Sunday Essays: What has become of Mara Clara?

THE teleserye title resonates the time when Philippine television began catching prime time hearts like a tidal wave. It was 1996 and the character Ms. Judy Ann Santos portrayed made many nights rain with tears.

She played Mara, a poor girl who led a life of twisted fate due to the mistakes of her jilted and vengeful parents. She was meek, obedient and ever submissive to practically anyone who deliberately made her life miserable. Amidst all of that, she stayed very humble. Her determination to succeed in life was amazingly unwavering.

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This ideal character made the teleserye an instant primetime hit. Filipinos started to see the point of watching television at night not just for leisure and entertainment. They saw a story of a Cinderella-success that relayed the values of a golden hearted Filipina.

What followed Mara Clara was a tide of teleseryes that have the same themes: Esperanza, Marinella, Mula sa Puso, and the like.

Those shows contained meaty meanings and values. They presented a slightly exaggerated but reasonable reflection of the social realism of the Filipinos in those days. Those stories, no matter how overly dramatic, somehow helped people cope with the problems they have in their own non-teleserye lives. They saw themselves, or who they should be, in the characters. Over the years, this teleserye trend has continued.

Then things changed. The Philippine society demands changed. The problems of the people grew darker and more difficult to face.

All of a sudden, the social realism just got too grim that it became difficult to encompass all the societal issues and the coping lessons in a teleserye without making it impeccably brutal and ironically boring.

Teleseryes now consist of protagonists who are still poor but are more helpless and hopeless. The lead females are always the most beautiful. So that no matter how hard their lives get, they still look pretty.

Before antagonists are wicked stepmothers who hoard their husbands' riches. Today, villains are rather overrated rich people who get to spend their days lazing off in their posh mansions, dressed over the cloud even if they're at home, and go ranting while obsessing over their money.

The trend of putting valuable lessons of life in the shows has disappeared. It's now all about getting high ratings, text promos and endorsements. Some may claim that there are still values in some teleseryes like Mga Mata ni Anghelita (2007) and May Bukas Pa (2009). True indeed, but one cannot disregard the fact that many companies took commercialistic and endorsing advantages of such idealist shows.

People now don't look at the meat of the show. They see the surface features -- money and fame. There is this implicit overpowering of sensationalism. Teleseryes today don't give off reflections of the society, they set illusions.

The challenge now for the people behind blinding soap operas is this: resurrect Mara Clara -- bring back the girl in TV who brought tears, change of hearts and sensible sense. She may not come in the form of the poor old-fashioned female protagonist anymore; she may now be in a knee-length dress and in stilettos -- but at least bring her back and her values. Filipinos need it.

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Sunday Essays are compositions by third year Masscom students of Ateneo de Davao University for their journalism class.