One shocker after another for embattled TV ‘padre’

DANTES. His series has become too “eventful” for its own good.

We’ve always favored “eventfully plotted” local drama series as opposed to the more traditionally ponderous variety that start their storytelling two generations back, to show how deeply the roots of a current conflict are embedded in an avenging family’s present-day anger and thirst for its bloody pound of flesh!

Of late, however, we’ve noticed that some drama series have become too eventful for their own good, with one shocking twist being put into plotting play every other day!

The most flagrant “exceeder” in this wise this season is “Pari ‘Koy,” starring Dingdong Dantes. Not only is the parish priest he’s playing turning out to be “human” and flawed, some of his personal excesses in the past that are now seeing the light of day today would make even the average lay wrongdoer blush!

In order to show that priests are flawed people too (a worthy objective, to make them more “accessible” but pushed too hard in this series), it’s been sequentially revealed that Dingdong’s character was a decidedly black sheep in his youth, with all sorts of vices and run-ins with the law to make for a very colorful bio-data!

Revelations

More recently, the revelations have become even more shocking, with the late introduction of the character played by Carla Abellana—who turns out to be Dingdong’s ex-girlfriend.

Not only that, it’s further bared after some more days that she had gotten pregnant and given birth to a love child—whom she was now desperately looking for!

At first, it was a mystery who the dad was—but, soon after, she admitted that the parish priest was the culprit!

By this time, Carla has already forgiven him, so the focus now is on the child’s whereabouts. As “super-coincidence” would have it (teleseryes are famous for that), it’s now been revealed that the kid could be none other than the foundling whom the priest has already been playing surrogate dad of at the parish!

—Wow, talk about life dovetailing most everything into a tight circle—like a dog running around in circles, and finally biting its own tail!

—Well, that’s where the series’ “two-shockers-per-week” plotting has brought us to date. —But, it definitely isn’t the end to all of its convoluted twists, turns and tumbles. In the middle of all that, Dingdong also got shot and nearly killed for exposing a gambling racket in his parish—and now, Carla’s current boyfriend, the neighborhood’s barangay chair, is screaming bloody murder because he’s just found out about the past Carla-Dingdong connection—so, what violent reaction is he planning to unleash against our all-too-human padre?!

Yes, we’re all for eventful plotting and character developments to keep a drama series dynamic and involving—but, can’t Dingdong’s series give his character a breather for just one week? —He needs time to heal from his “near-fatal” wounds, doesn’t he?

More to the point, Dingdong needs more time to focus on his character’s spiritual side. He’s been so busy “realistically” dealing with the melodramatic here- and-now that we no longer fully appreciate the fact that he’s also a priest who should have a special spiritual relationship with his Boss and Maker.

Yes, it’s great that he’s a hands-on instead of istampita religius person, but his spiritual side should also be fully depicted and dramatized. This effective fusion of the man of action and the man of prayer is what all good priests aspire to be—so “Pari ‘Koy” should be just “fusedly” focused and motivated!

‘Bituin’ sneak peek

We’re looking forward to the opening on June 17 of the stage musical version of “Bituing Walang Ningning” at Resorts World Manila. We hope that it’s a hit, so that other original or adapted Filipino musicals will be produced, to counteract or simply balance the “colonial” preponderance of foreign works on our stages.

A preliminary indication of how the “Bituin” stage musical is shaping up was provided by lead players Cris Villonco and Monica Cuenco’s guest stint on “Umagang Kay Ganda.” They did the musical’s theme song as a duet, giving us a chance to “taste” the show in microcosm.

How did the number take off? Cris performed with true musical theatricality, her “white voice” placement and projection making the number thrilling to listen to—but newcomer Monica used a more “pop” approach, and thus made less of a vocally definitive impression.

She should be helped to realize that this is a stage musical version, so a big, “white” (dramatically strong and focused) sound is preferred—and adjust her “attack” accordingly.

Hope is the answer

Thanks to my elders’ enlightened example, I’ve always had a special place in my heart for our senior citizens, because their experience and wisdom have taught me a lot about how to deal with my own problems and concerns.

That’s why I’m especially happy that the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB) has come up with its latest project, a full-length scripting contest with the worthy theme of empowering our senior citizens, and making them more aware of their rights. For details, please access MTRCB website. Deadline is on July 30. —Write now!