From the moment we started seeing the trailer on TV, to the press conference introducing the cast in the series Dream Dad, we knew that Zanjoe Marudo and child actress Jana Agoncillo would break our heart, just like Hawak Kamay and May Bukas Pa did before it. ABS-CBN seems to be specializing in child-based teleseryes where kids from an orphanage are the focus. Not that we are complaining, but it can be repetitive, and eventually boring.
May Bukas Pa had set a record of the longest lasting series, airing for 100 days and garnering the highest rating of all time according to Kantar Media Philippines. It told the story of an orphan boy Zaijian Jaranilla, known by his teleserye name Santino, who was adopted by priests and had a friend he spoke with and called “Bro” whenever he knew of problems from friends that he couldn’t solve.
Dream Dad is the story of Sebastian “Baste” Javier played by Zanjoe, and Jana as Baby, humble veterinarian from Batangas, who chose to succeed his father Eliseo as company president in order to preserve his parents’ strained relationship. With the help of friend Michael, and devoted assistant Annalyn, Baste transforms himself into a learned businessman. This decision came with the loss of Angel, his one great love, over which we find him brooding and at times looking up into the skies at nothing.
This is when Baste meets Baby from the orphanage who had taken fancy at him, and decides he was her long-lost father. She follows Baste wherever he goes until people in his office have begun wondering who this child is. The situation worsens as office personnel have started gossiping about their relationship.
Is it possible that Baby could be Baste’s daughter? Is that the reason Baste’s girlfriend Angel left him? A new development, however, happily gets in the way when the company bigwig meets Jana during a visit to the orphanage. He is impressed by her chatty and cute personality, and decides right there and then to make her the new face of Wink Milk, the flagship product of Baste’s company. As they spend more time with each other, Baby, smart as she is, has begun to see through his pain.
In Hawak Kamay, we wondered whether Papa P would die from the liver cancer he was suffering from? Lodina who watched nightly with us opined, “Hindi pwedeng mamatay ang bida.” We were caught between what the audience would expect and want, and what we thought would be different which is to allow the bida to die. The finale was a compromise. On Piolo’s way to heaven, God had a change of heart and decided to extend his time on earth.
Back to Dream Dad, the audience will have a lot of time before such problems would begin to bother the scriptwriter. The best part of a teleserye is that the audiences are always left hanging. It is like a game, where the correct answer only comes at the end.
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