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Exploring Aga Muhlach and his TV5 debut

When Aga Muhlach moved to TV5, I thought the network would cast him in a format that exploited his considerable talents as an actor. I expected him to do a rom-com or a teleserye. I would have wanted him to tackle an offbeat role just as he did in "In the Name of Love." That was a long shot, of course, but I got the surprise of my life when Aga started doing a travel documentary called "Pinoy Explorer." This was not your typical tourist-oriented show like Susan Calo Medina's "Travel Time." The episodes I've watched so far (four of them) are patterned after the offerings of National Geographic and Discovery Channels.

"Pinoy Explorer" has Aga doing reports on the Matanuska Glaciers in Alaska, the Wyoming Dinosaur Center and the Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, the Humboldt Forest in Nevada, and the deserts of Dubai. What's disappointing, however, is that his stand-ups from those places account for a small percentage of the of the show's airtime. A large portion of "Pinoy Explorer" is devoted to film segments from two BBC productions, "Walking with Dinosaurs" (1999) and "Walking with Beasts" (2001). TV 5 should have called Aga's show "Exploring Dinosaurs."

Admittedly, the BBC films were quite impressive, using computer graphics and animatronics to depict what life was like thousands and millions of years ago. It was like watching "Jurassic Park" but with more emphasis on the dinosaurs and other pre-historic animals rather than the actors. It would have been interesting to have Aga interacting with the dinosaurs the way Jeff Goldblum and Richard Attenborough did in Steven Spielberg's motion picture, but that would have required a bigger budget.

It was comedian W.C. Fields who said, "Never work with animals and children." Aga should have heeded his advice because the prehistoric creatures stole the show from him. Viewers are more likely to remember the dinosaurs rather than Aga's appearance on the show. TV5 had Aga circling the globe but could not come up with enough footage to fill up an entire show so the network relied on canned material.

There must be other interesting topics the show could have explored aside from dinosaurs. One episode on this pre-historic creature should have been enough but four shows on the same topic can be boring stuff. I'm sure the world has more interesting things to offer aside from extinct dinosaurs.

TV5 must have paid quite a sum to lure Aga away from ABS-CBN. The network is not getting value for its investment by having the actor do a hosting job. Aga should be doing what he does best—acting. Give "Pinoy Explorer" to other talents like Paolo Bediones or even Lourd de Veyra.

The Kapatid network should explore casting Aga in non-traditional roles such as the one he did in "In the Name of Love." That movie showed that the actor can tackle not just light roles but more demanding ones. Aga has already done his share of sitcoms and should be challenged to do more dramatic roles.

I notice that most of TV5 teleseryes like "Glamorosa," "Babaeng Hampaslupa," and "Sa Ngalan ng Ina" feature female stars as main protagonists. It's time for the spotlight to shine on male actors and Aga is just the right performer to start the ball rolling.