Mt. Mayon and Philippine Teledrama

I used to never watch Filipino soaps, telenovelas and teleseryes which was why I often got into tiffs with some of my co-workers before. They probably misinterpreted my lack of interest in Filipino crying ladies as a sign of a lack of patriotism. Make no mistake I will bash heads with anyone who questions my love for my country. I simply did not like Philippine melodrama because I did not wish to deplete my nasal and eye fluids over the travails of fictional characters. This is especially since my own life and the sad state of our country are enough to be depressed over. I also did not watch soaps because they challenged my mental faculties too much by forcing me to justify either horrendously convoluted or overly simplistic unbelievable plots.

Since I got married though, I have had little choice but to get glimpses of some of these shows. I live in a place where English television has been relegated to oblivion and where I must suffer the perpetual absence of CSI and Smallville. I must admit though that there are some fairly good telenovelas just as there are really bad ones on the primetime fare.

A couple of days ago, I was reminded of one of the presently popular drama shows on TV. An online friend, Myles Narvaez, sent me a picture of Mount Mayon, an active volcano in the province of Albay that is renowned for its nearly perfect cone. The picture should have dug up fond memories of family trips to the place. Unfortunately though, more recent memories of a promotional soap trailer came to mind.

If I remember the trailer correctly, the story begins with the protagonist’s family on a happy trip to Albay when all of a sudden the volcano erupts, the ground cracks open and cruelly swallows one parent whole. Okay, so the volcano was practically smoldering and tourists were standing at its feet taking souvenir pictures. I did not even need to watch the pilot episode to know that the writers of the show probably did not even try to explain that inexplicably improbable part. They were probably thinking that if Pierce Brosnan could get away with Dante’s Peak’s plot then so could they.

Sigh, just when I was getting the hang of Philippine melodrama.