Dolce Amore

A Fun Ride That Doesn't Stick the Landing

I started watching "Dolce Amore" right after finishing Enrique Gil's and Liza Soberano's previous project "Forevermore." In some ways, I feel like I set up "Dolce Amore" for failure in my mind. It was originally going to be my first Filipino telesyre but then I decided to watch "Forevermore." I anticipated it being better than "Forevermore." And it in some ways it does, but it in other ways it doesn't... For my "Forevermore" review, I mostly just summarized the drama. But for "Dolce Amore", I have more clear negative opinions so I'll skip the complete recap and just give a short one.

"Dolce Amore" has a great opening set-up that immediately draws you in. It starts by establishing the childhoods of Serena (played by Liza) and Simon "Tenten" (Enrique), both of whom are adopted but under vastly different circumstances, from different economic classes, and living in different places. Serena is from Italy and Simon the Philippines. After the childhood portion (about three episodes), the story falters just a bit when Serena and Simon meet as young adults. It picks up once the two become friends. Nearing the end of "Chapter 1" (first fifty-three episodes), Simon and Serena are now dating. (If I'm being honest, I find it hard to believe that Serena would fall in love with a man who acts so juvenile lol.) Now enter the conflict. Simon's brother, Binggoy (Kean Cipriano) decides to ransom Serena in order to raise money for their father's heart operation. This, of course, ruins Serena's and Simon's relationship. Though, she doesn't remember it, because, of course, she has memory loss.

Now going in "Chapter 2" (eps 54-106). Serena is back in Italy with her adoptive mother, Luciana (Cherie Gil), whom, of course, arranged the whole kidnapping thing. The shock of this revelation put Serena's adoptive father, Roberto (Ruben Maria Soriquez), into a coma. Why? Because Luciana wants her daughter to marry the rich Giancarlo de Luca (Matteo Guidicelli). Giancarlo has mostly been portrayed as a good guy though somewhat jealous so far. But *ding ding ding*, first red flag. Giancarlo goes along with Luciana's plan, and he eventually proposes to Serena after two years. After a woman, named Alice (Sunshine Cruz), claims to be her biological mother, Serena returns to the Philippines and meets her father, Uge (Andrew E.), and sister Angel (Sue Ramirez). Meanwhile, Simon has become a successful composer working with Angel who he has just started dating. Serena's return causes the truth to come out to Simon's parents, Dodoy (Edgar Mortiz) and Taps (Rio Locsin). Soon, everyone knows but Serena.

Finally, Simon admits the truth to Serena. She's mad and returns to Italy to b*tch out Luciana and Giancarlo, before coming back to the Philippines to find herself with Simon's help. Simon and Giancarlo then squabble for Serena's affections. It ends with Serena falling in love with Simon again. Giancarlo seemingly takes it well at first, but soon turns into the most cartoonish, mustache-twirling villain I've seen put to screen. Aided by his evil uncle Favio (Alvin Anson), Giancarlo demands for Serena to marry him instead of Simon. In the process, Binggoy is accidentally killed instead of Simon. His death and funeral, unfortunately, feels so unserious despite becoming the emotional current for the rest of the drama. Serena decides to go with Giancarlo to save everyone else. Fortunately, at the alter, Giancarlo and his evil uncle are murdered. *And the crowd goes wild*

Now time for "Chapter 3" (eps 107-137). It gets even more complicated from here. Simon is now working in business with his "real" mother, Vivian Dubois (Tetchie Agbayani). Serena and Roberto, now awake, are living on a vineyard. Her and Simon's paths cross when he buys her family's previous home. Wanting to preserve it, Serena goes to the Philippines in hopes of negotiating with him. Simon keeps her on the line in order to get what he wants: Luciana returning to the PH so he can prosecute her for Binggoy's death. She does eventually come after reconciling with Roberto. Luciana strangely professes her innocence, only to later reveal the truth to Vivian. She was inadvertently involved in Binggoy's death because she worked with Giancarlo to have Simon killed. However, it turns out that Simon is actually the children she abandoned over twenty years ago. So she had Giancarlo killed and gave all her money to Vivian to give to Simon. Oh my f*cking god, what the hell was that?

Turns out that Giancarlo's evil uncle Favio with a bad Italian accent didn't actually die. Just when Simon and Serena become a couple again, he reveals Luciana's role in Binggoy's death. Of course, this stops the engagement. You know, I really don't understand what Luciana was thinking was going to happen... Anyway, Simon eventually learns that Luciana is his real mother. He doesn't take it particularly well, though his parents encourage him to find it in his heart to forgive her. Simon asks Serena to run away with him, which they do for a while. I think I would've prefer they ended it this way. But no, they had to make it "legal." After the wedding, the drama ends with a stupid comedic scene where Serena finally gets her memories back and gets jealous over Simon and another girl from *way* in the past now. Underwhelming to say the least.

Okay, so perhaps you see a pattern. At the end of the first two "chapters," the drama does something incredibly stupid just to keep the main couple apart for just a little longer. I absolutely hated the plots concerning Serena's kidnapping and Giancarlo becoming an evil, mustache-twirling villain. I cannot understate how bad Giancarlo and his uncle are as villains. The uncle, in particular, has the worse Italian accent I've ever heard. He's two steps away from just adding an -a to every other word. Every time he pulled a gun out or something, I was just laughing my a** off. Giancarlo, on the other hand, was way overacting his role. It was so painful to watch him, though, ironically, he still succeeded in me hating him. Luciana was the only decent villain thanks to her actress, who tried her best to act with nuance because lord knows that the writing wasn't doing her any favors.

As for the good parts, I actually think that the first two chapters are mostly good. Enrique and Liza have a nice, comfortable chemistry though their characters are not always written consistently. The supporting cast consisting of their various family members and some hangers-on friends help to give the drama a lighter tone when it needs. By the end, I was living for all three sets of parents becoming the best of friends. It was so cute. The drama, unfortunately, fell off because of Giancarlo's turn as a villain. It picked up a bit at the beginning of "Chapter 3" but honestly the damage had already been done. They then crammed so much drama into the last ten episodes that the ending just doesn't seem feasible in my opinion. I was happy with "Dolce Amore" for a majority of the time, but it wasn't able to surpass "Forevermore" after all. Personally, I'm giving it a 7.5 for my list but the real score is 6.5 to 7.

Read More

an insane journey, but a fun one

Where do I even begin with this show? It is absolutely insane. With many cheesy Asian dramas, you don’t watch it because it’s good from a critic’s standpoint, you watch it because it’s entertaining. What I like about this show is that it starts off with a lighter tone than your usual teleserye, feeling more like a teen romcom than anything. The chemistry between the characters is really there, you can really feel it. When they’re smiling together, you feel kilig. When they cry, you feel like crying. The comic relief in this show is extra funny, and the extended family have such fun banter. There are a few meta references to Philippine pop culture and some jokes that refer back to Forevermore, so if you understand those it’s added fun.

The show is separated into three books. The first book is about Serena and Tenten, two adopted children who exchange letters as penpals but unfortunately lose contact. Years later, Serena tries to save her parents' company and escape an arranged marriage to her best friend Giancarlo by going to the Philippines to strike a deal with a billionaire. Tenten makes a living by doing odd jobs around Manila. Through a set of bizarre circumstances, Serena and Tenten cross paths and find each other in the Philippines as adults. They eventually start a budding romance before being separated by an attempted kidnapping and subsequent car crash that gives Serena amnesia. The second book is about Serena meeting her biological family and learning the truth about the cause of her amnesia. She ends up breaking up her engagement with Giancarlo, but in his heartbreak he turns into a villain and attempts to kill Tenten, inadvertently killing Tenten’s brother Binggoy instead. To prevent more loved ones from being hurt, Serena makes the difficult decision to abandon Tenten at the altar on their wedding day and marry Giancarlo. On the day of Giancarlo and Serena’s wedding, Giancarlo is killed by a rival mafia family. The third book is about Tenten opening his cold heart to Serena again after she left him and rekindling their relationship. He comes to terms with his own guilt and grief over Binggoy’s death and learns who his true biological mother is.

Some positives are that this show is thoroughly entertaining. Some episodes are absolutely must-watches. The Bohol arc, the wedding episode, the farm confession episode is also reallyyyyy good (episode 76-77). It’s also exceptionally camp. Just like every other Filipino teleserye, this one contains a fair amount of cheesy tropes, badly written cliches, and a bit of cringe with the Italian stereotypes, but it’s just enough to keep you wanting more. Sometimes lines are so predictable that you can predict what characters are going to do next, or you can see how a character might be important later down the road. Cherie Gil is the absolute queen of contrabida. She does so well being a cold and evil mother up to the third book of the series. Enrique Gil also tugs at the heartstrings for very emotional scenes, like confessing to Serena. His ability to portray anger is also exceptional, Binggoy’s funeral scene being the most insane crash out I’ve seen. There’s so many times where an episode ends at an emotional high point and with a cliffhanger and you go WOAHHHH. This is a show that definitely keeps you wanting more. The main leads Liza Soberano and Enrique Gil have amaaaaazing chemistry. You just can’t stop watching them together. They just look so good together on screen. Them together is really what makes this show so great.

The musical element is also what makes this show great. All of the songs are really catchy. Tenten first writes a song to help his own lisp. He also writes a cute song to Serena when he first confesses that he’s her longlost penpal. Then he and Serena team up to write a song together “Kung Di’ Magkatagpo”, which becomes a key song used throughout the series. Tenten played a snippet of “Wala Silang Magagawa”, but unfortunately they never got to play the whole song. Binggoy and Angel sing some originals as well, and it definitely helps that their actors are professional singers as well. Let’s talk about the theme song. They’re really aggressive about using “Your Love” by Juris all the time. If any song has been the most played song, it’s literally this. It plays in the background. Even in universe, it seems like it’s the only song that exists. A character turns up the radio? Boom. “Your Love” plays. A string quartet plays music on a dinner date? Yep, “Your Love” once again. Even Angel literally sings “Your Love” on Tawag Ng Tanghalan on the show. There’s no escape from this song. After 100+ episodes, I’m still surprised I’m not that tired of it.

A tv show is not without its negatives, and this show is no exception. Though a very fun show to watch, there were plot elements and pacing that I felt was lacking. One big plot element is the audience knowing that Luciana is Tenten’s biological mother in book three. I really wish we didn’t know that she was the mother until the very end, just like Tenten. I think that would make the final reveal of Tenten learning the truth go way harder. I think it doesn’t hit as hard because we expect that Tenten will eventually learn the truth, we know what’s going to happen already but we just don’t know how it’ll be executed.

The characters are really flat, except for Tenten and maybe kind of Binggoy? I’m just wondering if Serena and Giancarlo have any other friends at all because none of them are ever mentioned lol. With an already gigantic cast, I imagine that there isn’t any room to develop characters that feel real. I’d say that this is really Tenten’s show, as he’s the one that goes through such a transformation arc. He started off as a raketero with a lisp living in Tondo, to becoming a viral hit songwriter that brought prosperity to his family. And if that wasn’t already enough, he made it even bigger by becoming a ruthless venture capitalist millionaire with a fancy house, fancy car, and a harem of girls courting him.

Some character choices also came out of left field without any real slow burn. Like Serena confessing that she still likes Tenten despite being furious with him several episodes before, or wanting to get married after Tenten accidentally “proposed”. Also when Tenten randomly wanted to ask Serena to get married a second time. Filipino shows really like when people get married don’t they? Also, when Luciana learned that Tenten was her son, she had such a 180 degree change of heart. She went from hating Tenten with all her heart to having a soft spot for him. I could’ve never imagined Book 1 Luciana to even fathom having a decent relationship with him. Also Liza’s acting whenever she does a confession or cries doesn’t seem very believable. The only time that I felt like her crying had an impact was when she went back to the Philippines to try and reconnect with Tenten after the wedding. Ruben’s acting as Serena’s dad is really not that good. His Tagalog is pretty stilted, but serviceable. Roberto’s a fun character so I’ll give him a pass.

There are definitely a few core plot elements that I believe were written from the very beginning, as some scenes were filmed in Italy. Like Serena meeting her biological mother, Serena going back to Italy after her amnesia, Giancarlo proposing to Serena, Binggoy’s death, Giancarlo’s death. Those are all key anchors that were definitely thought of from the inception of this show. Because of this, I feel like the pacing can be off at times, like when Binggoy dies several episodes after him and Angel went on their first dinner date. The anchor points are canon events that must happen, so unfortunately Binggoy’s death was written in stone, which I felt left the writers a bit cornered.

They also truly like repetition and callbacks. I feel like a lot of things they repeat three times. Like Serena and Tenten meet three times. They first meet in Manila, they meet a second time when we learn Serena has amnesia, and they meet a third time after Tenten goes to Italy to purchase Villa Marchesa. They also went to resorts like three times. The first time being Bohol, the second time being when they go to a resort in Pampanga with Sarah and Giancarlo, and the third time being with both of their families. They even do the introduction “My name is Serena Marchesa, your friend from Italia” and “Simon Vicente Ibarra” at least three times. Third time’s the charm, am I right lol.

I would only recommend this show if you want to commit six months of your life to watching the same show lol. There’s so many episodes yet no time to breathe. I felt like there was so much potential to build up something good, but sometimes you’re left disappointed. However, the one thing that is really good no matter how long you watch, is the actors’ chemistry. If you really like the actors this show is a must watch, especially after Forevermore. Their chemistry really shines here, especially in say the first 40ish episodes of the show.

I think for anyone that’s a new LizQuen fan, up to episode 21 is really necessary for this show. I think it was good up to episode 76-77, when Serena learned that Tenten and the others were hiding the truth from her. Especially beyond Giancarlo’s death in episode 106, you definitely don’t need to continue watching the show after that. The third act is mostly Serena trying to convince Tenten not to be an asshole venture capitalist and their journey making up and finally getting back together. Tbh wasn’t sure where the writing was headed after Giancarlo died.

I will realistically rate this a solid 9.2/10. But just for you Tenten, I’ll give at a 10/10 haha

If you want to read detailed summaries and commentary for each episode, read my posts here! https://dolceamoretv.wordpress.com/

Read More

The Longer It Got, The Worse It Gets

This is my first drama with this couple which I only started because I'd seen their movies.

The negatives are the multiple second chances, leads became extremely childish, too many unnecessary and snail paced episodes but especially the Italian stereotype. That cringed me out the most lol.

STORY
I liked the story....at least in the first half. It started to go down at 52 and then it just completely dragged out so it was 20 episodes too many. The fact that I watched the 72 episode version didn't ease the torture.

The romance was ruined me, I couldn't care less anymore and it turned a bit too melo and mankjang-y for my taste. The only thing that made the torture somewhat watchable was the Family scenes

CAST/ACTING
I really liked the cast and their acting. The people I loved at the beginning became the most annoying towards the middle and end and the person I despised at the beginning became the most loved. Rare occurance.

MUSIC
There was only one OST. Just imagine hearing the same song multiple times in one episode and then times that by 72. The one time I wish coprlyright would mute the music lol

REWATCH VALUE
For me? Heck no! There is nothing on this planet that would make me rewatch this. This is probably better suited to Melo and Makjang lovers and die hard fans of the leads.

Read More