AN OPEN CONFESSION.

I never openly admit it but today I'll let the cat out of the bag. I have a soft spot for soap operas. In fact, at one point in my life, I was quite the soap opera addict and so anything that was called soap opera was my cup of tea.

In my younger years I watched all of them. Everything from 'Noone but You', to 'The rich also cry', to 'Lady of the Rose', to American soaps which don't seem to air on tv these days like 'The Bold and the Beautiful', 'Sunset Beach', 'The young and restless' and 'Days of our lives'

So I know their bag of tricks, mostly because I have watched the original soaps where all the storylines are copied from, so much I like to think of myself as quite the aficionado of all things.

As a result, today's soap operas are child's play because I can predict everything at first glance. And although I have not watched as much of the Philippine soaps apart from the unnecessary crying scenes which usually cover 80% of the time, it's the same old SAME OLD.

The starring woman is always untouched innocent beauty and the lead man is usually a man of the world. Only beautiful people have it all and clever girls always fall in love with the rich boys.

Further, the key characters who were poor all become rich or in another twist are rich but do not know it until somewhere in the middle of the plot. Dead people never really die. They always come back to life, baby switchers are very common, good old-fashioned affairs and memory loss also dominate, and for some reason, the female characters always have perfectly made faces all the time, even when in a comma.

And for some reason, there is always some dastardly villain who is always plotting to end the love relationship between the two main characters.