Time for the good guys to fight back

When it was first announced that the hit teleserye “Walang Hanggan” would be extended, perhaps until October, we wondered what new complications the show’s writers could think up to keep viewers interested and excited.

The answer has come slowly. First, with “teaser” shots last week of the new “complicator” played by Eula Valdez—tantalizingly, not of Eula’s face, but just her eyes and eyebrows!

They looked “meaningfully” and perhaps “schemingly” this way and that, as if she was waiting for exactly the right time to slither or pounce onto the scene, “hidden motives” and “secret agenda” in devious un-display.

The XCU (extreme closeup) grand entrance was initially arresting, but quickly elicited giggles due to its repetitive use and mannered “for effect” artiness.

Puzzle

Soon enough, however, Eula’s full persona announced her presence. It turned out that she was a relative of Richard Gomez’s late wife, bent on finding out the real truth behind her mysterious and controversial demise. She has called for the revival of the investigation looking into Coco Martin’s character’s involvement in the plane crash that had snuffed out the life of the character played by Rita Avila.

The extended drama series is also finally focusing on the “aborted” love affair between Richard’s and Dawn Zulueta’s characters. Heretofore, the tandem has more or less been upstaged by the series’ concentration on the “young romance” factor involving the characters of Coco, Julia Montes and Paulo Avelino.

Why this was the case was a puzzle, since the “triangularly”-casted actors come up with mannered and predictable portrayals. Was their sub-story preferred because they were young, and youthful viewers dominate the local TV audience?

In any case, Richard and Dawn have now gained preferential focus, because he has “dared” to belatedly propose marriage to Dawn, despite his family’s outraged objections. And Dawn has come up and accepted!

‘Stretch marks’

So, in the coming weeks, we can look forward to not just Eula but all of the series’ other villains and oppositors doing their best—and their worst—to make life a living hell for the production’s “more mature” love team.

But this early, some regular viewers are already complaining that, despite the show’s best efforts to keep its storytelling blazingly dramatic, the “stretch marks” are starting to show.

As for Eula’s role, we think it’s rather unfair that so much “responsibility” for wreaking evil has been heaped on her shoulders. What can one woman, no matter how hateful and evil, do to totally ruin the lives of the series’ virtuous and victimized protagonists?

And, what new and even more sordid tricks do the other villains have up their sleeves that they haven’t already revealed during the many months the show has been on the tube?

Perhaps it’s time for the villain’s victims—Richard, Dawn et al—to stop being so weak and defenseless, and start hitting back? Or else, some viewers may start looking for other, more truly proactive teleserye protagonists to root for.