Bagani: ABS-CBN’s Most Controversial Series Yet

The hype surrounding ‘Bagani’ has been on a high for the past few months.

On the good side, this upcoming ABS-CBN drama series will be led by Liza Soberano and Enrique Gil, one of the Philippines’ most popular love teams today. On the bad side, however, ‘Bagani’ has been beset by controversy from the start.

When the trailer for ‘Bagani’ first popped out, netizens immediately compared it to ‘Encantadia’ due to its similar themes and landscape. The discussion even spread to the writers of the two shows, namely Suzette Doctolero and Mark Duane Angos.

‘Bagani’ also drew flak for its questionable casting choices. While the series was inspired from pre-colonial Philippines, some of the cast were not pure-blooded Filipinos, particularly the LizQuen tandem and co-star Matteo Guidicelli.

Writer Mark Duane Angos defended ‘Bagani”s casting decisions and setting in a series of tweets.

Colorism is real and we as a society must continue to have a nuanced discussion of it. But to use it as a bullet to demonize Filipinos who have mixed heritage is disingenuous, and frankly, disgusting.

— mark duane angos (@markangos) February 10, 2018

Sana like BlackPanther, pinanood mo muna Bagani bago mo hinusgahan. You’ll know it’s not precolonial. Speaking of colonial, do you see the irony of your tweet- na katanggap-tanggap lang ang isang locally produced show kung maihahantulad ito sa gawang banyaga. Very postcolonial. pic.twitter.com/vidjFzkpif

— mark duane angos (@markangos) February 16, 2018

Bagani is set in a fictional world called Sansinukob- isang alternatibong mundo na may mga elemento ng mitolohiyang Pilipino. It is not PRECOLONIAL. It is not HISTORICAL. Hence it is not a portrayal of sinaunang tao or a particular historical period or event.

— mark duane angos (@markangos) February 18, 2018

Notwithstanding the controversy surrounding ‘Bagani’, fans can’t help but be excited over the return of LizQuen to the small screen. This time, however, the duo will be engaged in plenty of action as fight scenes will become the norm in ‘Bagani’.

That doesn’t mean any moment of ‘kilig’ will be nonexistent. There will still be occasional cheesy scenes that make viewers gush, just not much due to the serious physicality involved.

So far, the confirmed lead cast of ‘Bagani’ include Liza Soberano and Enrique Gil, Sofia Andres, Makisig Morales and Matteo Guidicelli. An extended cast is yet to be revealed.

Star Creatives will handle the production duties for ‘Bagani’. It will be directed by Richard Arellano and Lester Pimentel.

With the impending debut of ‘Bagani’, ABS-CBN has entered the world of epicseryes (for which the likes of ‘Encantadia’ were derived). But unlike GMA whose production of ‘Encantadia’ drained much of their finances, ABS-CBN should pose no concern for ‘Bagani’ as far as money as concerned, and if the series rates well, it will not be a big problem.

Still, it remains to be seen if the various controversies will affect ‘Bagani’ in any way. LizQuen may give this series a boost, but it may also cost them some disgruntled viewers in the process.

‘Bagani’ airs weeknights after ‘Ang Probinsyano’ on ABS-CBN Primetime Bida. In the meantime, here is the full trailer for the series.

Pusong Ligaw to End Disappointing Run Friday

One of ABS-CBN’s underachievers for 2017 will mercifully end their run this week.

This Friday, the 188-episode run* of ‘Pusong Ligaw’ will come to a conclusion. While the series has had a long run typical of more recent ABS-CBN drama series, it had a rather up-and-down performance in the ratings.

‘Pusong Ligaw’ premiered on April 24, 2017 as the replacement to ‘The Greatest Love’. But instead of airing the series on the latter’s vacated timeslot, ABS-CBN made the decision to air ‘Pusong Ligaw’ as the leadoff drama on Kapamilya Gold, demoting ‘The Better Half’ to the second slot.

Initially, ‘Pusong Ligaw’ performed particularly well, averaging around 17-18% in the ratings during its first few weeks. However, the series’ ratings declined to around 15% by June, and after that it fluctuated between 12 and 15% for the remainder of its run.

One glaring reason for the decline of ‘Pusong Ligaw’ is the emergence of ‘Impostora’, the GMA Afternoon Prime series that premiered last July 3. By August, the latter overtook the former as the second highest-rated afternoon drama in the country, and while ‘Pusong Ligaw’ has had occasional moments of brilliance, ‘Impostora’ essentially dominated the matchup the rest of the way.

It also didn’t help that viewers grew tired of the ‘kabitserye’ formula that ABS-CBN emphasized of late. Let’s face it, the formula is becoming too stale and predictable, and having witnessed a few other successful ABS-CBN dramas that utilized a similar plotline, it was clear that ‘Pusong Ligaw’ simply lacked the punch and ‘it’ factor of previous series.

Nevertheless, despite all these deficiencies and concerns regarding quality, 188 episodes was still quite an achievement for ‘Pusong Ligaw’. For an unproven cast that starred Beauty Gonzalez, Bianca King, Raymond Bagatsing, Joem Bascon, Diego Loyzaga and Sofia Andres, making it through a long series is definitely an experience for a lifetime.

The last five episodes of ‘Pusong Ligaw’ should be one to remember. Amid these disappointments and criticisms, ABS-CBN should remain proud of how this series turned out.

*One episode of ‘Pusong Ligaw’ was reaired due to technical problems, while another episode was preempted due to the State of the Nation Address.

One Week In, A New Opponent for D’Originals

‘D’Originals’ faces a new challenge starting next week.

The recently-premiered GMA comedy-drama series got its baptism of fire when it aired opposite ABS-CBN’s ‘The Greatest Love’. Sadly, the debut week of ‘D’Originals’ coincided with the gripping final episodes of ‘The Greatest Love’, and as a result, the series did not have enough time to prove themselves against one of ABS-CBN’s top-raters.

As ‘D’Originals’ enters its second week, they find themselves with a different animal. In contrast to ‘The Greatest Love”s family and health-oriented storyline, this new Kapamilya series should be familiar to many critics and viewers alike.

Once again, ABS-CBN is producing a ‘kabitserye’ in the afternoon slot. Enter ‘Pusong Ligaw’.

The latest in a series of infidelity-laced dramas, ‘Pusong Ligaw’ will be led by Kapamilya stars Diego Loyzaga, Sofia Andres, Enzo Pineda, Beauty Gonzales, Bianca King, Joem Bascon and Raymund Bagatsing. The complicated story of ‘Pusong Ligaw’ is as follows:

• Fashion designer Tessa (Beauty) and beauty queen Marga (Bianca) were best friends with big aspirations, until Marga betrays Tessa after sleeping with her boyfriend Caloy (Joem)
• Tessa gives birth and raises her son Rafael until he is stolen by an unknown woman. She then meets Jaime (Raymund) whom he helped along with her struggles and they adopt a son named Rafa (Enz0)
• Rafael was adopted by the Policarpio family and pursued his studies as Potpot (Diego). He met Vida (Sofia), Marga’s daughter who opted to pursue a career as a fashion designer like Tessa, by then known as Terry.

‘Pusong Ligaw’ will be under the production of Star Creatives. The series is directed by GB Sampedro, Elfren Vibar and Henry King Quitain.

If another afternoon ‘kabitserye’ in ‘The Better Half’ is not enough, now comes ‘Pusong Ligaw’ which should test the patience of viewers. While ABS-CBN has had plenty of success with these dramas, the impending premiere of ‘Pusong Ligaw’ may come to a point that they are taking this familiar storyline too far.

Then again, ‘D’Originals’ also borders within the ‘kabitserye’ genre so it’s still a matter of choosing between a serious drama and a more light-hearted one. In any case, good luck to the viewers with regards to their choices.

‘Pusong Ligaw’ airs weekdays after ‘The Better Half’ on ABS-CBN’s Kapamilya Gold.