Apologies in advance to all fans of Filipino telenovelas, but I personally cannot stand many of them >.> Whenever I happen to surf by one of them playing in our local channels, the urge to pitch the remote at the TV is dire and great.
As a result, I am reduced to viewing DVD boxed sets of Korean historical soaps and cable TV broadcasts of Japanese dramas. But in my defence, this irascible dislike of Pinoy soaps is not completely illogical: here are my five very concrete reasons for being massively disappointed with local drama shows.
Lack of Originality
Okay — I’d be the first to admit that J-drama isn’t all that original either, with many of them being adaptations of manga and anime shows. However, these anime and manga are original works by their authors, so that’s a point in their favor. This is not the case with many Filipino soaps, which are either rehashes of older Pinoy soaps, local adaptations of American and Mexican shows — and more recently of Japanese and Korean shows, or mash-ups of popular childrens books, novels, and comics.
Bad Pacing
Local soaps take too damn long to finish >.> Who can forget the excruciating seven years that it took to finally locate the diary revealing Mara Clara’s secrets?! I certainly can’t — I’ve been subjected to that drivel by various members of our household. A good story needs just ten to fifteen episodes to play out its entire plot. Some of my favorite J-drama spanned a single season (Kimi wa Petto, Strawberry on a Shortcake, and Kamisama Mou Sukoshi Dake), and they held my attention far longer than — say, overwrought “epics” like Darna, Kamandag, or Zaido.
Low Production Values
It is not like we cannot do it — look at the products of the Renaissance of Philippine drama: Mulawin, Encantadia, and Encantadia 2; they had gorgeous costumes, pretty decent set pieces and scenery work, and CG animation that wasn’t half-bad. The effort put into creating the show was good enough to get me to watch, and stick around until the very end — the same way that slicker Japanese productions do.
However, the recent slew of half-assed shows — like my current pet peeve The Last Prince, is making me doubt my initial sentiment that Philippine TV has risen to a new heights. Am I supposed to believe that bad prosthetic work, a clear disregard for details (since when were poor barrio girls traipsing around with false lashes and french-tipped manicures?!), and that stupid stupid stupid plot is an obra maestra of local television?! I don’t think so.
Packaging
Hana Yori Dango was a teenage romance drama, Nurse no Oshigoto was an afternoon work-centric daily for older women, and Yoshitsune was an evening weekly for history buffs and Taiga drama fans. All these shows are exactly as described on the weekly television guides. But that is clearly not that case for our local soaps — many of the prime-time dramas are described as “family entertainment” by the networks who produce them, yet they feature partial nudity, physical and verbal abuse, and other visuals that are clearly not meant for the audience they are targeting :/
Too Many Advertisements
Have you ever noticed that it is only in the Philippines that you get an hour-long show with only thirty minutes of actual airtime, and the rest being eaten up by commercials? This is clearly not the case with Japanese and Korean shows, since they have ever so politely included an eye-catch before and after every commercial break. Philippine soaps on the other hand air four or five minutes of the show, and then cut directly to a fifteen-minute stretch of insipid shampoo commercials, annoying political ads, and unrealistic face cream “testimonies”. Gawd >.>
Okay, I am done. Thanks to my flatmate Rael and her sister Heidi for humouring me for this post. Now I need a glass of water and a place to lie down. All this ranting cannot be good for my health.
22 February 2010 at 03:37
I Totally effing agree with you
22 February 2010 at 03:38
True. Quality or the tightness of a story is certainly not their priority. The packaging aspect has been watered down to please everyone at the same time.
I bet the makers know what they are doing, but are clearly too play-safe or micromanaged so no one dares to challenge it. Frankly, I find it condescending to the “masses.”
Sadly, a very low standard has already been set and frequent viewers accept it.
Money money money.
22 February 2010 at 03:49
I totally agree. Although some Japanese dramas I wished ran for a longer period of time. Even if the stories are sometimes far fetched, jdramas still tend to resonate with their culture and be true to them.
K.I.S.S –>would work for our dramas. But then again, the people also need to have better tastes. The pinoy dramas only cater to how the pinoy public reacts to them and will keep creating them that way as long as they have viewers like that.
22 February 2010 at 04:52
I agree with your points there. One pet peeve of mine that I notice really with Philippine Soaps is the deteriorating quality of the show as the series wraps up. They start strong with a solid sounding plotline, great visuals including set and costumes. But as the show ends, the plotlines become really ridiculous and far fetched, seemingly rushed to finish subplots which are not entirely ready to finish just yet, and the sets and costumes start to look cheap as if no care was taken into providing quality. Not to mention the crappy editing with transitions between scenes that will make your head spin.
Sometimes I feel as if the bigwigs in the Philippine Entertainment Industry settle with a mediocrity as long as it sells then it’s fine. And the thing is, we don’t even have to spend that much to produce a decent drama that is at least as decent as the ones in Japan and Korea.
13 June 2012 at 09:28
As long as the station can earn bucks knowing that the shows earn good ratings they will constantly add more episodes to the show which will eventually dilute and divert the story from the original plot. It’s more about earning money; not entertainment.
22 February 2010 at 08:15
I stopped watching TV on a regular basis for nearly four years now. I only catch a few episodes when I visit friends and they follow what’s currently showing. It’s enough for me to know that I’m not missing out on anything.
What seedsop said is true. A lot of the local sopas start off great, but as the series goes on, the story goes off tangent and often ends up with a truly unbelievable note.
It makes me wonder if they (the groups who make these soaps) ever really think about the entirety of the story before they produce it, or they just think of a good premise and write the story as they go along?
22 February 2010 at 09:44
I will now point people who ask me why I don’t watch Filipino teleseryes to this post. :D
22 February 2010 at 09:47
I never really liked local soaps because I found them too baduy and unoriginal. Though I have to agree with you that in some of the fantasy-type series, they have done a good job in terms of costume and graphics which is most likely the biggest part of the reason/s why people watch those. :P Advertisements are what turns me off to watch in local channels. I believe you can watch a series or the news in 10 minutes without those commercials. ~_~
23 February 2010 at 16:57
I have nothing against local drama but I never really bothered watching them. They’re quite unappealing and predictable I guess.
JDorama FTW! Lol.
23 February 2010 at 20:29
OMG, I totally agree with this post! Being subjected to 45 minutes of a teleserye makes me want to throw something (preferably at the TV).
What seedsop said is true: the initial premise is great, but as the series goes along, it becomes forced. The writers seem to be plotting the story while it’s airing…
I haven’t watched any teleseryes in years. I always apologize to whoever is with me when I am caught watching, because I always, always find some detail to rail against. Details are important (you’re right about the French manicured nails).
Gah. Water, plox.
23 February 2010 at 20:44
I AGREE. Honestly, I can’t stand Filipino telenovelas as well. Though I usually resort to buying pirated DVDs to finish the story. And I refuse to watch tagalized J-Drama and K-Drama… I feel that they’re butchering the show. –;
25 February 2010 at 15:48
Soaps are generally planned shorter now. Also, you’ve named the fantasy serials. The drama-dramas are stuff that you’re probably not very interested in and those are generally better than the fantasy series. They definitely have better points that the fantasy ones for sure. But I totally agree with packaging and advertisements. None of the shows can come out with a consistent airing time.
To be honest, I’m also not a big fan of J-Dramas because I tend to get very affected. Perhaps I may be counted as a member of Filipino mainstream society in this regard. J-Doramas tend to affect me differently probably because they’re very good at the subtlety of feelings, which tends to make the feelings more real and painful.
I count myself a fan of heavy-handed dramatic Filipino soap acting perhaps precisely because I can still distance myself easier from their emotions due to the OTTness of it all. NOT that I don’t appreciate a good J-Dorama, it just is my preference probably as someone who’s a bit more sensitive to what happens on screen.
I get super mega-involved, and it takes so much out of me emotionally. I seriously seriously get exhausted. Dude, I was in HK and I was watching 14-year-old-Mother and it just KILLED me emotionally. Ang sakhet. Ang hirap hirap kalimutan ng ganung klaseng bigat kasi totoo siya. >_<
Moving on — there’s also, from a cultural perspective, that the Filipino dramatic and comedic culture tends to the more obvious as a whole. Our best and most commendable form of wit, IMHO, is from the gays and their lingo. You don’t really find rapid-fire wit, REAL wittiness, otherwise.
But I appreciate the quick-wittedness of it all because you can’t find it anywhere else. Comedic sarcasm doesn’t work with (Or sarcasm in general) is not something that is received well unless draped in the glitter trappings of gayness here in the Philippines.
25 February 2010 at 15:51
thanks ria for the longform comment :D people — myself included — tend to dismiss local fans as bakya and this intellectual analysis of the stereotypical pinoy drama is just what non-fans need to know to buck the trend. i mean, we can’t have a discussion with just one side of the story, right?
6 March 2010 at 14:15
I just sat through an episode of The Last Prince and felt like laughing the entire time. How can Filipino viewers take this stuff seriously at all? Better yet, how can Filipino directors and producers create this kind of crap and actually feel proud of half assed productions where attention to detail and common sense are thrown out of the window? I might not be a film school graduate, but I can definitely tell when it doesn’t make sense for these magical characters to be walking around in some jungle landscape with perfectly styled hair, immaculate if not overdone makeup, and ridiculously colored silk and rayon costumes that look like they came straight off of a rack?! I haven’t even gotten into the terrible acting which takes a back seat as long as the actor/actress is as light skinned as possible (even if artificially bleached) and as non-Filipino looking as possible. The directing and cinematography is uninspired and the music (when not directly ripped from American pop songs or movie soundtracks) is ponderous. I could go on for hours, but I’ve been struck dumb by laying eyes on the most ridiculous thing of all…
…Paulo Ballesteros as some terrible Michael Jackson wannabe character… WTF?! How can you even justify this character in the plot?! That’s like including some weirdass Elvis Presley character in the middle of Lord of the Rings! Totally incongruous and dumb.
This can’t be the best my homeland has to offer for TV drama, is it? While Japan has been said to never have any original ideas of their own but perfect already existing products and ideas, the Philippine entertainment industry does the opposite: take existing concepts or shows from elsewhere and mangle them into abominations for the undiscerning Philippine viewers. Unfortunately for them, the industry seems to think that all they have to do is play to the lower common denominator instead of aiming for world acclaim.
7 March 2010 at 01:42
oh lol oberon — i love your comment, thanks for making my weekend :D
21 March 2010 at 08:32
Its not that I hate being noypi (I’m a Filipino-Japanese), but this topic is oh so true…but our local dramas especially the noon-time and prime-time dramas, it sucks like hell…I don’t know why most people still watch these dramas that is totally nonsense and boring and, and so on whatever you people should call it, but it really is that BAD, take example those fantaseryes that most people watch…where is realism of everyday life in that? Still our local dramas were bad, boring, unrealistic, don’t have a moral value (take the Panday Kids for example which most kids use to imitate and brawl other kids in school and streets).
7 December 2010 at 11:24
To be honest I’m not such a fan of modern asian shows but the philippines, is just pure mediocrity. Why is it that if it’s asian is almost always centered on cheesy romance and heartbreaks? I used to watch early japanese drama about Samurais and japanese emperors and wars, asian dramas focusing on mid ’80s to ’90s life, awesome heroes with heroic heart and barbaric brutality, that was good stuff. The earlier animes were total kickass as well, now it’s mostly a harem, a snore fest.
Anyway philippine entertainment is mostly a spin off of many popular shows, movies, dramas, etc.. that was made a hit on both western and eastern viewers, ( not talking about how most of it sucked like twilight ) and think if some of it were bad enough, filipino spin off is left with no name.
They also copy shows like SNL and big brother, but the reality is they don’t care about the show, as long as they’re watching the most popular or most good looking celebrities and/or rich folks, most filipinos are suckers for these and call it talent.
15 February 2011 at 15:37
They always stay on the safe zone. Repeat the process like its a mushroom thing.
I don’t watch ABS-CBN nor GMA and even TV5 soaps because they all are crap.
13 April 2012 at 09:51
Pinoy drama sucks – everything sucks..
14 April 2012 at 19:55
So what’s your point?
13 June 2012 at 09:20
HELL RIGHT!!!! I’m kinda pissed off of how this pathetic shows are called drama series. I’m not a fan of drama series but I can still distinguish a well written plot…. Slow paced shits…. Redundant issues…. Damn…. The story goes like this: there’s a poor guy or girl meets the rich partner. They fell in love with other, there’s an obsessive third party who stop at nothing to screw their relationship; eventually they will get screwed but they will have a child a long lost child… Fuck that!!!! Those fucking writters don’t know what it means to research and add some good details. Those shits can never be compared to bloody monday, city hunter, CSI: new york, spartacus, prison break. Now that’s some good series to watch. Man this blowing off steam =P