Dressed up as a trope-laden, old fashioned teen drama, this new delightful surprise from Dreamscape Entertainment, brims with convention-defying layers and nuances rarely seen in previous entries to the genre.
There are plenty of ‘stare fests’—’if stares could kill’ moments’ in ABS-CBN’s newest late primetime series, Senior High, that suggests bad things are going to happen. It seems the series, which comes on the heels of the success of ‘Dirty Linen’, will carry on with its predecessor’s ‘mata-mata acting’, which actors, Baron Geisler, and the lead star, Andrea Brillantes, have exemplarily pulled off, during the first three episodes of the show. In fact, a scene, where Geisler’s character, Harry Aguerro, shifting from happy to shocked with incredible ease, was among the best ones to come out this early in the series. Brillantes, who is playing dual roles for the first time in her career, here, similarly delivers an impressive display of ease in navigating the complexities and distinctions of her characters.
Perhaps, one of the toughest questions, the series’ showrunners would have to endure answering over and over again, is whether Senior High is a local copy of hit young adult and teen dramas that tackled almost the same themes as the Dreamscape Entertainment show. Not that they need to explain themselves if there truly is an effort to imitate their predecessors, the directors and creatives of the series nevertheless seemed obliged to tell the critics, ‘nope, this one isn’t going to be the perfect copy’ of those shows’. On a viewer’s perspective, the bottomline remains, whether a show can be interesting enough to grasp attention, from the start to end. Conventional dramas remain special among Filipino viewers, and while this reality seems to get abused by many showrunners these days, it has been a platform to some to introduce something else. That seems to be the effort being pulled of by Senior High, a conventional drama with addictive new layers and nuances, to grab the audience’s attention, in the grip.
Like most teen or campus dramas, the action and mystery in ‘Senior High’ take place in the prestigious, Northford High. It’s an exclusive place where regular teenagers like Luna and Sky Love Cruz (both brilliantly played by Brillantes), are supposed to be banned, but like most places and situations, it does exemptions. But to what price? The first week, alone, screams the answer.
After losing her grandmother who raised her as a kid, Sky Love is taken into custody by her biological mother, Tanya Cruz (Angel Aquino), who has been trying to raise her other daugher and Sky love’s twin sister, Luna, by her own. You can clearly see the contrast between the twin sisters, even at first look, with Luna being the meek and weak-looking one, and Sky Love, as the more aggressive and strong, personality-wise. Within the premises of Northford High, the line between the sisters’ personalities, become even more glaring, with Luna being revealed as a target of extreme bullying, by her ultra-rich classmates.
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Within the first 45 minutes of the show, the first major event of the series, took place: death of Luna Cruz. Was it suicide or murder? It’s not hard to get convinced it is where the rest of the story will revolve around. It is also within such a period that we get convinced, that while Senior High is inundated with teen drama tropes, it is one that overflows with intriguing new takes on the cliche subjects it tackles. It delves deep into its themes’ familiarity and tries to uncover never-before-seen layers, and presents them with profoundness and better clarity. The creators of the series seem well-aware that that is the most effective way to not bore the audiences, and so far, three episodes in, they’ve been succeeding.
A big part of such success is the power of the show’s remarkable cast, which includes seasoned players such as Sylvia Sanchez, who plays a nosy school security officer; Desiree Del Valle, a body-shaming frustrated beauty queen; and Mon Confiado, a politician with many secrets in the closet. But as they play the characters whose orbits are nearest to the central suicide/murder plot, the young cast members of the series, which includes, Elijah Canlas, Daniela Stranner, JK Labajo, Zaijian Jaranilla, Xyriel Manabat, Gela Atayde, Miggy Jimenez, Tommy Alejandrino, and Andrea Brillantes, remain the most important players of this deliciously-compulsive teen drama, whose absorbing viewpoints on delicate subject matters such as suicide, bullying, body-shaming, and others yet to be discussed on the show, are surely going to be its biggest selling points.
Senior High now airs on multiple platforms, including TV5, A2Z, Kapamilya Channel, and Kapamilya Online Live, weeknights, after The Iron Heart. Watch the official full trailer, below:
