Bright and breezy start for ‘Be Careful With My Heart’

Jodi STA. MARIA. Great verve and feeling.

MANY new teleseryes start out with a big bang, then quickly deteriorate into predictability and confusion, as their initial focus and impetus are compromised by contrary inputs and afterthoughts. It’s still early days, but we trust that “Be Careful with My Heart” will be able to resist and avoid that standard tailspin, because its first telecast last July 9 was a bright and breezy treat.

The new daytime drama series is about a hardworking young woman (Jodi Sta. Maria) who ends up working for a wealthy widower (Richard Yap)—and eventually becomes romantically involved with him. The “Wanted: Perfect Mother” scenario is as old as the entertainment hills, but the latest take on it is believably performed, written and directed, so hopes are high that it will be able to avoid many of the hoary, old clichés that have made it such a predictable bore in the past.

The new show is particularly fortunate to have Jodi and Aiza Seguerra in its cast. In its first telecast, the two stars carried the show with great verve and feeling, and their “sister act” was quite fetching and endearing.

Character

As for Richard Yap, his character figured only lightly and slightly in the series’ initial telecast, but we expect good things from him, too, because he proved his thespic mettle in “My Binondo Girl” two seasons ago.

Last July 9, however, it was Jodi and Aiza who registered most strongly in the show. Their characters were interesting on point of contrast, what with Aiza’s “tomboy” character, whose crustiness counterpointed quite nicely with Jodi’s true-blue, hardworking, family-breadwinner persona.

Also quite welcome was the added twist  that Aiza was a single mother, having gotten pregnant one drunken night some years ago, despite her all-too-clear gender preference.

Despite the hardworking sisters’ best efforts, however, all of their sidelines and other moneymaking schemes failed to enable their family to end up in the black—with one stroke of bad luck depleting their resources, until Jodi had no choice but to go abroad to work.

Aiza SEGUERRA. Great verve and feeling.

Alas, even that brave and self-sacrificial decision turned out badly, so she had no other option left to make money for her loved ones—until, at the end of the first telecast, Richard’s character enters her life.

Employment agency

We surmise that, after seeing her so bereft and distraught when she found out that she had been fleeced by her employment agency, he offered her a nanny job and entrusted his young children to her care. We also guess that his current squeeze, shown briefly in the first telecast, wouldn’t think that the idea was so great, and would make her jealous feelings known—and felt.

But, that’s for succeeding telecasts of the show to confirm and develop. For now, we’re basking in the bright and breezy feeling that the new series has stirred in us, and hopefully in many other daytime televiewers, as well.

Yes, the show is sometimes too stickily “fantasticating” and “coincidental,” but its two female leads’ portrayals effectively counteract that gummy, muggy tendency, and the series’ scripting feels truer and less shamelessly melodramatic than many other teleseryes.

Again, we pray that “Be Careful” takes great care not to dissipate its initial advantage, so it will remain a winsome winner in our book, from start to finish!