Although a number of TV shows have featured gay characters in the past, this is the first teleserye show which has a gay central theme in Philippine television. Never before was a gay themed TV show seen and discussed by passionate netizens in social media where episodes where trending most of the time. You can always hear Camp Lally and Camp Eric arguing and pointing their own sides.
The conflict of the story is centered on the husband Vincent's internal homophobia, his closeted and repressed homosexuality and how it affected his relationships with his wife Lally and true love Eric and their families. Eric and Vincent are boyfriends since school days. When Eric left for abroad a long time to study, Vincent was left alone with a doting mother and a homophobic father, and decided to marry a college sweetheart Lally. When Eric came back home, the love between the two guys was revived and thus the start of a long and difficult process of reconciling marital duties, fidelity and being true to oneself.
The series are peppered with other side stories, after all, this has 94 episodes of 45 mins each. There was the story of Lally with her sister and mom and dad; the other gay friends love stories; the homophobic father story; the story of the transgendered cousin of Vincent, among others. The timeline would be a long one but all of these seem to fall into place using a narration style by the housewife Lally.
Eric was competently portrayed by veteran actor Dennis Trillo who had previously done gay roles. Carla Abelllana was perfect and very sympathetic in her role as Lally. But a revelation is the newcomer Tom Rodriguez who played Vincent. He excels in moments of repressed emotions and internal anguish. The other supporting actors acted very well and made the whole TV viewing entertaining and moving.
I do have my own wishlist of 'course on how the series could be made better: A. Why oh why, didn't the two boyfriends interact thru emails, YM or Facebook, etc. when they were apart? This would have prevented some future problems... B. How I wish they could lessen the countless playback of the two theme songs? They were being played on almost every episode. Not that I don't like the songs but I think playing them only on the right moments can make the scenes more effective and emotional. C. Never liked the slow motion and pausing right before a commercial. Is this the standard for a teleserye?
It is an almost perfect show if we keep these aside. Thank you Suzette Doctolero for creating this and making the audience rethink about the dilemma of married gays. Thank you Dominic Zapata for the direction of non-stereotype gay characters and plots. And thank you GMA Network for taking a risk producing this. We all know it paid off!
And how did the series end? Guess...
The conflict of the story is centered on the husband Vincent's internal homophobia, his closeted and repressed homosexuality and how it affected his relationships with his wife Lally and true love Eric and their families. Eric and Vincent are boyfriends since school days. When Eric left for abroad a long time to study, Vincent was left alone with a doting mother and a homophobic father, and decided to marry a college sweetheart Lally. When Eric came back home, the love between the two guys was revived and thus the start of a long and difficult process of reconciling marital duties, fidelity and being true to oneself.
The series are peppered with other side stories, after all, this has 94 episodes of 45 mins each. There was the story of Lally with her sister and mom and dad; the other gay friends love stories; the homophobic father story; the story of the transgendered cousin of Vincent, among others. The timeline would be a long one but all of these seem to fall into place using a narration style by the housewife Lally.
Eric was competently portrayed by veteran actor Dennis Trillo who had previously done gay roles. Carla Abelllana was perfect and very sympathetic in her role as Lally. But a revelation is the newcomer Tom Rodriguez who played Vincent. He excels in moments of repressed emotions and internal anguish. The other supporting actors acted very well and made the whole TV viewing entertaining and moving.
I do have my own wishlist of 'course on how the series could be made better: A. Why oh why, didn't the two boyfriends interact thru emails, YM or Facebook, etc. when they were apart? This would have prevented some future problems... B. How I wish they could lessen the countless playback of the two theme songs? They were being played on almost every episode. Not that I don't like the songs but I think playing them only on the right moments can make the scenes more effective and emotional. C. Never liked the slow motion and pausing right before a commercial. Is this the standard for a teleserye?
It is an almost perfect show if we keep these aside. Thank you Suzette Doctolero for creating this and making the audience rethink about the dilemma of married gays. Thank you Dominic Zapata for the direction of non-stereotype gay characters and plots. And thank you GMA Network for taking a risk producing this. We all know it paid off!
And how did the series end? Guess...
