As this year comes to a close, the annual tradition is back.
Trendrod’s ‘Best Shows’ special feature is back to give recognition to the best Filipino stories and content of 2024 in television.
For this year, the Top 40 of the nation’s productions in both linear television and streaming media have been ranked and listed in this special series spanning four installments.
To qualify, these must be original shows produced by Filipino production companies, TV networks, or streaming services.
Additionally, their respective series or season premiere dates must have taken place from January 1 until December 22, 2024.
For the first of this four-parter, we are dishing out the programs that made it to the 31st to 40th spot in our ‘Best Shows of 2024’ list.
40. Heart World (GMA)
Kicking off the list is this limited reality series starring and produced by the one of the Philippines’ leading faces in fashion.
Last October, GMA premiered the reality format hosted by Heart Evangelista that gives the public a peek into her personal and professional lives — basically entering her world.
Originally a segment in her YouTube channel, ‘Heart World’ shares highlights of her trips abroad, her showbiz commitments, inner circle of friends, and her private life as a wife and mother.
Honest take: Viewers who watch or who are at least familiar with Heart’s YouTube channel and its style, would agree that the ‘Heart World’ television series takes its core strength with it as it makes the jump to mainstream.
But it obviously became too reliant to its power, as it has quite become a repackage of the previous vlogs, with Heart only providing additional commentary and newly added scenes have been quite limited in certain episodes.
For those who are interested in both fashion and showbiz, this show could be a good watch on a Saturday mid-evening. However, for others who are not into it, missing the TV show should not cause a ‘FOMO’ moment for you.
39. Julius Babao Unplugged (TV5)
Can you still remember some of the many stars that have brighten up our local showbiz scene?
‘Frontline Pilipinas’ anchor Julius Babao has spoken up to them for his eponymous interview program on the Kapatid network.
‘Julius Babao Unplugged’ is the title of his YouTube segment where he not only revisits, but talks with the icons, character actors, musicians, and other personalities of the past, and for those who are still active in the industry, reminisce their lived experiences on- and off-camera.
Honest take: Like ‘Heart World,’ this show is only basically a rehash of the previous episodes already uploaded onto YouTube.
The main difference being is that they have been trimmed to fit three personalities within the 60-minute runtime. Therefore, the entire interview is not aired on television anyway.
Its existence also jives very well with how the network’s grid is shaping up and seems to be targeting these days — a slightly older demographic.
Adding another nostalgia factor is the fact that it is broadcast every Sunday afternoon, reminiscent of how showbiz-oriented talk shows were aired until the mid-2010s.
38. Barangay Singko Panalo (TV5)
Who would have thought that a distinctly Filipino-style gameshow and sitcom could actually be blended together for a TV program.
Serving as the chairman of the fictional Barangay Singko is the show’s lead host Jerald Napoles, who is billed as ‘Kags Je’ and his trusted “village SK chairwoman,” co-host Kayla Rivera.
Each episode follows a storyline for the situational comedy segment, with contestants competing in game portions of the show.
It ran from March 11 until June 28, 2024 over 75 episodes.
Honest take: The program’s entire premise is relatively simple, which reflects on its relatively easy-to-watch format.
Given that, the over three-month run was clearly not enough for the show to reach its full potential during its “first season,” which had to end to make way for ‘Wil To Win’.
A few tweaks, such as in the gameplay and perhaps, incorporation of the players in the actual storyline of the sitcom part, could be done if TV5 is interested in doing season 2 in the future.
Overall, ‘Barangay Singko Panalo’ is one of the network’s stronger offerings in the non-scripted category this year.
37. My Guardian Alien (GMA)
This is the comeback series of Kapuso Primetime Queen Marian Rivera, where she was finally paired with Gabby Concepcion — whom she was supposed to work with in ‘First Yaya’ in 2020, but got replaced by Sanya Lopez due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The fantasy drama sees an alien taking over the body of a woman after accidentally landing on Earth. With her “uncanny resemblance” to the dead, she disguised herself from the bereaved family.
She later discovers secrets behind the human’s death, while she also tries to protect the world from the threat of other intergalactic species.
‘My Guardian Alien’ aired from April to June 2024 with 65 episodes.
Honest take: The series, despite its intriguing plot, was underwhelming and failed to capture the viewership it should have gotten.
With that, from a viewer standpoint, the supposedly lighthearted story had to take a detour midway into the series and injected a “jealousy” plotline involving Rivera and Concecpion’s characters Grace and Carlos, along with Max Collins’ Venus.
In spite of its flaws, the show is watchable, but not enough to be placed on top of the list.
36. Makiling (GMA)
It is the opening salvo of GMA Afternoon Prime in 2024.
The fantasy-revenge series starred Elle Villanueva and Derrick Monasterio in the lead roles, and follows Amira (Villanueva) as she seeks to get even with the “Crazy Five” led by Portia (Myrtle Sarrosa) who caused her simple barrio life and family to be ruined.
The mystical twist to an otherwise cookie-cutter storyline is that Amira has been known to have discovered a healing plant that became the bigger subject of the feud between her and Portia’s gang.
After a near-death experience, Amira was given a second lease in life by the titular goddess, Matia Makiling (Rabiya Mateo).
It had a successful 83-episode run in the 4:00 pm slot from January 8 until May 3, 2024.
Honest take: The series had its fair share of shining moments, especially during the revenge plot line orchestrated by Amira.
But, due to its broadcast date being close to that of the 2023 series ‘Magandang Dilag,’ there had been comparisons between that and this show.
Noting its afternoon slot, ‘Makiling’ gave a much better storyline than its contemporaries in the block despite its familiar genre. But in the overall scheme of things, it was good at best — hence, landing at the other end of this list.
35. Top 5 Mga Kwentong Marc Logan (TV5)
A Philippine news icon has joined the Kapatid network.
In April this year, longtime ABS-CBN News figure Marc Logan made the jump after leaving the Kapamilya network to join TV5.
For his first project, the former chief ‘TV Patrol’ humorist brought his brand of storytelling for a new magazine show, which features five human interest stories in each episode.
Honest take: Marc Logan is Marc Logan. His comedic approach in giving lighthearted stories further uplifts the vibe of the show.
This show is also a great improvement and utilization of his talent, which in recent years have been mostly seen in providing commentaries for viral TikTok clips on ‘TV Patrol’.
Additionally, just in the tone and presentation, you could tell that ‘MKML’ is a different type of magazine show than the one hosted by Senator Raffy Tulfo, ‘Kapatid Mo, Idol Raffy Tulfo’ every Sunday.
34. Lumuhod Ka Sa Lupa (TV5)
After more than a decade, the Kapatid network finally gambled in doing a new solo production for its afternoon block.
That was how the action series ‘Lumuhod Ka Sa Lupa’ starring Kiko Estrada started when it premiered last April 2024.
Based on the Carlo J. Caparas story, the drama follows Norman Dela Cruz as he seeks justice for his mother Tacing after a dispute with her non-biological brother Benito Balmores.
After becoming a lawyer and hiding his identity as Abra Espiritu, Norman meets and falls in love with Benito’s already-married daughter, Mercy.
After two months in its original ‘Hapon Champion’ slot, it got “promoted” to ‘Todomax Primetime Singko’ and has been airing after flagship TV5 newscast ‘Frontline Pilipinas’ ever since.
Honest take: The dramatic storyline molds well with the action direction of the program. As the stakes become bigger, so do the stunts being mounted.
The key flaw of the show from the onset was its poor ratings in the afternoon slot, in contrast to its rival top-rated program ‘Abot-Kamay Na Pangarap’ on GMA.
TV5’s primetime switch helped a lot, with the program now getting equal or better viewership than that of ‘Frontline Pilipinas’.
Story-wise, the flow remains good by original Kapatid program standards even after the death of Mercy (Sarah Lahbati) as ‘LKSL’ introduced new set of characters to keep the show running.
But, ‘LKSL’ is nearing a saturation point with the audience — quite understandable as the program is close to hitting its 200th episode mark already.
Still, it has delivered a laudable performance for a TV5 original in 2024.
33. Lilet Matias Attorney-At-Law (GMA)
A law drama challenging the norms of both the profession and the society in general.
That is how the Kapuso afternoon soap presented itself when it made its premiere back in February 2024.
Starring Jo Berry in the titular character, it followed her life as a kept child who had to unknowingly work for his biological father’s original family.
Because of the several hardships she experienced in that household, she later met her biological mother, Atty. Meredith Simmons (Maricel Laxa-Pangilinan), who inspired her to become a lawyer.
Even then, she encountered a lot of obstacles during law school and before becoming one of top lawyers of a firm.
As of writing, the program is airing from Monday to Saturday at 2:30 pm on GMA.
Honest take: ‘Lilet Matias’ does good in intertwining its usual soap opera plot lines with the legal matters that the fictional attorney handles.
But if there is anything needed to be addressed, those are somewhat questionable moments in the series, such as the viral scene inside a comfort room cubicle.
Those scenes would definitely work for other afternoon shows, as the network usually does include “campy” scenes to serve the target market, but a much more mature and sophisticated way of doing these fights could have pushed the ‘Lilet’ into a better direction than its peers.
However, despite its shortcomings, the Kapuso series helps in educating and explaining matters of law to the ‘Aling Bebang‘ market known to be tuning in to the show each afternoon.
32. Love. Die. Repeat. (GMA)
From one Kapuso queen’s comeback to another.
This series marked the return of ‘Ultimate Star,’ Jennylyn Mercado, to GMA primetime after her previous project, the anthology series ‘I Can See You: Truly. Madly. Deadly,’ back in 2021.
For the first time, she was also paired with Xian Lim, who was supposed to do this series first before the 2023 series ‘Hearts On Ice’. However, plans were changed following Mercado’s pregnancy and eventual delivery to her child with husband Dennis Trillo in 2022.
According to the premise provided by GMA, “Angela (Jennylyn Mercado) is a devoted and loving wife to Bernard (Xian Lim). She values her marriage and family more than anything else. Her perfect life takes an unexpected turn when her husband dies in a tragic car accident. Her grief turns into confusion when she is forced to relive the worst day of her life every single day.”
The yet another intriguing drama, which features a time-loop, was one of the programs that kickstarted the rebranded GMA Prime block in January 2024.
It ran for 53 episodes until March 27.
Honest take: The first few episodes of ‘Love. Die. Repeat.’ was indeed something different, with the show immediately jumping into action and introduced how the time-loop worked.
However, the “repeat” concept could only be done multiple times before the viewers get fatigued in the seemingly never-ending cycle.
That was addressed by the show by letting Angela succeed changing the course of the timeline several times, only for it to end in Bernard‘s demise.
Another flaw that could have helped its caused was a later 9:35 pm slot, instead of its assigned 8:50 pm.
Considering its rather high concept, it could have been received much better at the later time, while the action-kabitserye ‘Asawa Ng Asawa Ko’ faced its more apt rival (story-wise), ‘Linlang’.
Despite its short run, ‘Love. Die. Repeat.’ is a show that can entice viewers to think tens or hundreds of ways on how the story will continue.
31. Zoomers Season 1 (ABS-CBN Studios)
The youth-oriented drama was one of the Kapamilya network’s opening salvos for 2024
According to the official description provided by the producers, it “revolves around the lives of senior high school students Jiggs (Harvey Bautista), Hope (Criza), Kokoy (Luke Alford), Tania (Kryst Ball), and Atom (Ralph de Leon), who have forged a special bond of friendship during the pandemic. As they find their footing in this post-pandemic reality, witness how their friendship will be tested; as they will be challenged by their own pains, struggles, and dreams.”
Additionally, prior to the start of the show, a ‘casting call’ was held, and later made its way to broadcast television, where the cast members of the series were meticulously handpicked by the likes of ABS-CBN’s TV Production head Laurenti Dyogi and director Chad Vidanes.
The series was later recognized by the ContentAsia Awards 2024 as the Best Asian Short-Form Drama series.
Honest take: ‘Zoomers’ is a good showcase of the up-and-coming stars of the younger generation to prove their mettle in the industry.
Its story and character for the first season were notable departures from the usual teenybopper programs on local TV.
‘Zoomers’ offers a slightly more mature take on adolescence and young adulthood stories — similar to or even exceeding its contemporary show, the mystery drama and telenovela-ish ‘Senior High’.
To add to the unusual factor, the show was aired on the fourth primetime slot with a short two-week TV run, which also breaks the either weekly or long-form formats seen in many local shows.
Given its concise run, ‘Zoomers’ should be relatively easy to jump into and have a watch for yourself.
Those were the programs that made it to the Top 31 to 40 spots of this year’s special ‘Best Shows’ feature.
Other installments will be released in the coming days. Please stay tuned to Trendrod.
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For now, Trendrod wishes everyone a Merry Christmas!