Splotches

Either you love him or hate him. That’s Mike Enriquez for you. His intense style of reporting can be annoying but for some people like me, it is entertaining. Imagine laughing while watching a serious news program. That’s what you’ll be doing while watching him.

Do you like him? I do! I didn’t use to but I was able to appreciate his style of reporting for a couple of years now.

Kung Tayo’y Magkakalayo, the teleserye starring Gerald Anderson, Kim Chiu, Coco Martin, Albert Martinez, Kris Aquino and Gabby Concepcion along with Jacklyn Jose and Gina Pareño, is ending tonight. It is a really good series. I believe it is one of the best of ABS-CBN. Fast-paced and well-developed, the story was really given the attention it deserves by the series writers.

I would like to commend the performances of Coco Martin, Jacklyn Jose, Gina Pareño and Albert Martinez. They gave justice to the roles they took on.

I am hoping that the teleserye that will replace it by Monday will be as interesting as the one that will end tonight.

What evening news program do you watch? Is it TV Patrol World or 24 Oras or other local news program? In our house we are loyal to TV Patrol World. I like the trio of Julius Babao, Karen Davila and Ted Failon. I didn’t use to like Karen but when I started watching her in special coverages of ABS-CBN, I realized that she’s really a good news anchor.

We sometimes switch between ABS-CBN and GMA-7. But whenever I get to see Mel Tiangco, with her distracting and age inappropriate dresses and loud lipstick, I get irritated. I love Mike Enriquez but with seeing Mel alongside him is not worth it at all.

So what news program do you watch?

I admit it, I love reading gossip columns! Who doesn’t? My day isn’t complete without reading PEP.ph or the Philstar column of Ricky Lo. I usually read it in the early morning. What a gossip, I know!

So the raging topic among columnists right now is the Willie Revillame-Wowowee issue. I didn’t care about that issue until I read that Willie’s earning close to 25 million pesos a month! And he’s so ungrateful of the TV station who gives him that much? Wow! I would love to earn even 1/25 of that in a month! I wouldn’t be ungrateful, I swear.

I can’t imagine how some people can be discontented about their good fortune in life. God has given them so much and they were thumbing their noses on the instruments He used to give them that kind of blessings. In Willie’s case, he’s thumbing his nose on ABS-CBN.

He should be grateful to the station who gave him one chance too many.

I don’t like Boy Abunda. Sure, he’s more competent than the other local hosts. But when you watch him, you get this feeling that he feels like a highly intellectual person. He pronounces words like positive as PO-si-tiv. He frowns a lot to make you think he’s concentrating on what his interviewee is saying. He doesn’t look at the camera a lot to make you think like he is focused on the show.

Two Sundays ago, he interviewed the controversial road rage killer Jason Ivler’s mother, Marlene Aguilar-Pollard in The Buzz. It was obvious that he favored the woman. He defended her in some instances, answering the questions he threw at the overacting woman. When Marlene shed crocodile tears, he would console her like a friend who’s being ganged up on national tv. At the end of the interview, he told the clearly demented woman that he was on her side, in not so many words.

If you’ve seen the interview, you’d clearly see that the comment made by Abunda boosted her confidence. And now he’s going to feed her ego some more in his feeling intellectual show, Bottomline (which he pronounces as Ba-tam-layn).

Hilarious!

I’ve been watching May Bukas Pa because the little girl at home loves Santino. The story is good and I must say that the little kid playing Santino is really someone you can see being the one Bro talks to. He is such a wonderful child actor. And someone who can evoke such sympathy from the televiewers. The other actors are also good.

What I find disturbing is how big Dina Bonnevie has gotten! Last night’s episode shown how big she already is! She needs a fat burner stat! She’s one of the beautiful and great actresses that we have locally. I guess since she’s not that active anymore like she used to, she let herself gain weight that much.

I don’t know if ABS-CBN is thinking clearly when they conceptualized a series based on the movie Katorse. The movie was a Dina Bonnevie-starrer about a 14-year-old getting pregnant and regretting it but emerging as triumphant in the end. Sure, the movie has a positive message in the end. The Katorse lead emerged as a stronger person after her ordeal. But to actually do a series based on it???

Katorse airs on ABS-CBN, right before TV Patrol. It’s practically on primetime, a period in the day when most kids are watching tv. A time when teens and other adults are waiting for the news program to start. Can you imagine how many underage people are able to watch the series? Plus, the teaser is really a teaser! It will tease your senses about this 14-year-old barrio lass who wears clothes that show her cleavage and exposes most of her sensual nature. A barrio lass who’s supposed to be timid and shy as most barrio lasses are but not this one. She’s a flirt, who wants to do the deed, and does it, with the barrio rich kid. She got pregnant in the process.

You know what I think? Tweens and teens are watching this series. Curious about sex, they will really follow this one. Some kids the same age as the character might be in the same predicament, aching to do the deed with the apple of their eyes. I can assure you, teen pregnancy will rise in the duration of this series. And many pedophiles are watching this series, fantasizing about the flirt barrio lass!

ABS-CBN should be more responsible with what they’re airing. It’s not all about money! They have a social responsibility, too. And egging teens to do the deed with the one they “love” and getting pregnant in the process is a big mistake! They should be ashamed of themselves!

My sister and I love watching the Urban Zone. It is a lifestyle/magazine show in ABS-CBN that features different houses. This is the show where I saw the Moen faucet that I like. I also saw the salon that I want for our home and the dining table that I have in mind. If and when I get my own home, it will surely be a collection of the designs I saw on tv.

I like Korina Sanchez. She’s witty, frank without being brutal, and pleasant to look at. Which you cannot say with the other news anchors of ABS-CBN. She is also not boring!

We, therefore, watch Rated K, a show she hosts at ABS-CBN 2. We just noticed that for the past few months now, the once very informative show is slowly turning into a tabloid magazine program. With segments dedicated to melodrama and tabloid material. A love affair with a 50-year gap or something. A gay family with no redeeming quality to the segment. PG-13 topics that are meant for sleazy tabloids than in a magazine show that is targeted for the whole family.

I thought I was the only one who noticed this change but when my sisters and I talked about it a few hours ago, they also voiced out their concern for one of our favorite Sunday shows.

Paging Korina Sanchez and the Rated K staff! Please bring back the sensible segments that you were showing before. One topic with different twists to it but lessen the melodrama and the tabloid material please.

I just realized that I focus too much on international celebrities in this blog. You all know my fixation with anything Twilight and Robert Pattinson so that’s not surprising. But I realized that there are local celebrities that are also just as fascinating. I can’t name one right now but it will come to me

So anyway, I figured out that since I watch too much television, why not make a brief reviews of local tv programs that I like? I will start with the programs I will watch tonight and move on from there.

Stay tuned.

Fear Factor the Philippine version started yesterday at ABS-CBN primetime bida. Hosted by Ryan Agoncillo, this reality show is being hyped by its promoters. I have doubts if this will be successful like Survivor Philippines. The challenges are just so gross, to say the least. Filipinos can stomach gross shows. We are that resilient. But on a daily basis?

Have you seen the premier episode of this reality tv? What do you think of it?

Because Survivor Philippines airs directly after Kim Sam Soon, I get to watch the show. Nothing surprising with Eugene Domingo’s acting. She is funny without exerting too much effort on her part. Regine Velasquez as Kim Sam Soon, as usual, tries so hard to look younger than she already is. The fake eyelashes does not do her anything good. It makes her look… a trying-hard-to-have-smoky-eyes old gal. I saw a photo of her without any make-up on and she looks waaaay better than the make-up she had on for Kim Sam Soon. Maybe it’s with the character but still.

Mark Anthony Fernandez is still handsome for me. I believe this localized Korean drama revived his career. Remember all those drug-related news about him years back? It almost ended his career. But now, people are calling him Cyrus, his role in Kim Sam Soon, everywhere he goes. Good for him! A good actor like him deserves a second break.

Anyway, I won’t pass judgment about the show. I haven’t really watched an entire episode. Based on tv ratings I’ve read, the show is doing fairly good than their competitor in the other channel. I love the bloopers at the end of each episode. That much I can say.

Are you watching this show and what do you think of it?

My Girl Korean version starring Lee Dong Wook as Seol Gong-chan and Lee Da Hae as Joo Yoo-rin was a big hit here in the Philippines. The Korean show is fast-paced and really funny. The lead characters gave a believable performance and were quite good. Lee Da Hae’s infectious and you will really empathize with her character. It gave the local channel, ABS-CBN, great ratings from premiere to the end.

Now, since the Koreanovela (as how locals call imported Korean drama/comedy shows) was a big hit, ABS-CBN decided to buy the franchise and create a local version of it. Still called My Girl, the Philippine version stars Kim Chiu and Gerald Anderson (Kimerald to their legions of fans). The two is one of the bankable love teams in Philippine TV. They have starred in another telenovela in the same network and a couple of movies. The telenovela as well as the movies all did well in ratings and in the box office, respectively. Their love team is being tested once again in My Girl, a take on the Korean version except that according to them, it was Tagalized (meaning, made to suit the tastes of the Filipino audience).

THE REVIEW

Well, I’ve watched the pilot and second episodes and to tell you honestly, I find it OKAY. Not really that funny unlike the Korean version but Kim at least delivered. Although she has to tone down her acting a bit. She comes across as trying hard in some scenes. Gerald, on the other hand, needs to attend a workshop if he wants to deliver. He looks brooding (not in the appealing sense) in almost all the scenes. In some, he even has this facial expression that looks like he’s suffering from indigestion. The character of Cathy Gonzaga (or is it Alex Gonzaga now?) is BLAH. Somebody should tell this girl to stop trying to be funny because she doesn’t come across as such. K Brosas as the antagonist is interesting. I hope she will be given more breaks like this. Ditto with Bing Loyzaga and Lito Pimentel.

Overall, I think My Girl the Philippine version will do good ratings-wise. A little more workshop for the younger cast and Gerald Anderson. Take out the too many unfunny extra characters and tone down Kim’s acting a bit.

One personal observation though, I think somebody should tell Kim Chiu to add a little more weight. I always say that tweens and teens are very impressionable. Kim is bordering on anorexic-looking. This might come across as the “in” body to her fans.

Try watching My Girl the Philippine version at ABS-CBN and let me know what you think.

The local version of the popular American TV game show, Wheel of Fortune, is crazy. I tell you only in the Philippines will you hear contestants shouting “Bankrupt! Bankrupt!” when the wheel is spinning. Crazy!

I watch it from time to time. I love solving puzzles. Some are challenging while there are some that are too easy. But whenever Kris Aquino, the local game show host, asks the contestant is he/she would like to spin or buy a vowel, it is annoying. It’s like she’s forcing the contestant to buy a vowel. And then the constant screaming and chanting of “Bankrupt!”…

Well, try to watch the show to be able to relate to what I say. Or if you are watching the show, tell me what you think about it.

Let me know.