There are two things that I’d like to rant about.
- Variety Shows
- Telenovelas/Soap Operas
Fair Warning: I am a human being, and my opinions might vary greatly from yours. These are my thoughts and I post them in the hopes that we might actually change the way our world is turning. This is a rant, and only just roughly based on truth.
- Variety Shows
One HUGE flaw about Philippine media is that we depend too much on western culture. Master Chef, Big Brother, X Factor, Biggest Loser, The Voice… They’re all just western programs with the words Filipino Edition added on the bottom. How about an original reality for once?But even our original programs aren’t working that well. It’s Showtime, for example. This variety show has segments that need you to pretend to be someone else. These segments are mainly Kalokalike and Mini Me, wherein people have to literally just cosplay filipino celebrities. I mean, really? In my opinion, this is just to boost the ego of said celebrities. It completely loses the meaning of loving yourself. It’s acceptable to cosplay a fictional character because come on. The person is fictional. But to cosplay a real human being – to wear the same outfit, to walk and speak the same way… It’s absolutely ridiculous. Mini Me doesn’t even make sense, either. Because how can a child look like a celebrity. Like I said, it’s just wearing the same thing
Not only do they make you pretend to be someone else, they also make you follow them and humiliate yourself in the process in the segment Sine ‘Mo ‘To! Like as if their egos can’t get big enough. These madlang people are PEOPLE too. I used to enjoy this segment, but someone pointed out that this segment is just a bunch of famous people ordering non-famous people around. And hooray, you get cash prize for it.
Another thing about It’s Showtime is its exposure to gays. They have segments like That’s My Tomboy and I am Pogay. I don’t understand why you have one whole segment solely focused on homosexuals.
Instead of achieving their obvious intention to persuade people that gays are humans too, they’re doing quite the opposite. They make gays act in front of the whole Philippines as some kind of entertainment monkey. It disgusts me. Leave them alone.
- Telenovelas/Soap Operas
There are so many things that I want to talk about when it comes to Soap Operas. I don’t wait around to watch it. It just so happens to coincide with my eating schedule that I have no choice but to watch bits and pieces of it. There so much more that I want to rant on (Mirabella, LuvU, MMK, etc.), but I’ll stick to these three.
- Be Careful With My Heart
It really does not have any conflict anymore, other than small ones like Maya’s parents still not getting it on. I see no point to this, except that it hasn’t ended because people still like it. That’s not what TV Shows are supposed to be about!!! It’s not just pure entertainment. A show must have a story. And a story must have conflicts. Conflicts should be solved. Morals should be learned. And it ends with that – with a lesson. What can you learn from this?Nothing’s happening in this show! The family just keeps getting better and better! It’s FANSERVICE. This is a show that never ends, not until the last peron who is obsessed with it stops being obsessed with it. Even fanservice fanfiction has a plot. And they don’t even get paid.
- The Legal Wife
I had an idea for a show. How about a story of a religious lesbian province-born girl who tries to defy the laws of a post-apocalyptic dystopian society and tries to save the world and she turns out to be Lapu-Lapu’s direct descendant. Oh wait, speaking of lesbians, have you ever wondered why there are no LGBTs in Philippine Media? Is it because homosexuals are ‘frowned upon’?The Legal Wife is all about infidelity. That is immensely frowned upon, both by the Bible and the Society, and yet we have a whole show for it. Now, if you can make a show about infidelity – which is directly forbidden in the 10 commandments, so don’t even try to argue about God hating gays – why can’t you make a show about two people of the same gender falling in love in front of the camera?
- Dyesebel
Out of all the shows, this one takes the cake. First of all, too much coincidence, as is what happens in every single filipino show. Second, the mermaids swim like seahorses. Awful props and effects. Have you seen Pirates of the Carribean? Even GMA’s Kambal Sirena is better than that. You can’t tell me you’re doing your best when you give crappy designs like that.Third, acting is downright horrible. We don’t see Dyesebel. We see Anne Curtis. Name a Filipino Telenovela wherein the main character is someone we don’t know yet. It’s always some famous hot chic paired with another famous hot-looking guy. They don’t even bother to change the plot anymore. There’s no character development, at all. Every character is so one-sided. It’s as if the writers manipulated the character to match the actors, when ACTING IS ALL ABOUT actors manipulating their emotions to match the characters. It’s so wrong!
Fourth, it’s a sad replica of The Little Mermaid. And even if it’s not exactly an exact replica, Dyesebel has already been done numerous times by a handful of different beautiful girls. It’s not about the plot anymore, it’s about the woman portraying the character in a bikini shell and a tail. It’s not her performance anymore, it’s how good she looks in it.
That’s the sad thing about Filipino Shows. I wish we can get rid of all of these irritating filipino tropes. Let’s twist things up a bit. Teach people lessons other than work hard, stay true to yourself. And if directors, writers, production managers and film crew staff alike don’t make a difference, then I will.
People think engineering, nursing and business management are more important than other careers like film making or teaching. While the former shapes the future, the latter shapes the society. Films and TV shows shape the mind of each individual – graduates and tambays alike. And if we don’t fix the terrible condition of our media, no matter how advanced our technology is, if our minds are twisted to think that everything I said above is OK… well, we’re in for a nasty future.
dolor hic tibi proderit olim 