Doc Aga is back on the tube

Aga Muhlach is on a roll. With his newly sculpted physique that has many women (young and old, single, married, or unmarried) and even men (with eyes only for their fellow men) drooling in awe, the actor is back to reclaim his place on television, returning to the sitcom firmament as a pediatrician in That’s My Doc (ABS-CBN, Sundays, after Sharon). The show started airing last two Sundays ago to a surprisingly decent ratings, giving the Vic Sotto starrer on the other side of the TV war front lots of reworking to do to maintain its lead.

Although a competent actor whose turns in dramatic feature films have made him one of a few of the country’s biggest box-office attractions (it doesn’t

matter who is paired with) Aga refuses to be drawn into the trend of soap opera. Not that he abhors the format. He just finds it tedious, time consuming and creatively unproductive. He’d rather do drama in movies and shift to comedy on television. In that way, he says, “I am able to strike a good balance in my screen personality.”

I can understand Aga’s vehement dislike of soap. Many young actors who learn their ropes in screen acting become mannered and irritatingly repetitive. Aga’s exploratory nature doesn’t fit the soap opera school of acting.

While in a sitcom, Aga is given more freedom to color his character, expand the range of emotion, and at the same time he learns the value of the ensemble as a tool to better performances.

In That’s My Doc, Aga is Agaton Abogado (take note of the pun) a pediatrician who sought greener pastures in the United States as a nurse but returned to the Philippines after getting homesick and bedeviled by a desire to find the true meaning of life.

In Okidoki Doc, the sitcom that catapulted the actor as comedian on television, Aga played a veterinarian. No, this new sitcom isn’t a spin-off of that one. It is a coincidence that Aga is once again playing a doctor, but this time to kids and not pets.

That’s My Doc also signals the return to television of Nova Villa and Roderick Paulate playing peculiar personalities in the sitcom’s fictional Barangay Tabuneknek.

Nova is Tita Ocs, Aga’s aunt who is the community’s “Jackie of All Trades.” Roderick, who proved to be a hit in playing the closet gay admirer of Aga in Okidoki Dok, is a retired military officer this time and is Agaton’s nemesis in the neighborhood. Is Major Ret Retualo really what he seems to be? Or does he have dark secrets that will jolt the entire baranggay to their senses?

Aga agreed to the sitcom on several conditions, among which is the freedom to choose his co-stars. Apart from Nova and Roderick, Aga also suggested to the producers to cast Bayani Agbayani, who was in Aga’s previous sitcom Okay, Fine Whatever, and he now plays pet shop owner Buddy with Pokwang as his love interest.

Miss International Precious Lara Quigaman is Greta, the sister Major Ret Retualo and the neighborhood’s “crush ng bayan.” Former Kapuso-turned-Kapamilya Jake Cuenca plays Jake, the son of Major Ret Retualo.

This week Aga is also starring in a movie with Maricel Soriano and Angelica Panganiban. Millions of Aga fans have been waiting for their idol to be back on the big screen. Their wish has been granted. A Love Story will certainly thrill them to no end.
Isah V. Red
Manila Standard Today