Thoughts on Philippines’ “My Girl”: Hit or Miss?

Although I watched My Girl early in the morning (on YouTube) because of my excitement, I got to watch it again on TFC before Lobo. While re-watching the thirty-minute episode without my earlier anxiety and thrill, I got to really sit down and discover the bits where the pilot episode was lacking.

Remember, I have never watched Korea’s My Girl, so these comments are purely directed at the Philippine version.

Jose Rizal, Where Exactly Are You?

Let me first start with the episode’s discontinuity of the story. I went to the Philippines just last March and visited Luneta and Jose Rizal myself (for the first time!) and as I recall, Rizal isn’t in Subic for goodness sakes. Considering it’s the first episode and we don’t really know much about Jasmine’s tour guide business, it would have been really helpful if the show explained where exactly Jasmine and her father were living because they were showing the tourists Luneta one day, but then had to get them to Subic’s airport the next day, as opposed to just going to NAIA.

Master’s Degree? You’ve GOT to be Kidding!

What really got me laughing in disbelief was when Julian’s grandfather stated to his colleagues that Julian was at the top of his class in Harvard while taking his Master’s degree. I completely didn’t catch this on my first time watching the episode, but thank goodness I did on my second watch because it’s vital when it comes to interpreting Julian’s age. Here in the US, it takes 2 years or more to finish graduate school on top of the five (it’s not four anymore) years it takes to complete a Bachelor’s. I thought the writers opted to interpret that Julian was a lot younger than his Korean counterpart? No way, by physical appearance alone, would Gerald Anderson (at his age) pass as a grad student. Hell, they should have just stated that he was on his last year taking up his Bachelor’s — that would have been more believable.

Oh, Come On!

This may have happened in the original My Girl, but I found this incredibly dumb: Jasmine and her father just won P300,000 and talks about it loudly in front of everyone to hear. Obviously, the two men with the motorcycle grabs the bag filled with money and drives away with it. Oh. Come. On. I can’t believe this really happened in the original (if it did). -_-

I’m Tired of the Crying

Before I forget, I thought that the beginning of the series was going to be happy and cheery-like (as stated by Gerald Anderson himself!), yet instead, we get about 60% (as a PEx member stated) of drama! I loved the opening scene because I thought that, finally, Philippine drama was starting to veer away from sad scenes and that we’ll get an enjoyable product. Instead, we are shown Jasmine’s hilarious day as a tour guide, but after about a short 2-3 minutes of that, the scene changes to Julian crying because his grandfather just got a heart attack. Thats what I’ve noticed with Philippine dramas (ABS-CBN & GMA!) — they’re always changing from one scene to another and back which really gets annoying because it leaves us hanging. One minute I’m laughing because of Kim Chiu and Cathy Gonzaga, the next, I’m affected by the melodrama of Gerald Anderson and his character’s family. Goodness. -_-

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However, “OA” or Not, I Still Enjoyed It

Surprisingly, with all these little annoying tidbits, I still found the pilot episode enjoyable, mainly due to Kim Chiu’s performance and of course, Cathy Gonzaga’s supportive role. From the blogs and comments I’ve read on PEx and WordPress, some find that Kim’s acting was over-the-top and somewhat cheesy. I have to disagree — I found her character very likable and funny, with just the right amount of outrageousness, especially when she was trying her best to delay the flight that the tourists had to catch at Subic’s airport.

Then there’s Cathy Gonzaga’s character and her Filipino brother, Jeffrey, that only speaks Mandarin (that right there is hilarious enough!). These two add even more outrageousness on top of Kim, which I really loved. I don’t think a show can go wrong with Cathy Gonzaga in it — her type of comedic acting is never “OA” and I’ve never questioned it. However and whatever way she gets ready for her roles, she’s doing it right!

As for Gerald Anderson, when I first didn’t hear his character’s grandfather say that he was taking his Master’s, I thought the actor was doing fine. However, when I did hear about the whole age thing, it completely changed everything. Gerald needs to step up his game in the “How to Act Older” department because he needs a certain aura that states that he’s all man, not a puny teenager. However, my favorite part of Gerald’s acting in tonight’s episode was how his character reacted to his grandfather’s sudden heart attack — I actually bought it. Gerald just needs a more mature look, packed with an even more mature personality, and it’ll be all good. Hell, that’s what workshops are for, right?

Aside from the characters, I enjoyed how the episode was filmed and edited. It had more “bounce” and it felt like we were a fly on the wall watching the characters. For instance, when Jasmine was adding up their debts and crying softly, her father comes in to talk to her and when he leaves, we watch from the ceiling, as if we just happened to be there and took notice. My favorite moments that exhibited this would be the ones with Cathy where we really see her facial expressions — hilarious! In addition, I loved how they incorporated more background music to accompany the scene on hand — it added more comical flare to the funny scenes which I have always enjoyed whenever I watched Korean or Taiwan dramas. This was a good call!

All in all, would I watch episode two? You sure bet I would! There may be some sad scenes up ahead, but because there’s a whole lot more of hilarious ones, I’ll gladly anticipate the next episode.