I just had a thought about the reaction of how K-Drama celebrities have been reacting alongside Kapamilya during the Legacy Virus crisis. Consider how several celebrities in South Korea have not only donated generous sums of money to help fight the disease. Recently, there's the #ThankYouChallenge where a lot of South Korean celebrities have banded together. Meanwhile, it seems that Kapamilya Stars have been more focused on renewing the government franchise over COVID-19. Just listening to Shaina Magdayao's rants makes you think that she's a brainless beauty. ABiaS-CBN does suffer from the classical scenario of beauty without brains, right?
We can consider the history of K-Dramas in the Philippines. Both rival networks ABiaS-CBN and GMA-7 have been airing them since the 2000s up to the present. I do feel the Korean entertainment industry is overrated though I've been preferring Korean drama over Japanese drama these days. Sure, I'm still watching some Tokusatsu but my fire for it has been significantly reduced. I even feel that both networks are relying on badly-dubbed K-Dramas in order to keep themselves afloat. Consider how ABiaS-CBN even has to proclaim itself as the home of Asianovels in order to survive. I wonder is ABiaS-CBN even aware that their teleseryes are already a dying trend? Sure, some of them are on Netflix but did any of them make it to the top ten?
The differences between K-Dramas and Kapalmilya teleseryes are just beyond Korean and Filipino. It's not just a matter of eating seollongtang and bulalo - both dishes made from beef bones. Sure, I can enjoy both seollongtang and bulalo but not K-Dramas and teleseryes. I can go enjoy Korean barbecue today and Filipino barbecue tomorrow depending on my mood. If one takes a critical look at both series then consider what's underneath. Filipino director Joey Reyes voices out his opinions on why K-Dramas have hooked Filipinos. Even Suzette Doctolero (who I assume writes the Tagalog dub scripts) thinks Pinoy teleseryes have been left behind to K-Dramas. Both Reyes and Doctolero raise a lot of valid points such as acting, writing, different new stuff over stereotypes, diversity of genres, and not building around studio love teams but on stories. I don't mind if a love team gets matched in more than once as long as there's a good story to back it up. Also, there's more than just love stories to choose from. True, love stories tend to be the root of it all but not all K-Dramas are love stories. Some of them skip the love team or make romance a secondary thing. Consider the recent K-Drama Rugal is more focused on the struggle against Argos. Consider the popular Kingdom: Eternal Monarch may have a love story between two realities but it's only a gimmick. Also, if there are love stories then they aren't soppy love stories.
We can consider the history of K-Dramas in the Philippines. Both rival networks ABiaS-CBN and GMA-7 have been airing them since the 2000s up to the present. I do feel the Korean entertainment industry is overrated though I've been preferring Korean drama over Japanese drama these days. Sure, I'm still watching some Tokusatsu but my fire for it has been significantly reduced. I even feel that both networks are relying on badly-dubbed K-Dramas in order to keep themselves afloat. Consider how ABiaS-CBN even has to proclaim itself as the home of Asianovels in order to survive. I wonder is ABiaS-CBN even aware that their teleseryes are already a dying trend? Sure, some of them are on Netflix but did any of them make it to the top ten?
The differences between K-Dramas and Kapalmilya teleseryes are just beyond Korean and Filipino. It's not just a matter of eating seollongtang and bulalo - both dishes made from beef bones. Sure, I can enjoy both seollongtang and bulalo but not K-Dramas and teleseryes. I can go enjoy Korean barbecue today and Filipino barbecue tomorrow depending on my mood. If one takes a critical look at both series then consider what's underneath. Filipino director Joey Reyes voices out his opinions on why K-Dramas have hooked Filipinos. Even Suzette Doctolero (who I assume writes the Tagalog dub scripts) thinks Pinoy teleseryes have been left behind to K-Dramas. Both Reyes and Doctolero raise a lot of valid points such as acting, writing, different new stuff over stereotypes, diversity of genres, and not building around studio love teams but on stories. I don't mind if a love team gets matched in more than once as long as there's a good story to back it up. Also, there's more than just love stories to choose from. True, love stories tend to be the root of it all but not all K-Dramas are love stories. Some of them skip the love team or make romance a secondary thing. Consider the recent K-Drama Rugal is more focused on the struggle against Argos. Consider the popular Kingdom: Eternal Monarch may have a love story between two realities but it's only a gimmick. Also, if there are love stories then they aren't soppy love stories.
What's with teleseryes that's making them so bad? Pacing is certainly one issue where near-daily airing results to a significantly lesser time to do a quality check. Consider the lack of genres which most of them are just soppy love stories or adultery serials. One thing about the adultery serials is not because adultery is in the plot but rather how dragging it becomes or how events are spun in such a way that it appeals to intrigue. If something new is there then remember the Pinoy superheroes such as a badly done adaptation of Darna or who can remember ABiaS-CBN's Krystala for starters? Honestly, who wants to watch them now even after they had high ratings back then? There's also the problem of promoting love teams over stories. I think La Luna Sangre would rather ride on Richard Guiterrez and Angel Locsin Colmenares rather than build a good script around them. Consider also the overuse of stereotypes such as rich vs. poor (and ironically, the poor people playing the victim card are watching a show made by rich people) and whatever is common in the Pinoy entertainment sphere.
Besides, with all of that, you can consider how they utilize their cast members. I did write two posts where I discussed K-Dramas without eye candy and K-Dramas with eye candy. While I do hate to admit it that maybe Kingdom: Eternal Monarch is probably just popular because of Filipino fangirls and Lee Min Ho. Moving on, I thought about some K-Dramas I watched where eye candy is nearly non-existent. Shin Hye Sun is one actress I'd say is unattractive and cardboard - she even looks like a bleached version of Kayabangan Partylist's Sarah Elago. However, Hye Sun's lack of beauty is always gets covered up by her lovable personality. Other shows have their eye-candy but the pretty actresses aren't even capitalized at all. Watching Kill It and Justice both have Jin A Nana's characters get character development. Neither show thinks that Nana will bail them out. Both shows have put all the 1,000+ episodes of Ang Probinsyano to shame. On the other hand, Kapalmilya tends to think that their attractive (but brainless) actresses can make up for it. Did you remember how The Better Half tried to capitalize on Shaina's good looks with a provocative bed scene? You can also think Shaina is probably their "ace card" thinking that her good looks can save them. For Kapalmilya they're stuck in the classic scenario of trying the same thing all over again but expecting different results, right?
Just face it also that ABiaS-CBN (whether they like to admit it or not) are relying on imported shows to keep them afloat. Just think what if ABiaS-CBN never showed any of the Taiwanovelas such as Meteor Garden or Koreanovelas such as Forbidden Love? They would have already gone extinct years ago. The irony is that ABiaS-CBN had its chance to learn from Koreanovelas how to write a better script but they chose not to. I guess they just didn't want to get out of their comfort zones or they still want to keep masses dumb. That mistake has cost them dearly. They could've had at least one teleserye in the Top Ten of Netflix if they did that. Unfortunately, they didn't and they kept up with their mediocre quality and mostly sub-par acting. Not to mention, the Tagalog dubs do a very bad job in dubbing the shows that kept them afloat too.
Just face it also that ABiaS-CBN (whether they like to admit it or not) are relying on imported shows to keep them afloat. Just think what if ABiaS-CBN never showed any of the Taiwanovelas such as Meteor Garden or Koreanovelas such as Forbidden Love? They would have already gone extinct years ago. The irony is that ABiaS-CBN had its chance to learn from Koreanovelas how to write a better script but they chose not to. I guess they just didn't want to get out of their comfort zones or they still want to keep masses dumb. That mistake has cost them dearly. They could've had at least one teleserye in the Top Ten of Netflix if they did that. Unfortunately, they didn't and they kept up with their mediocre quality and mostly sub-par acting. Not to mention, the Tagalog dubs do a very bad job in dubbing the shows that kept them afloat too.
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