‘Picture! Picture!’ finally gets its act together

VERSOZA (LEFT) AND MARTINEZ. Exceptionally skilled and sensitive players.

We’ve been watching GMA 7’s Saturday game show, “Picture! Picture!,” for some weeks now, but the program has failed to come into its own, in our view—for a number of reasons.

The choice of guests is a factor, also the questions asked and images shown. Some guests try too hard to make a ditzily “fun” impression, and some questions are too obvious, while others are too outre.

In any case, we’ve continued to keep tabs on the show, hoping that it will eventually get its act together. Well, last Dec. 28, it finally happened:

Ryan Agoncillo’s show’s celebrity contestants were Mel Martinez, Love Añover, Sheena Halili and Gardo Versoza. They made a rather disparate group, but they played the game well because they didn’t go solo-flighting for effect, and listened to each other.

As a result, they made logical and correct responses, until somebody had to be voted out, and it turned out to be Halili. No harm done, since Gardo, Love and Mel continued to be synergistically attuned to one another, and the correct answers kept coming.

Major test

A major test of the group’s skills was a question about the unusual horn blown during football matches in Latin America. We didn’t know the answer, but the group did—vuvuzela—and we applauded them for being so “esoterically” knowledgeable.

Another tough hurdle was recalling the Muslim name that Freddie Aguilar recently acquired in order to be able to marry his teen bride—Abdul Farid. Again, they got it right (we didn’t), so hopes were high that the game’s top prize of P500,000 would finally be won.

Before that could happen, however, Gardo had to bow out, then Mel. That was a distinct pity, since they were the most astute members of the team, whose wise or lucky choices had taken it up to the finals.

But, only one contestant could do that, and it turned out to be Love, who did well enough for a spell, but stumbled badly when the jackpot question stumped her, big time: It required her to identify the images of a number of musical instruments, and she got only a couple right.

Stumped

The ones she failed to identify included the harp, saxophone, accordion and harmonica, prompting a coviewer at home to wonder why she had been so “majorly” stumped.

Well, one never really knows when and why those mental blackouts or dim-outs happen, so all we can do is commiserate with the miffed contestant—and hope that she does better next time!

Despite the game’s downbeat finish last Dec. 28, we’re glad that the show finally came into its own, and trust that it’ll be doing well from here on in. To make sure that it continues to prosper, care should be taken in terms of choice of celebrity contestants.

Both Gardo and Mel turned out to be exceptionally skilled and sensitive players—but, how many celebrities can be found who’ll measure up to the high standard they set?

Tessie Tomas, Mikee Cojuangco, Ricky Davao, Jackielou Blanco and Mitch Valdes sound like good prospects. And Mel and Gardo should separately be invited back some weeks from now, since exceptional players like them are rare finds on local celebrity game shows.