There is Hope for My Only Hope

Okay, so I am still watching My Only Hope, Sundays after ASAP 08 at ABS CBN. First of all, thank you for the obvious effort to bring kilig to the fans. But what used to be a promising start seems to be dwindling to the sloppy-story road.

Come on, creative peeps of ABS CBN, you know you can do better than that. The latest episode seemed to be done on a rush. Yeah, people would love to see the main leads fall in love, kiss, hug and everything else that was shown on the latest episode. But this completely shattered the good foundation of this Sunday drama series.

The show has already set up so many good points.

• Gerald’s emo character has paved the way for this kind of get-up and attitude to become popular and known to this day’s generation. I wasn’t really paying attention to such before My Only Hope aired. And Gerald was good playing the role of Keeno. He really has done a lot to make the character very convincing.

• The Boracay setting for the show’s first airing was a sight of fresh air for weekends’ couch potatoes like me. It was new and it contributed to the excitement over the progress of the story.

• Gerald and Kim have shown lots of improvement in terms of acting. And Enchong Dee must not be overlooked. He is also beginning to show signs of progress by portraying his role the best he can.

• Tomy Abuel, being the veteran actor that he is, showcases what old school and powerful acting is all about. He sets a good example to the younger casts of the show.

• The new guy who plays the role of Rick, Keeno’s brother, is also promising. But he still has to overcome some apparent shyness and learn how to act tougher.

• Kudos to Miguel Escueta for a very fresh, innovative rendition of the main theme. This was like what David Cook has done for Always Be My Baby. Miguel was able to make me forget about the original version of Mandy Moore.

Let’s go to the negative points.

• The story is becoming too predictable. It’s like showcasing the best or memorable scenes from both local and foreign dramas and collating them all on this one. So Keeno was the one who accidentally killed April’s (Kim’s character) father. Jessie (Nina), who already died, has a twin who looks exactly like her. The rich family of Keeno will not approve of his relationship with poor girl, April. Yang (Regine), who has owned up to the responsibility for most of his boyfriend’s expenses, is actually a call girl (oh wow, very 80s eh?) I am just waiting for an amnesia element and I’ll conclude that the creative team for this drama is composed of 50 to 70 year old folks.

• When I watched My Girl, I thought that David Chua who plays April’s brother on this one was only faking his enunciation to make people believe that he cannot speak Tagalog. But hey, he still sounds like he cannot speak the language on this one even if his role is very much a Filipino.

• Another character that wasn’t able to come out of her My Girl’s character is Alex Gonzaga. She was funny at My Girl because she sounded gay and she was supposed to be comic. But now, the manner that she speaks is already becoming too irritating since she is not a funny one in My Only Hope.

The latest episode brought many disappointing turns with regards to the flow of the story.

• After one date, April loves Keeno already. Um, this can be true, I don’t doubt it. I am a believer of true love, naks! But we must remember that April is only recovering or is actually in the process of forgetting about her feelings for Jhun (Enchong’s character). Keeno’s presence must cause her to be very disturbed and lost for rational explanation why she’s all of a sudden feeling the way she does whenever this emo guy is around.

• And Keeno is also recovering from a loss of a loved one and guilt for what happened. It will be better if we will see him fighting his real feelings for April and thwarting her from becoming too close. Rather than saying that he used to dislike people like April who has so much happiness in life, he must have demonstrated that first before becoming involved with her type.

• The Jhun-April story should have been given more depth. It couldn’t end one night after April’s first date with Keeno. It would really be hard to decide, especially when the intention of June (Keeping his promise to April’s dad) was so pure. At June’s proposal, April should instead have said that she’ll think about it. And then she will be torn between the two.

This is the problem when you put in too many details, too many conflicts and loads of characters that have lots of emotional baggage with them, in a series that will only be watched once a week.

Kim, Gerald and Enchong are becoming too good as actors for the confused story that they were made to portray. The creative team should focus more on fixing the story of these three and making it more believable and well-thought of. Forget about the twin of Nina’s character. She shouldn’t be given too much exposure. She might cause a little jealousy between April and Keeno, then she should be out of the scene completely.

While I am on my Kimerald addiction last Sunday, I also saw the trailer of the upcoming primetime teleserye of the two, Tayong Dalawa. They will be with my most hated Kapuso transferee, Jake ‘Yabang’ Cuenca. Oh please, there is no hope for this guy. Throw him back to GMA or to your Kapamilya freezer and thaw one talented actor to hone for the role, just like what you did with Enchong.

As for My Only Hope, I really wish that they can still fix the script before the story becomes too predictable and too old as a concept. If that’s the case, ABS is only proving that they are running out of good creative talents, reason why they have to resort to remakes of hit TV series from other countries. But I know that this is not true, so prove me wrong, will you?