WITH SO many teleserye on TV these days, their creative teams are under added pressure to come up with ?UPS? (unique viewing propositions) to make viewers watch them, instead of other drama series on the tube.

Some try to achieve this by loading their casts with stars and starlets of all ages, while others come up with highly ?dramatic? situations, conflicts and plot twists that excite the viewing public with their radically jagged thespic highs and lows.

?Dramatic? scenes

Trouble is, these highly ?dramatic? scenes require actors to maximize the use of their talents?and quite a number of them end up being TH (trying-hard), with a lot of thespic egg on their faces.

Recently, for instance, ?Tayong Dalawa? had a lushly melodramatic confrontation scene between the characters played by young leads, Kim Chiu, Gerald Anderson and Jake Cuenca. Both young men pleaded with Kim to favor one over the other, and the protestations became so passionate and frantic that everyone ended up screaming their emotions out.

We wondered if the young actors were merely obeying the urgent coaching of their director?or, was he unable to control their raw and jejeune emotional impulses? Whatever, the result of their sins of commission or omission was collectively bad acting, pure and simple.

The worst offender was Cuenca, who ended up looking like a veritable ball of fury, unable to control himself, as he rode the shrill emotional crest of the extended sequence.

We don?t fault Cuenca for his emotional outburst, but for his inability to shape it to clarify the thematic intention of the scene, instead of overwhelming and upstaging it. Surely, his director could have helped him more in this regard, but quite sadly, that assistance was not to be had.

Long-lost mother

More recently, on ?Ang Babaeng Hinugot sa Aking Tadyang,? another shrill and extended confrontation scene tasked the thespic resources of Marian Rivera and Jackielou Blanco (who played Marian?s ?hated? and long-lost mother). Jackielou begged Marian to forgive her, but her daughter could not?and took many voluble and emotional minutes to ?explain? why.

Jackielou is one of our best actresses, so it was dismaying to see her struggle with the artificially melodramatic demands of the badly-written scene. In addition, the focus of her performance was marred by some bad camerawork and editing, which distracted and detracted from the full impact of her portrayal.

But, it was Marian who committed the greatest number of thespic sins. We understood how conflicted her character was, since her mother?s disappearance had blighted her life. However, the actress was too rawly emotional in her performance, piling one thespic shtick on top of another?tears, ?sobbing? voice (humahagulgol), twitching features, slowly sagging to the floor, etc. Apparently, she has never heard of the artistic instruction: ?Less is more.?

Predicament

As in Cuenca?s case, we don?t fault Marian for her emotional outburst, since it was clear that she was genuinely affected by her character?s difficult predicament. But, she should realize that emotion is only the starting point for a performance, not its be-all and end-all.

Another thespic suggestion she should keep in mind is that, when a character?s conflict is big and deep, the actor should use greater discretion and artistic judgement, to keep the scene from spilling over and becoming embarrassingly lush.

Finally, we should point out that the ?blame? for that loud and livid scene is shared by its overdeclarative and overlong scripting. Demonstrate greater restraint, everyone.