Christmas season. That’s why the “Yuletide teleserye” briskly began with a “cartoonized” tale about four young shepherds who found and took care of the Christ child after he went missing from his manger in Bethlehem.

The fictive tale served as a frame for the new series’ contemporary story, which we presume will be about another quartet of child characters who will find themselves interacting in various heartwarming ways, leading up to the big, emotional reveal just in time for Christmas Eve.

On the show’s first telecast, Dimples Romana found herself pregnant by “poor” boyfriend Alfred Vargas, which drove her mayor-dad (Mark Gil) up the wall. His goons shot Alfred (did he die?) and Dimples ran away to bear her love child in peace and anonymity. But her dad’s goons tracked her down, and her baby ended up as a foundling in the arms of a jeepney driver and his wife who brought him up as their very own. He soon became the young boy played by the first of the series’ four child stars to kick into play, Zaijian Jaranilla.

Heartfelt portrayals

The first telecast’s best suits were the heartfelt portrayals turned in by Romana and Vargas—so, we hope that Vargas’ character didn’t really die, because that would relegate the talented actor to “first day-last day” taping status, and he certainly doesn’t deserve that cavalier, throwaway kind of treatment.

But, we digress. Another possibly throwaway character in the first telecast was played by Malou de Guzman, who helped deliver Dimples’ baby—and wasn’t heard from again. Again, Malou is a proven talent, so we trust that, like Alfred, she’ll resurface in due time. Knock on wood?

Mark Gil is a fine actor, but he’s saddled here by his role’s “bad guy pretending to be a good guy” stereotype. Now, we know that he’s the story’s requisite villain, but can he be given more interesting “shades,” and maybe even some occasional contradictions, so that the actor’s proven gifts can kick in and he can have more than just a cut-and-dried bad-ass character to chew on?

Finally, about Zaijian: It’s good to see that, despite his being the oldest of the show’s four juvenile leads, he still looks young and dewy-eyed enough to come off as not too “TH” in his role.

His speaking voice is another matter, however. It’s become so husky that it’s sometimes not all that easy to figure out what he’s saying.

With better enunciation and some coaching on voice placement, however, he should still pass muster. But, this could be one of his last outings as a “believable” child actor, so his handlers should, this early, already be plotting alternative performance moves and modes for him.

Summing up: “Ikaw Ay Pag-ibig” had a relatively good start, so it could end up as a Christmas teleserye to remember.