Zsa Zsa unintentionally steals the Pia-Liza show

Liza Soberano (left) and Pia Wurtzbach

Pia Wurtzbach hasn’t made it big as an actress, with her starlet contemporaries like Bea Alonzo leaving her far behind—but, her life story has been iconically dramatized on “Maalaala Mo Kaya (MMK).”

Pia’s character was played by Liza Soberano—an instance of savvy casting, since the similarity in their facial features and hair coloring is striking.

In terms of “dramatically revelatory” storytelling, we were able to understand Pia’s driving needs and “issues” better.

The episode highlighted her unrequited love for her oftenabsent and footloose dad, her frustration over the less-than-stellar progress of her acting career, and her initial losses in beauty pageants.

The episode made it a point to underscore Pia’s “never-say-never” attitude, which made her join beauty pageants over and over again, despite onlookers’ hurtful jeers and jibes.

True enough, Pia’s resolve and gumption were vindicated in the end, when she won, not just the Binibining Pilipinas Universe title, but the global crown itself!

Thus, “MMK’s” tribute to Pia urges other ambitious and determined young women to similarly keep daring and dreaming, in whatever field they choose to excel. If Pia can do it, so can they!

We appreciate Pia’s “MMK” episode’s teaching and inspiring point—but, as a dramatic production, it was generally limited by “motherhood” statements that made it pat and predictable.

Zsa Zsa Padilla

Liza Soberano has become a proficient actress, but the script’s predictability and “expected” insights similarly prevented her performance from flying high, and affecting viewers in a deeply empathetic way.

That’s the problem when a story is so famously familiar to viewers—if the script and dramatization don’t come up with new and affectingly revelatory insights, viewers’ involvement is limited to what they’ve already known too well before.

It’s a good thing that Liza’s looking a lot like Pia helped viewers sustain their suspension of disbelief—but, not enough to make the entire episode a consistently affecting and involving experience.

On the other hand, we were gratified to see that Zsa Zsa Padilla was cast in the pivotal role of Pia’s mother—and she did really well in it.

Like Liza, she was limited by the scripting’s predictability, but the far more experienced and insightful Zsa Zsa was able to make her character’s issues more “urgent and pungent,” compared to Liza’s less perceptive and engaged portrayal.

Zsa Zsa’s performance reminded us that she’s one of the best all-around actresses around, so it’s really a pity that we don’t see her more often and regularly on our TV and movie screens.

She should also give stage plays and musical-theater productions a go, since better and more challenging roles are available onstage than on more cautiously “commercial” TV and movie productions.

Zsa Zsa in a show commensurate to her well-honed thespic and musical gifts? We can hardly wait!