TELENOVELA- WALANG HANGGAN (MY ETERNAL)

Ok, so I’ve been watching this telenovela recently, ‘My Eternal’ and I think it’s really nice, so I decided to enlighten you guys about it. ‘Walang Hanggan’ is a Philippines’ series loosely based on the 1991 Gomez-Zulueta film Hihintayin Kita Sa Langit, a film based on the Emily Bronte novel, Wuthering Heights. The drama became a huge hit maintaining the top spot in viewer ratings for most of its run, with its final episode on October 26, 2012 attaining its highest rating of 45.4% nationwide.

PLOT

Cruz sisters' Virginia (Susan Roces) and Margaret (Helen Gamboa) vie for the love of Joseph Montenegro (Eddie Guitierrez) in the fictional province of Olivarez. Virginia had to sacrifice everything to let Margaret live a better life with Joseph. Around two decades later, Margaret and Joseph's son Marco (Richard Gomez) develops feelings for Emily Cardenas (Dawn Zulueta), a daughter of a worker in their plantation. However, numerous circumstances and Margaret's haughtiness towards Emily prompts Marco to marry rich banker Jane Bonifacio (Rita Avila) - much to Emily's detriment. Marco migrates to the US after Emily shuns him when he tries to explain.

Meanwhile, laborer William Alcantara (Joel Torre) settles in Olivarez with his children Katerina (Julia Montes) and Tomas (Joem Bascom). He adopts a street boy named Daniel (Coco Martin) while working at the Cruz family business, where Virginia assumes a role as his adoptive grandmother. Daniel first plays around with Katerina but they gradually develop a friendship over the next several years. Marco and Jane return home with their children Johanna (Melissa Ricks) and Nathan (Paulo Avelino), with Nathan becoming interested in Katerina as well. Virginia and Margaret's rivalry affects the children. Emily reemerges with a plan to avenge her woes by taking all the shares in the business. At the same time, Nathan schemes to get Daniel out of the way so he can marry Katerina. After Tomas stabs Daniel, Emily saves him and they escape to live in Italy as Emily and Daniel Guidotti.

What I love most about this series is how the actors and actresses get into character, with Daniel’s funny facial expressions, Nathan’s constant insecurities over Katarina, Johanna’s bluntness and Emily’s candidness. Yes, there are some areas in the series where it gets unnecessarily lengthy and it seems all their problems could be solved in a day but watching the characters takes your mind of the length of the series and makes it worth the wait. The series is currently airing on AIT, and can be downloaded at  http://walanghanggan.abs-cbn.com/downloads.html