Meet the tenth challenger to ‘Ang Probinsyano’.
GMA’s never-ending quest to conquer Cardo Dalisay (Coco Martin) leads them to Alden Richards and ‘Victor Magtanggol’, another of the network’s ‘original’ creations. But can this series be able to do something that nine previous opponent couldn’t do: beat ‘Ang Probinsyano’?
More on this article from Timow’s Turf.
THE ALDUB NATION will troop back on GMA primetime after a year but this time, only male half of the duo (Alden Richards) will challenge as Victor Magtanggol, the 10th adversary against FPJ’s Ang Probinsyano.
Directed by Dominic Zapata and originally titled as Mitho, the drama action-fantasy series is inspired by Norse Mythology, specifically on Thor (portrayed by Conan Stevens).
Premise
As the Ragnarök draws near, Thor will order his son, Magni to hide his Mjölnir (hammer) until there’s someone right to inherit it. Magni will go to the world of mortals to wait for the new taker of Mjölnir where he will meet Victor Magtanggol, an OFW based in Canada who is looking for his lost mother, Vivienne (Coney Reyes).
Victor eventually must learn how to use the Mjölnir to protect the world and his loved ones from Móði (Pancho Magno), another son of Thor, who…
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From the Tube 
Yun nanaman, lumalabas nanaman ang kayabangan ng GMA Network sa palabas na ito. Sinabi ni John Estrada, confident daw siya na magiging mataas ang ratings nito. Galit naman ang direktor kasi puro bashing lang daw ang nakukuha ng palabas. It seems that with each new FPJAP challenger, GMA is becoming more and more boastful, even when the odds are against them. It’s apparent that GMA has high hopes for the series, let’s see if the show will live up to them.
Don’t be surprised if this show only registers 17-18% in the ratings while AP still goes for 40. Only AlDub fans will care for this series, yun lang.
In all seriousness though, considering Marian, Dingdong, Dennis, Jennylyn and other Kapuso big stars couldn’t beat Cardo and his friends, if even Alden fails, GMA should really throw in the towel. This feels like their best and last shot. AlDub Nation may have faded, but they’re still a force to be reckoned with considering their social media presence. If even they abandon the show, GMA’s hopes of beating FPJAP should be given a Viking funeral.
The last thing ABS could do is to bring Joshua Garcia and even Julia Barretto to guest on AP so that the Alden lookalike can lure in what’s left of AlDub nation and bring further humiliation to the Kapuso network. That and also make them think that Alden is appearing on two networks at the same time.
Kidding aside, this series might last longer than Sherlock Jr. or The Cure. But considering Ang Probinsyano’s might, they may not even reach 80 episodes anew.
I’ve got no problem with GMA making an adaptation based on Norse Myth but the thing is, the visuals are too close to home–that is, Marvel’s Thor (specifically Asgard). If they really are serious about making it their own iteration, they could’ve come up with a more original visual.
That aside, why do they even have to look for other Myths? Ph Mythology is just as rich as any other culture. Perhaps they’re riding on the popularity of Marvel these days thanks to Infinity War?
Maybe they’re trying to avoid a precedent set by Bagani when it comes to formulating mythological dramas. I don’t know but the thing is our teleserye creators have stagnated to the point that they’re just recycling previous formulas and tweaking it as if they’re originally created.
Basically the teleserye creators have ran out of ideas. This is GMA’s tenth attempt to beat Cardo. Finale nga mismo ng The Cure, 17.2 lang sa Kantar. Ewan ko lang kung magtatagal din ito o hindi. If not, Cardo Dalisay will still live on as GMA’s worst nightmare.
GMA is the most guilty of running out of ideas. Even ABS ran out of ideas.
That’s the only negative. Creative teams are really out of ideas to pick up. Pero still, kahit pangit at paulit-ulit tinatangkilik pa rin.
And regarding AP, criticism of its long run may be higher than ever, pero nakaka-40 pa rin ito. GMA is really stubborn to admit defeat, insisting that AP’s beatable. But who can blame them? They’re still producing shows whether or not it had no chance of beating AP since may mga tao pa rin however slim it may be na ayaw kay Cardo.
If that’s the case, then maybe GMA (and their employees and supporters alike) needs to stop claiming that ABS is copying their shows since they’re chicken about using Ph myth as an element of their fantasy dramas.
Besides, what’s stopping them from doing it now? They’ve done it before in Mulawin and Encantadia (the original versions). My guess is they’re really relying on the popularity of Thor due to Marvel.
Before VM aired, I was interested about Mitho (its former name) because I was thinking iy would have Ph folklore incorporated in its storyline. But when I saw the trailer… ehhh… too much of a knock-off–and that’s from just the visuals alone.
I agree with you though on our creators stagnating. That much is true. These days Ph shows lack imagination. The problem here is that we don’t play around much with what our culture has. Look at Japan, their history and culture has so much exposure internationally since their artists freely play around with historical figures. (Imagine Oda Nobunaga looking like an Ikemen when historical illustrations depict him as anything but good looking )
Oh well…
Even worse is that the creative team is stuck with the common motifs in teleseryes: fantasy, love teams and love triangles, family squabbles and the supernatural. Perhaps they should look at other countries for inspiration, like in the U.S. with SOCO-like drama series such as CSI and NCIS.
On that note, I think ABS has ventured out on that genre (i.e. The Good Son, You’re My Home, Hanggang Saan). Still, it was more of a family drama than a legal thriller. What I don’t like about it though is that there are inaccurate depictions in the show especially when it comes to courtroom drama. I mean, come on. Can’t your team do some research?
Ipaglaban Mo is also a breath of fresh air when it comes to weekend programming but my criticism is that it focuses more on the family drama aspect than the court procedures when it should be the other way around since shows like this are meant to be informative.
I mentioned family squabbles in a previous comment and the series you mentioned belonged to that stereotype. What I wanted to see was actual crime-solving series in the mold of CSI and NCIS. SOCO which is an ABS News and Current Affairs production could also fall into that category, although it’s more of a documentary-type.
Same with Imbestigador of GMA. Since they contain insane amounts of dramatization, they might as well become the Phillipines’ version of CSI and NCIS. But still, there are plenty more ideas to come up with and yet the creative teams are simply stagnating without any sort of inspiration to absorb.
Ngayon naman nagyayabang ang GMA at ang mga fans nila dahil top trending topic siya kagabi sa Twitter. As if tweets naman ang basehan ng ratings.
Who can blame them? Publicity is the name of the game. Kahit halatang talo, maghahanap sila ng paraan para mapagyabangan ang mga ‘accomplishments’ daw nila.
Hanggang ngayon pinipilit parin nila na panalo ang VM porket top trending topic siya at naka milyong tweet daw sila. Parang ayaw ata nila tanggapin na iba ang social media sa TV ratings. Talo na sila sa Kantar, talo pa sila sa AGB, pero nagyayabang parin ang mga fan ng VM.
Let them make noise on social media as long as hindi ito maramdaman ng buong Pilipinas. Yun lang.
FPJAP 42.4% VM 20% (Kantar), FPJAP 14.7%, VM 12.4% (NUTAM). To be fair, VM had a better start than The Cure and seemed close in NUTAM, but I suppose that could just be because it’s the premiere and people were curious. Still not a good start, however.
Sustaining it will not be easy though. GMA might as well work harder if they want to overcome this curse.
Do you think they have a chance though? Like I said, VM had a better start than The Cure, and the NUTAM numbers seem respectable.
Though this early, people are already joking “Victor Magtanggol: Ang Huling Dalawang Linggo”.
We’ll see. That’s all.
But seriously, GMA was stuck between a rock and a hard place. The original title was Mitho, which made people think it was a Bagani rip-off. They ditched that title and presumably tweaked the concept, but now it’s being trashed as a Thor rip-off. Poor GMA.
It really shows how limited the creative team is in concocting new ideas for series. They’re pretty much stuck in the stereotypes I mentioned earlier.
It is though, from the visuals alone. If you’ve seen their ‘Asgard’ you’ll see how much it resembles Marvel’s. To add insult to injury, their action scenes are quite sloppy. But I liked the idea of Alden throwing a hammer and hitting the back of the thief’s knees. Unfortunately, it was poorly executed.
Must be them not working hard enough and simply coming to the point that they are just satisfied without thinking what was wrong. Can’t they have a team of critics at their side to look at what they’re doing?
I think that’s also the problem with having to shoot while the series is ongoing. They’re probably time-pressed that’s why they can’t take a seat and have a second look at their output (or maybe they just don’t care). I still have yet to see a Ph TV series that’s aired after the entire series has wrapped up filming.
That’s the problem with regards to how teleseryes are set up. Whereas American series run on a weekly and seasonal basis (one season for them typical runs from September to May), our teleseryes air five times a week, which only adds to the problem. Ours is a time-strapped environment and lacking whatever attention span we have.
>I still have yet to see a Ph TV series that’s aired after the entire series has wrapped up filming.
The Promise of Forever?
Did some digging around the net and yes you’re right.
I missed that.
I thought its airing just got delayed and they were still filming during the entire run of the show, but got cut short due to low ratings. Turns out it was indeed fully pre-produced. My mistake.
To be fair, TPOF did have low ratings and was beaten by its GMA rivals on both Kantar and AGB, so it’s understandable how you came to that assumption.
No wonder our attention span is short. This series got victimized with all the delays in production.
Wala pa rin talaga, sa AGB nga, mapa People’s o Household ratings, bumaba pa ang ratings ni VM. Tapos kalat ngayon na madumal ang ads nila. Mukhang isa nanamang fail si VM. You know GMA is screwing up when even in their preferred ratings provider, they’re still losing hard.
Another 60-episode series in the making if they keep this up.
And the curse lives on! Abangan ang eleventh attempt ng GMA sa kanilang plano na talunin si Cardo Dalisay. Paulit-ulit na ang cycle na yan sa GMA. They will try and try hard kahit hopeless na.
Only AlDub Nation will care about this series, which is close to dwindling. Plus Cardo’s haters are few and far between. Malas talaga ang GMA dahil both sides of the story hindi nila maakit.
Kaya siguro yung mga fantard dikit nalang nang dikit sa “ABS-CBN shutdown 2020”, kasi yun nalang ang pag-asa nila.
They can’t do anything about it. Last resort nila yun. As if Dutertards naman sila.
Wala pa rin, VM is not even improving. AP is still in the 40s while VM has now dropped to as low as 17% in the nationwide ratings. Mapa Kantar o AGB, talong-talo talaga. Could nothing save this show?
No further comment on that. Nothing surprising about this news.
Kanina may nakita akong comment sa FB, sabi raw mas importante pa raw ang number of tweets kaysa sa ratings. Napaisip tuloy ako: “what?!”
Pang-publicity lang ang trending topics ng Twitter to judge how popular a show really is. But ratings is still a yardstick to a show’s performance.
Di ata matanggap nila na mapa-Kantar o AGB talo parin sila, kaya nag-move na sila ng goalpost.
Desperation tactics para makuha ng attention, if there is one.
Tapos ngayon naman nag-comment si Alden na open daw siya na mag-guest si Maine sa series. While it’s not a sure thing and I’ve read that Maine herself is somewhat against the idea, if it does come to that, it just shows how desperate GMA is. Coupled with the fact that this early, a rumored replacement (Cain and Abel starring Dennis and Dingdong) is already on the pipeline.
Worst-case scenario: VM could get demoted to the second slot opposite Alden lookalike Joshua Garcia’s new series if it performs so poorly. Then Onanay slides to the third slot while that new Dingdong series will take on AP anew. And then GMA convinces Maine to join the series to give Julia Barretto a run for her money.
But that’s only an if, not a when. Kung ganyan ka-desperado ang GMA, so be it. Can’t wait for VM to end after just 60 episodes.
Mukhang matindi ang problema ngayon ng VM: mapa-Kantar o AGB, hindi lang natatalo siya ng FPJAP, mas mataas pa ang ratings ng Meteor Garden kaysa sa kanya. And we thought it couldn’t get worse than The Cure or Sherlock Jr. I know this could possibly be because MG has just started so there’s the start boost, but still not a good sign.
Comparing VM to MG would be unfair since magkaiba sila ng timeslot.
I’m aware of that, my point was that Victor Magtanggol must be struggling hard if even shows on other timeslots have higher ratings than it.
If this series were in the afternoon they’ll make mincemeat of Kapamilya dramas. Sadly it airs at night and Alden is too popular to be put in the afternoon slot.
Ngayon naman pinatagawag pa ang mga Sanggre para tulungan si Victor. As they say, desperate times call for desperate measures.
I called that: Baganization.
Nakahanda na raw ang replacement niya: Cain at Abel. Mukhang the writing is on the wall na for Victor Magtanggol.
Can’t wait for Coco to invite Alden to his Thanksgiving party, along with the entire VM cast. Isa na namang celebration ito para sa kanya.
Wala na, finish na. Hanggang 16 nalang siya.
Wala talagang chance. Another waste of a show against AP.
And GMA was even more boastful about this show compared to the other previous FPJAP opponents. They kept claiming how it was somehow winning, never mind that it was losing badly on both Kantar and AGB.
It’s fool’s gold to think about it. GMA simply didn’t have a chance.