New show needs more coherence

On June 4, we caught the first telecast of the new horror-comedy show “Snow White Lady and the 7 Ghosts,” with Rhian Ramos playing the lead. The show is an unwieldy mix of the fairy tale, updated and jazzed up to include local superstitions like the White Lady of Balete Drive, haunted trees, etc.

More interestingly, the new series playfully twists its premise to include a plot conceit that has its resident ghosts worried, because they’ve lost the ability to scare people! It’s a big problem, because another twist has it that they literally “feed” on people’s fears—so, if they can’t scare anybody, they go hungry!

This is where Rhian’s character, Snow White, fits in: She isn’t a real ghost but she’s made to pretend to be one in order to scare people, so her new “ghostly” family can “eat.”

That adjusted plot premise is innovative and cute, and it adds a fresh, winsome note to the series’ storytelling. Unfortunately, other less effective elements conspire to bring the show’s “fun” level down.

For instance, some members of the cast, led by the character actress who plays Snow White’s mother, appear to be confused about the right acting style to use. It’s a horror-comedy, but she uses a “tragic,” overly loud and emotional style in her scenes, and the result is much too much “energy” for comfort.

Deft, lighter touch

Comedy, even horror-comedy, requires a deft and definitely lighter touch so the actress should have been made to adjust her “attack” accordingly. Her over-the-top portrayal indicates lack of directorial control.

Other elements are similarly unfocused and dissonant, so the new show has its work cut out for it, before it can tell its story with the required stylistic coherence and pertinence.

As far as Rhian’s portrayal, it’s still too early for us to get a good handle on her own “attack,” but we must initially observe that her few scenes as the young-adult Snow White thus far have been less than exciting.

We should end this piece by observing that this new series is by no means the only local production having problems with style and stylistic approach and coherence.

In many instances, actors just act “generically,” not realizing that the requirements of comedy are vastly different from those of dramatic performance.

Other relevant stylistic variations and adjustments involve period versus contemporary, urban versus ethnic, straightforward storytelling versus satire, etc.

The retroactive acting reeducation starts now.