MEDIUM RARE

Forget your K-drama. Forget the poverty porn of the last century.
 

(I still remember how Lino Brocka said he had to “smuggle” a copy of his “Insiang” out of the country, for fear that then first lady Imelda Marcos would stop it from reaching the Cannes Film Festival for the movie’s depressing theme. Insiang was submitted for exhibition, though, and not for competition.)  
That was then. Today, just press your Netflix button and wade into “Lavender Fields” for something fresh and spring-like, minus the poverty.

Take a walk with Lavender as she makes her way through a flower farm up on a hill. For ABS-CBN’s production arm, Dreamscape, “Lavender Fields” hits the bull’s-eye, not to mention the jackpot, with a sleek series – 100 episodes! – that is now in Netflix’s top ten.     

Jodi Sta. Maria plays Lavender; after the first episode, I can’t imagine anyone else in the role. Albert Martinez, cast as the detective investigating a murder in his ripped jeans and faded denim jacket, is as handsome as ever, silver hair and all. Is there a love angle shaping up? They’ve already killed off the younger Jericho Rosales – or have they? – but if everyone loves a love story, more people love a mystery (especially when it’s built around a love gone wrong).   

The first thing you like about Lavender Fields is its departure from the old norms of the more squalor the better, characters out-screaming one another, high-pitched melodrama on a Ferris wheel. Instead, you are invited to take a stroll into Lavender’s “Bloomfield”, and as the main character grows on you, you’re soon introduced into her world of elegant dinners and parties abloom with red roses (real, not plastic), fine silver and china, champagne and chandeliers. Half an episode and four years later, Lavender has bloomed just like her flowers. And that’s when the Furies strike... 

  
It helps that the actors are first-class by themselves, but under directors Emmanuel Palo and Jojo Saguin, they’re perfect as an ensemble. The new, slightly older Maricel Soriano is a revelation: calm and collected, acting in a style several degrees lower than her usual, as Lavender’s older, wiser, very rich new friend. With the introduction of this character, you’ve to expect great changes from hereon in.