Why I Don't Regret Watching Legal K-Dramas Over The Misadventures Of Cardo Dalisay During The Legacy Virus Pandemic

 

It's really official (?) that Ang Probinsyano (or better called as The Misadventures of Cardo Dalisay) is ending in three weeks. It's been two former presidents, one deceased and the other still with us, and now it's the term of Bobong Marcos. The series exceeded the 1990s overly long teleserye Mara Clara which was during the term of Fidel Valdez Ramos. I was thinking about the time it was 2015. I was still more into Japanese entertainment but grew critical of the Super Sentai franchise. It's no secret that Power Rangers Ninja Steel is THAT BERATED then again so was its source material Shuriken Sentai Ninninger. I just ignored Ang Probinsyano like any other teleserye. I didn't even bother to watch The Better (Worse) Half even for Shaina Magdayao whose beauty I soo admire.

COVID-19 aka the Legacy Virus finally struck hard in 2020. Many adjustments had to be made such as running things mostly from home. I remembered how I felt discouraged about Japanese entertainment or how it's trying to make things "mostly for Japan". It might explain why some series are just going down in quality. South Korean entertainment was getting bigger - using the tools that Japan created better than Japan. Just hearing talks about people watching crime series made me want to watch Korean crime dramas. I wasn't so big into the Korean wave until later. I felt Koreanovelas' aggressiveness in the world market was something. I guess that's what caused Korean culture to overshadow Japanese culture. The Japanese really need to be more aggressive with the world market and not just accept foreign direct investments (FDIs). 

Good thing that it's the digital age already. There's already Netflix though there's also the fansite called Kissasian. I checked out some K-Dramas for the heck of it whether it's the fan sites (for shows not on Netflix) or the Netflix shows. I remembered watching Kill It which I'd say is miles better than Ang Probinsyano. An irony (really) that I didn't watch Ang Probinsyano even after Shaina joined the grew BUT I decided to watch Kill It for Jin A Nana. One thing for sure is Shaina's Taskforce Agila is no match for Nana's taskforce in Kill It. I watched Justice which has Choi Jin Hyuk act as an anti-hero out to avenge his murdered brother. Nana doesn't appear to do fanservice in Justice. I felt that Nana wasn't action-based in Justice BUT she delivered better results than Shaina. Shaina as Roxanne in Ang Probinsyano can get laughable.

I decided to check out more Koreanovelas before 2020 and after 2020. There was the lawyering drama Pride and Prejudice. I tend to think that Choi Jin Hyuk isn't handsome. Shin Hye Sun isn't pretty either. I still feel Hye Sun getting written off in Strangers was heartbreaking. However, their physical appearances aren't relevant to the argument. Jin Hyuk is known to deliver rather well. Hye Sun is an award-winning drama actress. Lee Joon Ki even delivers better than Piolo Pascual ever will. I feel the Flower of Evil Philippine remake will just be a bad remake because Joon Ki is SO MUCH BETTER from within. Joon Ki in Lawless Lawyer has him in a better eye-opener than what Coconuts Martin has to offer. It's because of how direct to the point these shows are. They don't rely too much on fanservice either although it does happen. 

I don't blame people who even started to criticize Ang Probinsyano after seeing Vincenzo. I'm amazed how the Philippine Entertainment Portal (PEP) could dare to say the impact that Joong Ki has will not be as great as Coconuts. That's why there's even a joke that maybe Coconuts would end up in a Vincenzo remake. I watched Vincenzo and it was rather entertaining. I may still find Shaina prettier than Jeon Yeo Bin but the latter delivers BETTER PERFORMANCE. Heck, I'm still willing to take any show with Hye Sun over Shaina for a reason - Hye Sun PERFORMS BETTER. I still feel the scene of Shaina in Ipaglaban Mo as a potential rape victim can get cringy instead of evoking your anger over the stalker. Watching Coconuts perform sad scenes becomes an unintended comedy. I'm supposed to feel sorry for Cardo when he lost his wife. However, Cardo's actor ends up ruining the scene. Am I even heartless when I watched that clip of Cardo crying over his wife? Granted, it's just a TV series so it's not heartless (per se) to laugh at a bad performance. Still, I find myself losing respect when I laughed at Cardo's sad scene because of how BADLY DONE it is.

The list of Korean crime dramas I watched just got longer. There are Awaken, Rugal, and Tunnel which are science-fiction. There are also Live, Suspicious Partner, Innocent Defendant, You're All Surrounded, Voice, The Lies Within, Whisper, Witch in Court, Partners for Justice, and Juvenile Justice. Watching Ang Probinsyano is compared to having a monotonous mediocre meal daily when one could try to diversify. I might as well call watching Ang Probinsyano to having a daily mean of pagpag (food from the garbage) or from a dirty canteen. Meanwhile, the other shows I'm watching are like taking quality affordable food from different places. Besides, getting stuck on Cardo is just so bad it's terrible. The Korean dramas are giving me different plots, different criminal cases, and so on.

What did I have to lose not watching the misadventures of Cardo? None! It's just like I don't lose anything not eating dirty food that doesn't pass safety instructions, eating meat from the Wuhan wild meat market (which may have contributed to the rise of the Legacy Virus), taking in dangerous drugs (such as shabu and coccaine), and anything that's obviously dangerous. I felt like the misadventures of Cardo became an opium for some Filipinos. Heck, aren't teleseryes a mental opium? I'd like to say that I'm proud I never became a fan of this show. It's so ridiculous that rewatching all 1,600+ episodes from start to end may disrupt one from daily work. Meanwhile, I might rewatch some of the crime dramas I watched when I've got more time. Those who kept watching Cardo's misadventures thinking it's the greatest show on Earth can just CRY as their beloved "hero" is leaving the screen.