Tuesday July 28th, 2009 19:30 Local TV No More!

I was eating happily with my intern this morning at the caf when these group of guys wearing horrendous costumes appeared on the tv screen. Suddenly Richard Gutierrez screamed about attacking so-so and blah-blah in this Filipino voice with an English twang. I cringed in disbelief. It was a commercial of a remake – a horrifying, hair-raising remake of Zorro. Hours later, I was busily trying to go past stage 50+ of Burger Island when I heard Anne Curtis’ voice booming from the TV. I didn’t know Anne had a new show. Little did I know that it was supposedly a remake of “The Wedding”, the Korean TV series starred by Jang Na Ra and Ryu Shi Won years and years ago that gained so much popularity in China. Having been a fan of Korean series for a long time, I looked it up online and to my disbelief, the plot of the Filipino version was way, way off from that of the original that the only real common element between the two is the title itself. So much for a remake huh?

Not only Sharon Cuneta was accused of being an imitator. Filipinos have been accused time and again for being second-rate trying-hard copycats. First were the western tv shows and series, then Mexican soaps and now we’ve reached the other end of the globe: Eastern telenovelas. Don’t get me wrong. I don’t have anything against remakes – at least remakes which were tastefully done if not surpassed the original. But two hours into (trying to) watch local tv channels, I gave up. There’s no hope for Filipino remakes of foreign originals – at least at this very moment. I yet have to see a remake so seemingly like the original without the so-called “Filipino flavor” that massacres the whole story.

I cannot understand why we have to put kids swapped for another child or parents getting retrenched from work into the storyline. If the original plot worked, why change it? What’s wrong with the producers is that they can get really pscyhed with the ratings game that they add a little of this, extend the storyline with a few more scenes that in the end, they lose the real essence of doing a remake. Is it just me or have our local tv networks really ran out of creative juices that they cannot come up with a good enough concept for the boobtube? How many remakes are we exposed to in a day? Where’s the creativity in trying to spice up a pathetic, really pathetic, Filipino adaptation of a foreign drama? I ain’t no writer but I am searing with disgust  with what I am seeing.

I know that someone somewhere around the globe will mock me and tell me I shouldn’t be watching TV if I don’t like what I’m seeing. Save the preaching baby, as I’d rather bury my head reading a boring chapter on Biochemistry for my healthcare career than watching another Thalia-wannabe “try” to act on screen.

And I ain’t pertaining to anyone in particular. *wink*

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