There is no clear kontrabida, no blatant third party in Maya and Ser Chief’s love story. That is so far as this milestone week, when we saw the usually impassive hero reaching out to our heroine for a hug. (Twitter was flooded with the hashtag #SerChiefMayaNationalHugDay.)
ABS-CBN’s “Be Careful with My Heart” has been a curious phenomenal hit in the noontime timeslot. Wholesome and simplistic, it banks on kilig to carry it against game shows and livelier fare. No one minds that there are no big stars, skin and sex, or off-screen romance. And what shock: there is no rambling, melodramatic, cheesy dialogue to quote by the end of the episode.
For many viewers including me, Maya and Ser Chief remind us of how natural, how effortless love can be. Because there’s no one to hate, all you feel is love love love. This is the kind of romance that is preordained for a happy ending, the kind that you believe you deserve. Of course there are others who scoff at the naiveté of the characters and those who empathize with them. “Love,” I imagine they say, “is more complicated than that.”
I’m surrounded by friends who are cynical like that and who have had, and still have, broken hearts. There are friends who thought they found “The One”, only to find the feeling wasn’t mutual. There are those who battle all the odds and go against the world, and then realize it wasn’t worth all the trouble.
There is a motley crew whose hearts got broken at around the same time, which I will officially call heartbreak club. Okay fine, they did go around looking wounded for a while. But because they believed in dialectical materialism, they united and unionized, and strove for a systematized and organized approach to love – even if it took years.
Heartbreak club, essentially, taught me love is a feeling that you have to decide on. When I broke my heart recently, it was because I chose to stay away from someone who was holding me back. That’s why I rooted for Maya when she resigned from work with Ser Chief to pursue her dream of being a stewardess. Love doesn’t make two people dependent on each other.
Heartbreak club also made me realize no one really dies of a broken heart. People die because of hunger, war, extrajudicial killings, terorrism, disease. Heartbreak club is objective. It is honest and brutal, and among its many lessons this one hits me the most: what matters in qualified statements such as “Mahal kita, pero...” (I love you, but) is the “pero” (but) part.
Absolutism and unconditionality in love may be passe for today’s modern times. But to be sure, “please be careful with my heart” is still one of the the most plaintive plea anybody can ever make. It’s delightful to watch Maya and Ser Chief resolve their contradictions and taking small steps to perfect true love. In their own restrained way, they start to open up more to each other, break down barriers of class, power relations, intellectual disparity.
I know the show is only for shallow entertainment. But as with other guilty pleasures I feel better when I can rationalize. For the moment it just thrills me that it sends a deep, cultural message in the midst of Valentine’s consumerism. You don’t need flowers, chocolates, fancy dinners or gifts to win affection. Not when Ser Chief has brought back blushing, the harana (courtship song), and the shy eye-to-eye to television romance. Not when we’ve seen that sometimes, all you really need is a hug.
Krissy Conti is officially part of Heartbreak Club, by empathy and in solidarity.
Original published on The Philippine Online Chronicles http://thepoc.net/component/k2/17836-lessons-from-the-heartbreak-club-sometimes-all-you-need-is-a-hug
ABS-CBN’s “Be Careful with My Heart” has been a curious phenomenal hit in the noontime timeslot. Wholesome and simplistic, it banks on kilig to carry it against game shows and livelier fare. No one minds that there are no big stars, skin and sex, or off-screen romance. And what shock: there is no rambling, melodramatic, cheesy dialogue to quote by the end of the episode.
For many viewers including me, Maya and Ser Chief remind us of how natural, how effortless love can be. Because there’s no one to hate, all you feel is love love love. This is the kind of romance that is preordained for a happy ending, the kind that you believe you deserve. Of course there are others who scoff at the naiveté of the characters and those who empathize with them. “Love,” I imagine they say, “is more complicated than that.”
I’m surrounded by friends who are cynical like that and who have had, and still have, broken hearts. There are friends who thought they found “The One”, only to find the feeling wasn’t mutual. There are those who battle all the odds and go against the world, and then realize it wasn’t worth all the trouble.
There is a motley crew whose hearts got broken at around the same time, which I will officially call heartbreak club. Okay fine, they did go around looking wounded for a while. But because they believed in dialectical materialism, they united and unionized, and strove for a systematized and organized approach to love – even if it took years.
Heartbreak club, essentially, taught me love is a feeling that you have to decide on. When I broke my heart recently, it was because I chose to stay away from someone who was holding me back. That’s why I rooted for Maya when she resigned from work with Ser Chief to pursue her dream of being a stewardess. Love doesn’t make two people dependent on each other.
Heartbreak club also made me realize no one really dies of a broken heart. People die because of hunger, war, extrajudicial killings, terorrism, disease. Heartbreak club is objective. It is honest and brutal, and among its many lessons this one hits me the most: what matters in qualified statements such as “Mahal kita, pero...” (I love you, but) is the “pero” (but) part.
Absolutism and unconditionality in love may be passe for today’s modern times. But to be sure, “please be careful with my heart” is still one of the the most plaintive plea anybody can ever make. It’s delightful to watch Maya and Ser Chief resolve their contradictions and taking small steps to perfect true love. In their own restrained way, they start to open up more to each other, break down barriers of class, power relations, intellectual disparity.
I know the show is only for shallow entertainment. But as with other guilty pleasures I feel better when I can rationalize. For the moment it just thrills me that it sends a deep, cultural message in the midst of Valentine’s consumerism. You don’t need flowers, chocolates, fancy dinners or gifts to win affection. Not when Ser Chief has brought back blushing, the harana (courtship song), and the shy eye-to-eye to television romance. Not when we’ve seen that sometimes, all you really need is a hug.
Krissy Conti is officially part of Heartbreak Club, by empathy and in solidarity.
Original published on The Philippine Online Chronicles http://thepoc.net/component/k2/17836-lessons-from-the-heartbreak-club-sometimes-all-you-need-is-a-hug