Ten Signs that you are watching a Pinoy Soap Opera (part Two)

5. How the rich is portrayed. Most teleseryes I saw painted a negative image to the rich people. While rich people are portrayed as living in a mansion, served by housemaids, having cars, bank accounts and business. but they also painted rich people as manipulating, cunning and self-centered people. And finding a good person among those rich people is tantamount of seeing roses in a stem of thorns.

4. Revenge. Female heroines are usually the ones having business with revenge. At first, they are like martyrs who accepted all those humiliations and bullying made by the kontrabidas. The science behind this is to achieve character development and to draw sympathy from the viewers. Of course, she will learn how to fight. But then, a cataclysmic event needs to happen to her like she almost died or one of her kin, for her to realize that she needs to seek revenge to those perpetuators. With the help of a fairy godmother or a rich admirer who harbors deep feelings towards her, she will change to a woman seeking revenge. Just as expected, ratings would soar up.

3. Kontrabidas. A teleserye would be boring without a feisty, cunning, annoying and sometimes, over the top kontrabidas. An effective kontrabida can save a boring teleserye. The kontrabida may be either the hero or heroine's love interest's parents (quite long) as well as the third wheels. Let's include their respective minions as well. The kontrabida has this motto, "kung gusto may paraan" so whatever means necessary the kontrabida have to do it even using guns.They just don't know realize that, "kung ayaw, may dahilan".

2. Childhood. For sure, 90% or more of all teleseryes always starts with childhood. Lead characters have met in the past when they were young and got together again. This is to give viewers an insight that they were the leads and from the start they were destined. (char!) The childhood stage always runs on the first week and sometimes extended to the second week.

1. Lost child. A lot of teleseryes uses this plot to make the story exciting. When the lead character was little, she was taken away from her biological family. Another was, when she was young, because of circumstances such as disasters and the main kontrabida's successful evil plot, she was separated from her parents. The lead character ended up either in the care of her foster parents or to an evil aunt. But one thing's for sure, she ended up in a hard life, contrary to her biological parent's rich life. They will reunite when the lead character was about to seek revenge. But before that big revelation, the kontrabida is always the first one to know.

Nowadays, the landscape of soap operas are changing. There are soap operas that weren't following some of these cliches such as My Husband's Lovers and Be Careful with my Heart.. It must have been caused by the change in viewer's perception as they are get used to and tired of seeing these cliches in the television. Also, the influence of Korean soap operas or Hallyu wave has also brought a change. For example, before Pinoy soap operas were about 1 or 2 years long, but because Korean dramas were shown here, TV stations trim down soap operas to about 1 to 6 months depending on how the soap opera performs in the ratings.

In the end, Pinoy soap operas are part of Pinoy culture and television habits. There will still be viewers, actors and actresses, directors, writers and the production team and TV stations who would gain profit and at the same time entertain their viewers.