Unusual Channel
By Ma. Renette B. Uy

For viewing pleasure or not

What is so great about this pinoy show that those who watch it are glued to their TV sets and can’t wait for the next episode? I must say that Filipinos really try to find a way to escape thinking and seeing what is happening around them. It is most pathetic to even admit that some if not most Filipinos fell into this kind of useless, feeble way of escaping life’s realities. No offense to the network that did a lot of brainstorming to come up with this kind of show. I am sure they thought about the part that they would rake in money in producing this type of show. But what they forgot (hope so) was the part that there are more minors that watch primetime television than adults. They forgot also that this kind of show does not make up Filipino culture. Sure, this is the 20th century and a lot may say to themselves, “what planet did she come from?” I am not some conservative person trying to impose my own thinking of how life should be run or some self-righteous person. I am just a concerned person or mother for that matter, who feels that this pinoy show is not telling us of the good values our parents taught us.

What kind of message does it convey showing all this “housemates”, men and women living in one house? I know it is only a show and it is just for viewing pleasure. But tell that to parents like me who find it revolting to see men and women in skimpy clothes on national primetime television. At one time I saw this woman trying to seduce this man, dancing really close to him and wearing a skimpy bikini ensemble. Gosh, it looked so cheap and it really looked like it was done in really bad taste! After seeing that, I said to myself, “what has the world gone to this time? What has our country gone to this time?” We already have a political and economic crisis and I can understand how people try to find a way to cope with the crisis just so to remain passive on what is happening around them. First, it was the teleserye season that really made a big hit among the pinoy audience. It wasn’t so bad at all thanks to Thalia and the F4. Don’t get me wrong I was not into it but it wasn’t so bad because the plots of these teleseryes are Filipino in nature. Very Filipino, actually, thick in values, it showed how strong and resilient Filipinos are in times of any conflict. How women stood up for themselves when they are trampled upon and how men were shown as a good husband or partner, loving and compassionate.

With the birth of this pinoy show, what values does it want to imbibe to the watching public, most especially, to the youth of today? That it is okay to live with men if you are a woman and with women if you are a man? That it is okay to talk about pre-marital sex on national television on primetime? That it is okay to seduce a guy because you are attracted to him in a way? That it is okay to be sexually promiscuous? I couldn’t believe women talk about it openly and of course, they know they are on national television and that makes it more repulsive and cheap! This kind of talk is coffee table talk and private girl talk. I hope these women will find men who will take them seriously after this pinoy show. Anyway, I could go on forever and mind you I have only seen a few scenes and it is enough for me to say all these things already. What about for those who live and breathe this show? And what if they are minors? And we start wondering what has become of our culture? And we start wondering why there are more and more teenage pregnancies or why there are stories that come out about teenagers checking in at motels and how they justify it compared to being drug addicts? They won’t be drug addicts alright but how about sex addicts? Same banana, huh?  I can understand that this kind of show clicks in an American culture. That is their culture, permissive in a way but only because they were born that way, very straightforward and very independent-minded people. Unlike their culture, our culture does not include that when we reach the age of 18, we have to live outside of our parents’ house. We even have grown-ups still living with their parents only because that is our culture and we see nothing wrong with that. Nowadays, sex can be discussed openly but not on national television. Parents are learning to openly talk to their kids about sex only because to stop wrong orientation about it brought about by the internet, new breed of sex magazines, TV programs and the like. This is parents’ responsibility, to discuss this kind of things to their children. But, not a television show trying to confuse minors on their views about certain things.

I am not campaigning to stop this show from showing. Perhaps the network can change the viewing time for this kind of shows. Nowadays, the sleeping habit of an average Filipino kind of changed also because of what is happening around him/her. We do not only have the cable TV to give us viewing pleasure, we have the internet to surf to, VCDs and DVDs pirated or not. So, most kids stay out late to watch or to surf. If not in the comforts of the home, there are internet bar and restaurants or internet café around the city.
I write this with a concerned note and not to criticize or I have this goat against this network. Actually, it’s the only network I tune in to watch the news, sometimes I even get to watch their teleserye (nice plots and good writers) but if it’s time for this pinoy show, oops…press that remote please! I hope the network will realize the responsibility it entails to come up with this kind of shows. It is not all money, I hope and I would like to think it’s a slip on their part for my own sake.  I just hope they will consider changing the timeslot. I may just be a fly in the forest and nobody would probably even notice this write up but I hope even one person will and will agree with me. I have nothing against Americans or other nationalities. I am not some racist or a radical against American culture or other cultures (it shown in Australia too, something like it). I just happen to like the Filipino culture even if some of them are not to my liking too (tsismis culture and crab mentality culture). But that is who I am, born into a Filipino culture, just like any American or any European would be. That is who they are too. Did I just sound like a loyalist right there? Oh well, what if I did so smirk right there! Wouldn’t you be a loyal countryman? Or you’d rather be a blonde? Duh! Joke, joke!

“When we see men of worth, we should think of equaling them; when we see men of a contrary character, we should turn inward and examine ourselves.”