Wednesday, November 17, 2010

TV Thoughts 2

My first "TV Thoughts" blog entry was posted last May which I intended to be a regular thing here on my blog but forgot about doing it over time haha but anyway I'll give this one another shot since I have so many random thoughts about TV these days both here in the Philippines and in the U.S. Anyway, let's get this started:
Justify Full
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I'm quite glad TV5 is competitive right now, yes over all the station is still #3 but at least it's no longer an after thought and the main networks (and the audience) are taking the station seriously. I admit I personally can't stand Willie Revillame (and his show too) and that's why I'm not "fully" happy with TV5's success with his show but I won't deny that Willie is a huge TV star with a strong mass appeal so it was really a very brilliant scheduling move for TV5 to place his Wowowee 2.0 show "Willing Willie" on primetime to battle with ABS CBN and GMA flagship news programs and their daily soaps as well, it's good counterprogramming and will give the station a significant presence on TV's most important time block. TV5 is already strong on weekend primetime with Talentadong Pinoy and has a competent daytime line up with "Face to Face" and their cartoon block. I don't know if TV5 can breakout in the original local scripted field anytime soon but they are pretty much in good shape with their current line up and programming strategy right now. While I don't see TV5 beating GMA and ABS CBN overall anytime soon but a strong #3 network is good for the industry, it will provide more opportunities and I also hope we could see better scripted programming soon with the increase competition.

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So far I'm liking ABS CBN's remake of "Mara Clara". I like the fact that the story is not really a by-the-numbers copy of the original soap because it made the adaptation unpredictable. I like the new focus that they make this show a little teen-centric with the school scenes, it makes the show easy and enjoyable to watch. It's also a good call to start the show with Mara and Clara as friends rather than just have Mara as the saintly good girl and Clara the spoiled brat who torments her just because. It's good to see the show build up the relationship of the two leads and what would be the cause of conflict (well its kind obvious that their falling out will be because of a guy but I'm looking forward on what will be the breaking point). The elements of a traditional soap are still there but it's blended nicely with the new approach.

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GMA's Survivor Philippines: Celebrity Showdown is about to wrap up and the competition is heating up. I don't know if this would be a final 2 or final 3 but I think if Akihiro will make it to the finals he would easily win as I don't see any of the jury holding a grudge against him and they would respect how competitive he was on the challenges but with that said I don't think he would make it to the finals (unless he goes on an immunity run) because I'm sure the remaining castaways knows he is a runaway winner if they take him to the finals. I'm personally rooting for Solenn because she's very focused on the game and yes because she's charming and nice to look haha but I don't see her winning too unless she will face Aubrey and/or Ervic in the finals. Next to Akihiro, I could see Elma Muros has the best shot of winning but who knows I could be wrong and the jury could surprise me. Anyway, I'm fine with anyone winning save for Ervic. All in all, this was another solid edition of Survivor Philippines although the production values seemed to a be little inferior from the previous two, Lolit Solis visiting the island and Richard Gutierrez as a host sucked bigtime but I would still say this is still the best local adaptation of any reality show franchise.

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Studio 23 changed it's programming strategy recently and I'm quite sad about it since it's already the shadow of the station I once loved. But I can't blame them for the change because I did see it coming as it is really hard for a free TV channel to survive with foreign shows on primetime battling it out with ABS CBN, GMA and the stronger TV5 so airing local movies from 7-9pm makes better counterprogramming and having the US series from 10-12 pm also made sense since the target audience of this show would likely go home late or turn the TV around this time and flip channels. And well we all know the Internet makes it easier for us to access our favorite foreign TV shows so it's no longer appointment viewing to watch them on TV. But still the programming shift makes me sad because I grew up with the station and one of the reasons I got hook from US shows, oh well.

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Since reviving/remaking is the IN thing in TV these days I hope some TV executive out there will think of reviving "Battle of the Brains"! I really miss that show and there's already a drought on quiz shows on local TV these days. On another note, I'm sad local adaptations of "Wheel of Fortune" did do well here, ABC5 did it first with Rustom Padilla as host during the early 2000s and a couple of years back ABS CBN had their version with Kris Aquino as host but but both versions were short lived. TV5 canceled "Who Wants to Be A Millionaire" and replaced it with some silly (but ratings gold) "make me laugh" game show "Laugh or Lose". I also miss GMA 7's "Digital LG Quiz" which was really a very creative quiz show although the last edition was not that good because they cut the production cost down (goodbye high tech equipments, hello whiteboards and marker). Anyway, I really I could see a quiz show TV revival on local TV soon


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Much has been said about the freshman shows in the US are not that impressive compared to last year where "Glee" and "Modern Family" stood out and I agree with that no show is exactly a top rater or a critical darling unlike last season but nevertheless I did find some new shows that I liked. ABC's "No Ordinary Family" has a good concept and great cast (Reverend Camden from 7th Heaven is here!) although it has some problems with the execution since the "superhero" and "family" stories are not blending well so far. Comedies "Better With You" from ABC, and "Outsourced" from NBC started OK to me but as the season progress I've warmed with both shows and found some characters that I actually like. CBS's "Mike & Molly" has a very good lead stars and although sometimes the "fat jokes" goes a bit too much but nevertheless the love story of Mike & Molly is something worth watching for. Fox's "Raising Hope" is such a crazy show but has the heart and baby Hope is just too adorable


1 comment:

mysterygirl said...

Great post.