The sad state of local TV (specifically GMA soaps)

A little over a year ago, when GMA 7 bought the rights to air a Kim Sam Soon adaptation here in the Philippines, I asked my friend why the heck we need to do something so inane? It's not as if we don't have writers who can write original story lines with much more interesting, and maybe even fresher plot points. I still don't think the adaptation was a good idea (it was a painfully terrible adaptation and Regine was just plain ridiculous!), but I withdraw my point. Perhaps our writers, at least those that are employed by GMA are incapable of one original thought, not even to save their lives.

I've always detested watching soaps, not because they're cheesy (which they are), nor because they're not entertaining (which admittedly, they sometimes are... think Encantadia), but because they seem to tell and re-tell the same story using varying number of characters and degree of intelligence. I never thought they'd stoop so low as to actually copy whole plot points and stage almost the exact same scene from foreign shows. I guess I give them too much credit.

This evening, I inadvertently saw Totoy Bato (which happens often when my mom's watching tv). At this junction of the show the titular character played by Robin Padilla has just taken a hospital hostage and his terms are simple, give my son a heart transplant. Sounds familiar? If you've seen Denzel Washington's John Q then it should, because that's the exact same plot. It doesn't stop there though, they actually had the audacity to copy key scenes from the film, merely translating the lines and changing some names.

Short background: At this point, John Q's son needs the heart or he dies soon. The scene preceding this showed John deciding to commit suicide and convinced the hostaged doctor to use his heart after he does. He's here to say goodbye to his son. Here's the clip from John Q:

I'm sure you'll agree that Denzel was fantastic.

Here are a few clips from Totoy Bato (definitely ripped off from John Q). I recorded this via my phone hence the poor quality and I couldn't figure out how to make longer clips until after the scene was done hence its chopped format. I will post only 3 clips but I'm sure you'll get the idea.


Meron. Di ka pinabayaan ng guardian angel mo.
Yes. Your guardian angel didn't leave you.



Iba ang may pera... lahat... lahat pinakikinggan ka kung may pera ka. Gusto ko lumaban ka... at mahalin mo ang kapwa mo.
It's different when you have money. Everybody listens to you when you have money. Keep fighting... love others.


Hindi kita iiwan. Lagi mo kong kasama. Mahal kita... mahal na mahal kita.
I'll never leave you. I love you very much.

Pretty sickening really. And it doesn't even makes sense in our setting because we don't do heart transplant in the Philippines. Maybe they should just keep importing those ready made korea-novelas, they're probably cheaper, and some of them are actually quite amusing.