Please be careful (with my heart)

The show's title card
(from http://en.wikipedia.org)

For the past year, I've been on night shift, meaning that I'm normally at home (or at the gym) in the morning. While working out in the gym I normally see shows from different channels being shown on the numerous television sets. One of those shows is "Be Careful with My Heart".

"Be Careful With My Heart" is a morning drama show in ABS-CBN. The main cast includes Jodie Sta. Maria, Richard Yap, Jerome Ponce, Janella Salvador, and Mutya Orquia, with a number of supporting cast. The story revolves around Maya Dela Rosa (Sta Maria) who goes to Manila to pursue her dream of becoming a flight attendant to help her family. However, due to unfortunate circumstances her dreams were put on hold - instead she becomes the temporary nanny for Richard Lim's children (Yap), a rich widower who owns an aviation company, with the agreement that he will assist her in pursuing her dreams. Over the course of time, Maya becomes endeared not only to the Lims but to all that she interact with, most especially to Richard (whom maya has dubbed Ser Chief).

What makes the story endearing to a lot of people (making it one of the most watched shows in the morning), is that it steers away from the typical dark and heavy themes of most dramas and soaps that are locally produced. The show follows a light theme - no gun-pointing, kidnapping, and such. Yes it does have fights, but it only shows what is necessary for the story. For example, the most "violent" fight would be the brawl between Luke and Inigo over a girl. For the most part, conversations are light and funny. Even in the serious scenes, someone would still inject a bit of humour.

Another thing that makes it endearing is the chemistry between the characters, not just with Maya and Ser Chief. Although there is the usual "kilig" moments between the two, the show doesn't shy away from other things as well. For example, it follows the lives of Nikki and Luke inside the school campus, along with the typical high school crushes and first love. It also follows Maya's family in Mindoro, as well as the comical banter between the Doris, Sabel, and Joma.

Being a family-oriented show, you could expect that the show likes to inject a couple of values to its readers - most specifically, the importance of family and helping each other. Similar with how Maya introduced "kapit-bisig" (to link arms with each other), the show emphasizes the importance of helping each other out in times of need.

"Be Careful With My Heart" may be extended for another period - it was supposed to end last December but has been extended to February and then extended again until June. Although the story get to be slow at times (probably to extend the story as long as possible), it still makes sure that there is something that happens within every episode. I just hope that they don't stretch it too far that it compromises the quality and the story as a whole.

All in all, "Be Careful..." has a lot of elements which makes it like a breath of fresh air for a lot of people. It shows that we don't need violence to make a show successful, nor does life need to be dark to make it interesting. The show has been able to create a light drama which doesn't look farfetched from reality. Yes, it does look like there are only good people in the show, but then again, maybe that's the show's strong suit - that there are a lot of people that are good, and like the show's characters, we can be more good than bad. :)

Sources:
http://http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Be_Careful_With_My_Heart
http://www.iwantv.com.ph/TV/Video/Be-Careful-with-my-Heart/390