Concluding TV series veer away from their original course

PADILLA AND DE BELEN. Gear up for their mano-a-mano face-off.

THIS is turning out to be the month for concluding teleseryes. “Amaya” has just wrapped up its ethnic storytelling, “Ikaw Ay Pag-ibig” is clearly revving up for its dramatic denouement and last we looked, “My Binondo Girl” was on its last telecasting week.

As the concluding shows rush pell-mell into their final telecasts, it’s obvious that they’re all determined to steal the thunder—and viewers’ rapt attention—from each other and the rest of the competition, by coming up with the most exciting and surprising last-minute plot twists and turns!

Thus, last Friday on “My Binondo Girl,” Kim Chiu ended the telecast with a big scream, because Jolo Revilla’s character was shot! And Xian Lim was also hit! A teaser shot showed Kim dressed in black and weeping her eyes out. Oh, dear . . .

Serious condition

A subsequent telecast showed that Jolo’s character had expired, while Xian remained in serious condition. But, it still wasn’t clear how the series would finally end. After all of these dire events, it’s anybody’s guess how the show’s denouement will shape up—but, the regulation happy ending should still shine through, despite everything.

Meantime, on “Ikaw Ay Pag-ibig,” we’ve always suspected that Xyriel Manabat’s “amnesiac” character was an angel—and Friday last week, it looked like we were right. Elsewhere in the show, Paulo Avelino’s character had been framed on a drug rap to separate him from his girlfriend, the other daughter of top meanie, Mark Gil—which prompted her to tell her dastardly dad off and leave him. This, in turn, incensed Paulo’s own dad, Bembol Roco, so much that it looked like the battleground was being readied for a major Duel of Two Dads!

Bad influence

Corollarily, on “Budoy,” it now looks like the big battle of combative mothers we hinted at some weeks back is finally going to take place, with Janice de Belen and ZsaZsa Padilla’s characters really down on each other due to what they subjectively perceive to be the other mom’s bad influence on the son they “share.”

We’re looking forward to the mano-a-mano face-off, should it transpire, because both ZsaZsa and Janice are gifted thespians who can make their combative scenes flash and flare.

Unfortunately, the show’s other mom character, played by Mylene Dizon, is ending up as an also-ran, despite her perfervid efforts to “defend” her own son, played by Enrique Gil. Similarly, Gil is coming off badly in the series, because all he does is look sour and mean and melodramatically constipated, because he’s been edged out of the family picture by the much more endearing Budoy.

As these and other shows fold up their tents and wrap up their storytelling, we’re struck by their general inability to sustain their focus, from start to finish. All too often, they veer away from their original course in terms of plot and character development, and too many confusing subplots and new characters are added, just to keep viewers watching.

Sometimes, however, the result isn’t sustained fascination, but bafflement—plus a measure of disappointment, when significant themes are frittered away or junked in the endless effort to keep the concluding series “eventful.”