GMA NETWORK
ACTORS: Tom Rodriguez, Lovi Poe, Winwyn Marquez
FORMAT: Mini-series
PREMISE: A couple’s deteriorating relationship is further threatened by the arrival of another woman
TIME SLOT: Weeknights, 9:15 pm
WHY YOU SHOULD SEE IT
GMA Network’s third offering under its new primetime drama anthology, I Can See You, can’t be something audiences haven’t seen before. High-Rise Lovers is a story of a couple whose marriage is on the rocks, and the woman who comes between them.
In High-Rise Lovers, Samantha (Lovi Poe) and Luis (Tom Rodriguez) are just heading to the most difficult part of their marriage. Samantha is anxious that she may be having a baby in her belly, and that, that can present extra hurdles for her to advance in her career.
She is mindful, too, that her husband’s not having any luck in his job. When Luis loses a major contract, he goes unemployed and settles to accept a renovation job for another tenant in the building. Enter Ysabel (Winwyn Marquez), the attractive but secretive occupant who enlists Luis’ aid to fix her unit. Her arrival in the couple’s lives spells disaster, but maybe not completely to Luis whose bruised ego longs for comfort, a need his hardworking wife can not satisfy.
Branded by GMA Network as the perfect series to illustrate the realistic picture of marriage, ‘I Can See You: High-Rise Lovers‘ talks about the struggle of a married couple when one partner is failing to meet the expectations of the other. It sheds light on their individual capacities to accept their partners for who they are and for whatever they can provide for their relationship. It is a realistic portrait of a regular marriage, ever challenged by many different factors, that can either break or make the couple.
In the series, that challenge is made harder by the entry of another woman. It is interesting to know that this plot has been repeatedly explored in the local setting, and it is not only the showrunners’ fault why they keep getting resurrected － viewers keep getting hooked on them. In the end, it always depends on the execution and portrayal of the actors and the number of creative tweaks that script writers introduce to spice up the plot.
Being a Kapuso premier actress, Lovi Poe seems to find ease navigating Samantha, as she embodies her perfectly － a striving young woman completely immersed to the idea of being a successful career woman first, before being a great wife to Luis. The pilot episode, alone, offers a glimpse of her versatility, and the amount of dramatic skill she can demonstrate once the Samantha – Ysabel rivalry goes all out. Of course, given her record, audiences can only expect Poe to take the role satisfyingly.
Actress-turned-beauty-queen Winwyn Marquez fully embraces the sultry persona of Ysabel and she carries the role comfortably. Tom Rodriguez, on the other hand, has been playing similar roles as Luis and he plays him here generally fine as expected.
It is important to note that ‘High-Rise Lovers’ was conceived and shot during the pandemic when strict safety and health protocols are being enforced on production sets. It is amazing to learn that GMA was able to produce mini-series like this, given the limitations. The adultery trope is quite common in local tv series, but there are enough indications that GMA Network is taking it the wild way, and audiences are on the edge of their seat to see it firsthand.
I CAN SEE YOU: HIGH RISE LOVERS airs on the GMA Telebabad block of GMA Network. Full episodes are also uploaded after a few days on the GMA Entertainment official web site. Watch the official teaser below:
