TV REVIEW: “PLAYHOUSE” PLAYFUL BEGINNING PILOT

In a nutshell: broken hearted woman found a guy, fell in love, married each other, fought…separated then the man tries to win back the girl.

Conventional rom-coms have now practically become a primetime and daytime obsession. That ABS-CBN, taking advantage of it, just after “Sana Dalawa ang Puso Ko” gives us yet another one with “Playhouse”, starred by Angelica Panganiban and Zanjoe Marudo.

It’s the current trend started from movies and is practically what you can see at the cinemas, to small screen.

Anyways, this project of Angie is no different to what it replaced, that of Jodi Santa Maria’s Sana Dalawa and Puso Ko, as to the breeziness, airiness, light humor and lovely take on modern-day romance which we can also relate to Piolo Pascual-Arci Munoz starrer, Since I Found You.

Audience seem to not grow weary of this kind of soap just yet especially at noontime, since I cannot remember that it is not what you can see on TV. Well, as for me, I wouldn’t even want a heavy drama to watch in the middle of the day, I mean of course you know what I mean.

It took Twitter by storm as it aired its pilot on Monday, September 17 and won the ratings game against its Kapuso rival, Kapag Nahati Ang Puso with 13.6% while the latter earned 9.5%.

It is a fun and interesting way for any love story to begin with the ending, the couples on the verge of separation. The pilot episode is a series of flashbacks as to why things happened. How they met: Patty who was having a hard time to move on from her ex met Marlon at the bar who was so understanding of her condition and went on his way to help her. And their love story goes on.

Surely, the pilot hooked the audience enough for them to anticipate and guess what happened to a story that started as well and happy. The irony of ending a story before it even get started has its magic of its own. Of course, we all know that them at the brink of ending their relationship is not the end of it all, we all have to wait eagerly for more.

The character of Patty very well suits Angelica being fun, bubbly, not to mention, as the public know the tragedy she had gone through with her past relationships, kidding aside, a great actress of her time whose character also resembles that of her movie That Thing Called Tadhana. Maybe the characters are intended for her. Who will be most fitted to play a role than the one who has gone through the experience first-hand?

Zanjoe on the other hand fits the role as Marlon just fine; being on the show business for some time, he has done several lead roles honing his acting. He has been working with Angel on Banana Split, their chemistry and teamwork will not be a surprise. As fun and playful, they have also been friends.

For one that is looking for good vibes with romance and a couple of family values, this series is perfect for you. Yet, it is another rom-com for us to watch out for, unexpected revelations and surprises are enough to get us all hooked up.

Playhouse airs before Kapamilya noontime show It’s Showtime.