Miriam Quiambao tries heavy drama

Mention the name Miriam Quiambao and what comes to mind? Beauty queen; first runner-up, Miss Universe 1999; competent TV host; aspiring movie-TV actress (special mention goes to her amusing portrayal as Eugene Domingo's harassed and oppressed executive assistant in "Kimmy Dora."). I haven't seen her in a heavy drama so I was curious how she would handle her role as a housewife who is also harassed and oppressed in TV5's "Untold Stories: Ligaw na Paru-Paro" on Thursday, March 10. Unlike "Kimmy Dora," there's nothing funny about her character. She plays Jennifer, a real person who appeared on Amy Perez's "Face to Face." "F2F" has a format close to Jerry Springer's talk show where dysfunctional families air their dirty linen in public.

Although Jennifer is a real person, her story is the stuff that you watch on soap operas where the main character is aping-api. In the case of Miriam's role, she plays a woman in the slums who was raped as a teener, became a drug addict and spent time in jail, married an abusive husband, is cash-strapped all the time and must resort to petty scams to feed her two children.

So how did Miriam fare in this lugubrious episode? Well, the scriptwriter doesn't know the meaning of restraint so every scene is a high point. Our female lead must shed copious tears every five minutes and get oppressed by her husband every ten minutes. It starts with the opening scene where a pregnant Jennifer pleads with the neighborhood midwife to deliver her baby. The midwife refuses at first because Jennifer hasn't paid her for delivering her first child. Eventually, she relents because Jennifer is already bleeding.

Then follows a series of scenes where she meets one calamity after another. The episode reminded me of an old movie called "Wala Nang Iluha" with Cynthia Zamora and Amado Cortez. The wife had no more tears to shed after all the suffering she underwent.

At least, Jennifer is not totally portrayed as a subservient wife as she berates her husband for not giving her enough money for food and medicine. Of course, she receives the obligatory slap in the face and his hand on her throat while the husband says his menacing lines. To top it all, he drives Jennifer and her two kids out of the house.

There are video inserts of the "Face to Face" episode where the real characters portrayed in the show are present and are used as a transition device to move the story forward. "F2F" was apparently able to give a happy ending to Jennifer's case. So, "Ligaw na Paru-Paro" ends with a happy scene where Miriam and her husband are lovey-dovey with each other.. It is not explained how they were able to resolve their differences after all the cruel things he inflicted on Miriam's character.

Because of the bad scripting, Miriam didn't have much to work on. After two or three convincing crying scenes, the succeeding ones didn't register anymore. Her wicked side like the drug addiction and the scams she pulled should have been given more focus. This would provide the balance to the one-dimensional characterization of Jennifer. The same goes for the husband who is portrayed all throughout the episode as a good for nothing person. The show also needs a good make-up artist to deglamorize Miriam who still looked gorgeous despite her drab outfits.

Miriam has the potential to make it as great actress but she has to be more choosy about the roles that she accepts. I remember another episode many years ago where she portrayed the activist beauty queen Nelia Sancho on "Magpakailanman" with Mel Tiangco. That was a less hysterical role and the script was better written. She did a good job there.

The beauty queen has gone a long way since she placed second in the Miss Universe pageant. There have been bumps in the road like her marital breakup but she seems to have recovered from the heartbreak. She's made some controversial decisions like appearing in a sexy pictorial but with no nudity for the local edition of Playboy magazine. She has also become an entrepreneur. Those are experiences that will help Miriam in her quest to become a respected TV-movie actress.

Disclaimer: The views and observations of the author do not represent the position of Yahoo! Southeast Asia on the issue or topic being discussed.