It is such a strange time for Philippine TV - and I’m not talking about reality television taking over our lives and creating many talentless stars in the process; nor about the fantaserye reminding us of how much we need to escape from the realities of rising oil prices and NFA rice lines. Both of these aren’t so much strange as they are sad.

What is strange is the rise of the Filipinized Korean-novela - a unique entity in a country where the Mexican telenovela Marimar was only Filipinized a decade after the original became a TV hit. This remake was something we actually had coming, given the too familiar plot of a poor simpleton turned rich powerful woman, ready to seek revenge, but is softened by her true love. It’s the stuff every other Pinoy soap opera is made of.

The Korean telenovela meanwhile is an unexpected entity that has appealed to Pinoy taste. When Meteor Garden became a big hit, it was a surprising thing - what with four chinky-eyed, pale yellow-white lead stars in the F4 and a simple-looking girl as lead stars, alongside a love story that seemed premised on cariño-brutal - not the usual Pinoy love story. Between the turn of the millennium to the present though, the Pinoy TV audience has taken to what we’ve come to call the Korean-novela like moths to a flame, even when the stories have evolved from strange love stories to complicated historical romances. And while it’s clear that the Pinoy taste for chinky-eyed Korean actors and actresses has much to do with the success these telenovelas enjoy, one can’t deny the possibility that there is as well an interest in the more complicated and unfamiliar plots that these stories keep. The kind that we rarely have in this country, fantaseryes notwithstanding.

Probably a testament to the appeal of the Korean story is the re-creation of these Korean-novelas into Filipinized versions, with My Girl on ABS-CBN 2 coming head-to-head with Kim Sam Soon (re-titled Ako si Kim Sam Soon) on GMA 7. These are two very disparate stories, with quite different target audiences, and now as Filipino versions of the originals, very distinct ways of taking on the challenge that is Filipinizing quite a foreign cultural product. How have they fared? And where do we find the Filipino, in plots that are so alien to us?

My Girl As Pinay Girl

It’s pretty clear from the way this teleserye was promoted that the decision to do it had much to do with the new-found success of reality show winner Kim Chiu and her team-up with co-winner Gerald Anderson. Never mind that neither are really actors, nor did their reality show Pinoy Big Brother Teen Edition have anything to do with talent at all. In this land where star creation is about hype and the bombardment of images more than anything, anyone can be a star.

Or get their own primetime slot. Chiu, a typical Filipino-Chinese teenager with the right amount of conservatism and quirkiness, seems tailor-made for the lead role of Jasmine. In fact, half the time, you almost think she’s just being herself. In this Filipinized version of My Girl, Jasmine is a teenage Filipino girl, always trying to save her father’s skin from being thrown in jail, to the detriment of her own individual life which ideally would only involve getting an education and some good ol’ puppy love.

But one out of two ain’t bad at all, for while Jasmine didn’t go to school, she does have her own prince charming in the character of Anderson. And as expected, not everything is well in this love story. For one thing, Jasmine’s job, for which she is paid by Anderson, is to pretend that she’s the long-lost granddaughter of Anderson’s grandfather. For another, this charade (which so far has allowed her to keep her father out of jail, and from being killed) has recently been found out by Anderson’s ex-girlfriend - the kind who doesn’t go away.

My Girl had much going for it in the beginning, with Jasmine’s foibles including her lack of knowledge about the lifestyle of the rich and famous that she was suddenly a part of. And while the love story is what’s mostly sold here, much can be said about Jasmine’s ability to rationalize her existence within the “fairytale” that she suddenly lives in; there is too, value in Jasmine’s love for her father - regardless of his flaws. How Filipino can you get?

But the creative team of My Girl seems to be Filipinizing this a bit too much - at least to the point of it becoming testament to the need to serve a buffet table of artistas at any given time. In this case, it’s the addition of the new batch of teen winners from the second season of Pinoy Big Brother Teen Edition. A decision that might take away audiences who had survived the neophyte acting of the show’s lead stars so far, but now have to contend with beginner’s-acting from reality show contestants turned actors. Obviously the goal is to get a bigger audience share, not keep the story going - which in recent weeks, has really been only going around in circles. Because too, how complicated can you make a Filipino teenage girl’s life? How complex can you make life seem for Kim Chiu and her image of the sweet quirky - ideal - teenager of the times?

Introducing the Pinay Old Maid

What My Girl lacks in complexity, Ako si Kim Sam Soon makes up for. Starting off with Sam Soon planning her wedding to, and being stood up at the altar by, her husband-to-be, this Filipinized version of Kim Sam Soon was off to a good quick start. The first week established the complexity in Sam Soon’s character not just based on her experience of a broken heart, but also with regards to the emotional turmoil that her status in life brings: she’s a Filipina in her 30’s, overweight, jobless, and is pressured to get married.

Sam Soon’s also ruled by the presence of a social climbing sister (who, strangely enough, is thin as a rail), a noisy nagger palengkera of a mother, and a dead father who leaves her with more than just memories. The latter leaves her family in debt - the one thing that pushes her to find a job, and enter a deal with new-found boss Cyrus - the least likeable leading man possible. This deal allows for her family to survive through the debt her father incurred, but is also the source of complexity in Sam Soon’s life, stuck as she suddenly is with a pretend-boyfriend and a real-life boss.

Regine Velasquez’s take on Sam Soon’s character is a refreshing one, willing as she was to look the part (complete with a fat suit and fat clothes, bad hair, and barely any make-up), and become as “fat” in terms of mannerisms and attitude. Watching Velasquez dive into an overflowing plate of rice and adobo, or filling her mouth with pastries, listening to her travails as a Pinoy single woman wanting to find the man of her dreams, or as a discriminated overweight Pinay, is surprisingly believable.

Mark Anthony Fernandez’s Cyrus meanwhile, is by turns a touching character and an irritating one - kindhearted when he wants to be, but absolutely antagonistic when he feels threatened by Sam Soon’s knowledge of his pusong mamon tendencies. Much of what happens between the characters of Cyrus and Sam Soon, is fodder for the comedy that happens in the show, a feat in itself for Velasquez whose only experience with acting has been for light drama movies that tend to repeat themselves. Fernandez’s take on Cyrus’ character is that of the conventional Pinoy male who refuses to be tied down, but likes having a woman swoon over him - if only to keep his confidence intact. This becomes the perfect opposite to Velasquez’s Sam Soon who, at her age, is so ready to believe that prince charming can come in any package - even the antagonistic one that Cyrus appears in.

If there’s anything that drags Ako si Kim Sam Soon down, it’s the minor story about Sam Soon’s sister, which takes up too much time and only seems like an effort at putting in some puppy love story to cater to an audience of a different age bracket. The thing is, the show barely needs this, as the complexities of Sam Soon’s and Cyrus’ lives can stand on their own. In fact the activities and characters that surround the hotel where they both work is contextually enough to keep the show interesting. And downright funny.

Director Dominic Zapata has said that Ako si Kim Sam Soon, unlike the top raters of primetime, is a “slow burn”. What it has become is a good slow burn. Because while I can already imagine the ending to the Filipinized version of My Girl - focused as it has become on the teenage love story/ies and celebrities it wants to sell - I can’t quite say for sure what will happen to Kim Sam Soon and Cyrus next week.

Now that’s a Filipinization that doesn’t sacrifice the complexity of character or plot, originally Korean as this was. In fact what it proves is that Filipinization gives way to a different kind of complexity, one that’s grounded in a culture that’s anything but Korean, and just might be able to tear apart the stereotypes of the Pinay and the lives that she’s expected to live. That can only be a good thing.

Beyond ABS-CBN

It is therefore no surprise that gone are the days when any actor or actress could just gather enough gumption to hold a microphone and instantly become TV host. So much more is at stake now, given the fact that many of these reality shows are expensive franchises. And it is that one host who needs to keep audiences from changing channels at any given time.

But both ABS-CBN 2 and GMA 7 have yet to come up with anyone that’s close to Gonzaga’s stature, if one may call it that. Rodriguez and Gonzales, while both bubbling with personality, seem to be one and the same person, even with their different skin colors and shows. Much can be said about the fact that while Rodriguez has slowly started to move from hosting to acting, she isn’t really much of an actress; and both her and Gonzales’ upper class origins reveals itself when they’re made to relate with the mass audience. The same may be said for Manzano, whose personality has yet to shine in the context of hosting chores that’s predominantly done by females, at least on ABS-CBN.

GMA 7 would seem to have one over the former channel when it comes to male hosts, with its usual suspect Paolo Bediones, but also a new set of younger hosts Raymond Guttierez (for Pinoy Idol and Showbiz Central), Moe Twister (for Showbiz Central), and Drew Arellano (for Unang Hirit and Balikbayan).

Of this batch, it’s Guttierez who got the coveted Pinoy Idol hosting stint, for reasons beyond anyone’s understanding. Suffice it to say that he lacks the maturity and credibility for the job, and one actually reminisces about the witty repartee and personality that at least Ryan Agoncillo leant to the past incarnation of the same franchise.

Meanwhile, it is Twister and Arellano who are more engaging to watch, successful as both are at traversing the line between their fluent-English upbringing and class origins, and the mass audience that the network banks on for profits. Both also reveal much of their personalities in the shows that they do, proving that Gonzaga’s style of silly and quirky - her realness - does work across genders, and networks, even shows.

And yet, both Twister and Arellano are relegated to the shows that they have, all of which aren’t on primetime and really do limit them insofar as flexing their hosting muscles are concerned. Here, it does become clear that as far as GMA 7 is concerned host-creation is at best a flimsy concept that’s barely important.

Something that’s proven further by their decision to have singer Karylle and actress Rhian Ramos, to co-host Pinoy Idol with Guttierez. This trio’s barely there when it comes to keeping the show and its sub-show Pinoy Idol Extra interesting, as the three bank on their pretty faces and articulateness (and obviously their very good managers who got them the hosting stints) instead of on credibility or personality.

Something in turn, that ABS-CBN seems to consciously build in their roster of hosts. Where credibility in contemporary times is represented by the number of product endorsements and projects that the hosts are given, and personality is about selling everything and anything possible about these hosts - talent and skill notwithstanding.

And if the ratings game is any indication, then Pinoy Dream Academy undoubtedly has one over Pinoy Idol - that is, it has Gonzaga, Gil and Crawford, over Guttierez, Karylle and Ramos. It’s really no contest.

The reality show taking over local television has been lamented often enough; what has gone unnoticed is how this has also brought upon us a set of faces and voices that have become television show hosts. Unlike their predecessors, these hosts are usually created from scratch - they’re not primarily actors or singers who have ended up hosting one variety show or another. Instead, they are groomed to become the “ideal” hosts for any given show, any given network. Ultimately allowing for the hosts to become symbols of not just the shows they hold together, but of the network they are part of.

Toni Gonzaga country

In recent years, ABS-CBN 2 has become Toni Gonzaga country - even when Gonzaga has consistently gotten bad reviews for her use of ungrammatical English, Filipino and Taglish, and the over the top, almost irritating, delivery of her spiels. For most of the year, Gonzaga’s on TV everyday for a reality show (Pinoy Big Brother and all its incarnations, as well as Pinoy Dream Academy), and on Saturday afternoons for showbiz talkshow Entertainment Live.

In all these shows, Gonzaga holds things together as host - even when we are made to believe, as probably her co-hosts are, that everyone who holds a microphone is on equal footing. So while Mariel Rodriguez, Bianca Gonzales and Nikki Gil are usually in these shows with her, they are mere secondary hosts, doing pre-taped, usually negligible segments. Even with Luis Manzano (in PBB Teen Edition) and recently, Billy Crawford (in Pinoy Dream Academy), Gonzaga is allowed to man the fort as she controls spiels, and particularly with Crawford, practically carrying him and his awkward hosting skills through most of the show.

But Gonzaga isn’t just a reality/talk show host. On Sundays, she shares the stage with other ABS-CBN stars on variety show ASAP, where she also proves her singing and dancing chops. She’s also an actress with a string of movie hits, a singer with a couple of CDs to her name, and a concert performer. So while she seems to be the same as the rest of ‘em ABS-CBN stars who are expected to do everything, Gonzaga’s edge is that she actually really and truly does everything.

To the best of whatever abilities she has, even when limited, which apparently has paid off, if product endorsements are to be a measure of her credibility as celebrity.

The host as celebrity

This is the way Gonzaga has redefined what it means to be a successful host on contemporary television. The host may have always been celebrity, but Gonzaga pushed it further by becoming feed and fodder for everything else that goes with being actress and singer in this country: she revels in intrigues, bares all about her life and love, allows for a real quirky and silly self to be revealed through her shows - and once, even as a houseguest in Big Brother’s house.

It is here that one finds the Gonzaga may have redefined the notion of the host by selling not just her ability to keep people glued to their TV screens, but also by using her personality and person as that which sets her apart from the rest.

And so even when Nikki Gil can hold her own (she’s a MYX VJ after all), she seems to have something missing compared to Gonzaga. Because the latter shows that hosting isn’t just a skill anymore; it’s about everything else but that.

Next time: Beyond ABS-CBN

That we are enamored by KC Concepcion is understandable. It’s not so much that we saw her grow up, or that she’s the girl born with a silver spoon in her mouth - many other young stars are the same. We find her interesting because in the past, she remained distinctly resistant to the idea of the limelight, having one-foot-in-one-foot-out of the showbiz industry she was born into.

The uniqueness of KC’s star creation though lies in her and her handler’s ability to keep her in our consciousness despite her absence from this limelight. Add to this the refusal to keep her in the comfy box her mother Sharon Cuneta’s fame would’ve allowed her, and KC just kept us all curious, to say the least.

Beyond her mother’s shadow

So we come to know KC as a teenager acting, singing and dancing in stage musicals versus television. Upon turning 18, we saw KC’s debut celebration, and are allowed a glimpse of someone who isn’t shallow or superficial. She chooses handmade products by unwed mothers (or was it orphans?) from a local shelter, for her giveaways. She’s also deemed imperfect - still with baby fat, and not reed thin as 18-year-old celebrities tend to look these days.

She then surprised everyone, not just by choosing college over a showbiz career (how rare is that these days?), but by wanting to leave home and go independent. Soon after leaving for Paris, KC started appearing more often on TV commercials.

In the TV special used to reintroduce her, From Paris to Pinas, KC is rendered, not as her mother’s daughter, but as an adult with her own set of responsibilities. She was portrayed as a regular everyday person in Paris and elsewhere, who’s also a compassionate Pinay. In Paris, KC befriends an overseas Filipino worker, a cleaning lady of one of her friends.

And so the stage was set for the kind of star KC was going to be: with feet firmly on the ground, a sense of self and independence distinct from her mother, and a good dose of social consciousness. With such a pretty face to boot, KC was more than just covergirl material. Her star was perfectly created as role model material.

Advertising becomes KC

For this generation of stars, doing commercials has meant credibility, and the number of product endorsements a celebrity has is not just a measure of her fame, as it is a measure of her life. If KC’s advertisements on television are any indication, then while her life is not cookie-cutter, it’s close to being perfectly clean-cut.

She sells everything on television (multivitamins, shampoo, vaginal wash, a broadband company), and in print (digital cameras, clothes). In many of these ads, her image as independent woman is recreated and confirmed; sometimes, as with clothing brand Bayo, her being Filipina is sold as well.

It’s hard to argue with KC’s need to sell products, particularly given the kind of mother she has - Cuneta sells everything from pancit canton (with husband Sen. Francis Pangilinan) to ice cream (with youngest daughter Miel), and yes, vaginal wash, too. Given current showbiz, where a pretty face can make you the next big star regardless of talent, doing commercials seems like one of those silver spoons KC’s had in her mouth all this time.

Advertisements and star creation

Undoubtedly, it’s also these endorsements that allow for her first foray into acting, the I Am KC drama specials that ran for a month, to earn money. Watching the show, you barely have time to breathe among the various images of KC - from her TV role to her many commercials. Here, the combo of TV show (and specials) and advertisements clearly mix.

She’s even able to do it for more worthy causes. Who knew of the U.N. Feeding Program and the Virlanie Foundation before KC? Because of all those product endorsements, she seems to be selling everything she stands for as well. And in this time of crises, she has to be given credit for wanting to feed children and keep them in school. It’s more than many actresses her age are doing after all.

Limits to her selling powers

But selling a whitening product? For someone like KC, whose fair complexion is well-documented by a life on television, it’s a stretch. And one wonders why she even needs to sell this product at all. Of all her endorsements, this one actually runs counter to everything that KC stands for: from social consciousness to independence, a sense of self to having feet firmly on the ground.

Because to sell skin whitening is to insist on discontent, if not unacceptability - you need to be whiter not darker, fairer not morena. It seems farthest from what KC would want to sell, given the Pinay pride that she celebrates often and the self-confidence she espouses.

And at a time when actresses, athletes - even senators! - make money out of selling products, wouldn’t it be the greatest thing to see KC saying no to certain endorsements? Wouldn’t it be fantastic to hear KC say that loving the skins we’re in is the best thing, regardless of its color? Given the kind of star and role model that she is, this isn’t only a small price for KC to pay, it’s also a well-founded expectation.

To re-introduce the second season of reality show Pinoy Dream Academy, ABS-CBN showed reruns of the first season on Studio 23. So everyday last week, we were reminded of how great the talent actually was last year. Too, it was a reminder of how many of them turned out: those who haven’t become near-extinct have been forced into becoming “actors” instead of just singers; those who are seen more regularly on television have been forced to fit into the mold of the “acceptable” TV star.

Anyone who watches the shows on ABS-CBN would know exactly what acceptability means for the network, at least as far as star creation is concerned. Case in point: is there one morena girl in that stable of stars? Save for Nikki Gil, who has remained her old morena self, everyone has become practically the same fair - and acceptable - color. Even more true for PDA’s Star Dreamer Yeng Constantino who, in the reruns, looks more her age and seems to be more comfortable in her own skin.

Star standardization

Seeing her on the variety show ASAP every Sunday, Constantino always looks uncomfortable alongside actresses and singers (and of course singer-actresses as contemporary showbiz requires everyone to be) with their “flawless” white skin, rebonded hair and made-up faces. And while Constantino has conformed as seamlessly as possible to the way these other girls look - sometimes disappearing in those buffet (i.e., everyone possible is included) song numbers - this doesn’t keep the conformity from being discomforting.

Because as the reruns remind me, Constantino was quite the unique girl, over and above the distinct clothing style (Chuck Taylors were a staple), and humble beginnings. Beyond skin, she was also the edgy girl, reconfiguring the classic “I Will Survive”- preempting David Cook. Constantino was also writing her own songs then, proving creativity beyond just the mimicry that many others - contestants and professional singers - are wont to do.

Now though, there’s a lack of celebration for what Constantino actually can do, and what makes her distinctly different from the singers that surround her. Too often, they force her to do vocal calisthenics, in showdowns with divas and belters, never mind that it’s just not her style. Or that it doesn’t do justice to her voice and her rock ‘n’ roll roots.

New season, new dreams

And so it is with hope that I’ve been watching the new - and I daresay improved - version of PDA, with a new set of mentors that so far include Ryan Cayabyab, Jose Javier Reyes and Kitchie Molina. While we have yet to hear Molina say something more than “relax your jaw, you need to relax your jaw” to every contestant, the combo of Mr. C and Reyes is a joy to watch. Unlike the first season, both seem more open to difference, encouraging confidence in the dark skinned girl who’s insecure about her color, and the overweight girl who sings better than most.

Reyes of course is quick to assert in the round table discussions with the other mentors: we have to admit, it will be hard to sell this person. The unsaid being the weight and the color, the less than perfect face.

Thankfully though, among the new mentors, and more importantly between Mr.C and Reyes, the right questions are asked, not just of the contestants, but of the judges as well: should her looks keep her from getting into the next round? should the sob story be as important as the voice? should the voice be the most important thing?

Image versus talent

Often though, it is this question that reverberates: can we fix her image? This is also the most disconcerting. Because it is a reminder that to a certain extent, these contestants are seen as broken - that the overweight, the dark, the curly-haired, the not-so-pretty skin must be mended in order for these singers to be acceptable. It’s no different from what has happened to Constantino, even when her albums and concerts allow for her rock ‘n’ roll roots, and real self, to show.

And even then, I look at Mr. C and imagine that there is hope. Because he knew enough to take on regular looking girls like Jolina Magdangal and Tenten Munoz for 14k, and unknowns like Jeffrey Hidalgo, Geneva Cruz and Tony Lambino for Smokey Mountain. Because even with the Ryan Cayabyab Singers, voice and talent seems to be the most important thing. Let’s hope he can go up against the star creation - standardization - of ABS-CBN.

Then it will be said, that Mr. C is not only Pinoy Idol’s loss and Pinoy Dream Academy’s gain. If he can affect the notions of beauty that TV culture sells, he will be all of ours.