The Meteor Garden fever

The Meteor Garden Fever reached an all-time fever pitch exactly a week ago today as F4 fans practically went into convulsions during that ULTRA concert dubbed as The Event.

A friend of mine who lived near ULTRA could only shake his head when he saw fans of F4 (although there were only two of them) already in line outside the concert venue as early as 9 in the morning last Saturday. (Actually, there were already F4 fans at the ULTRA even the night before the concert.)

Although I know a lot of people who frowned on such fanaticism, I didn’t find anything wrong with those teenage fans swooning oh-so-madly over those Chinese personalities.

But frankly, I really don’t care about those Chinese stars mainly because I don’t know them. (And maybe because I’m way past being a teenager – oh, way, way past.)

On Startalk last Saturday, for instance, I was made to introduce a segment (which, sadly, was not aired due to lack of time, but hopefully would be aired this afternoon) about this Chinese star whose last name was Zhu – or was it Zu? Zoo? – I don’t know. But at the back of my mind, it could very well had been "So?" – as in so what?!

But my big blunder was when I introduced another Chinese star as Vanessa Wu – when it should have been Vanness Wu. And I thought that was a girl! Now, you know how ignorant I am when it comes to these F4 people.

But really, I have nothing against these F4 guys. How could I dislike them when I don’t even know them? Maybe they’re good people. Maybe they really reek of talent and charisma – which is why they are adored by millions of fans from this side of the world.

From my end, I’m just glad that they brought back long hair because that gives me the perfect excuse not to have a haircut every so often because this to me is a chore.

But what I didn’t like was the ABS-CBN coverage of the arrival and stay of some of the group’s members. Of course, that shouldn’t have surprised me anymore. After all, when Meteor Garden was still a new series here in the Philippines, TV Patrol was already hyping it as if the show’s cast members were part of England’s Royal family. The overkill really made non-F4 fans sick in the stomach.

And when part of the F4 group came over for last week’s concert, ABS-CBN, as to be expected, milked it dry. In fact, there’s only one adjective to describe the network’s coverage of that event: Hysterical!

And yet, when F4 fans got injured at the ULTRA during the concert, ABS-CBN was the first to wash its hands off the responsibility.

Having access to the F4 group is really a blessing – a goldmine, actually – to any television station because showing its members on TV undeniably brings in the almighty ratings. Channel 2, however, just went way overboard with it.

In one Channel 2 interview, for example, Kris Aquino said that she went over a pile of research "this thick" on the F4 members. Good for her. I wish I had the same dedication and diligence as TV host.

Maybe I would have done the same thing – but only if I were to interview the Pope and not some flash-in-the-pan Chinese stars.

But what really freaked me out completely was when I caught just a snippet of one of ABS-CBN‘s nightly F4 post-concert specials that was aired this week in between TV Patrol and one of its soap operas.

In the Tuesday night edition of this F4 special, young star Paula Peralejo, one of the hosts of the special (I think they’re called F4 Patrollers) was shown in one of the corridors of this awful hotel called EDSA Shangri-La stopping a food cart bearing the room service order of one of the F4 members. In front of the camera, she lifted every stainless steel cover to reveal the food (one was vegetable fried rice) to be consumed by this F4 member, who – I suppose – would have lost his appetite had he known his dinner had made an unnecessary stopover in some corner of the hotel where it was dissected for TV purposes and in the process could have been contaminated. Aside from the host, there was the cameraman, lightman and other TV crew who breathed down his plate. By the way, isn’t the SARS-scare back?

After the food had been consumed, who do we see but Paula Peralejo again – this time going over, horrors, the leftover food of this F4 guy. I swear – leftover food!

Had we been reduced to that? Going over the leavings of others? I won’t be surprised if Ms. Peralejo was also made to rummage through the F4 trash bins to sniff the used toilet paper of the F4 guys. Maybe I just didn’t catch that episode.

To this, I say enough already! I don’t mind us Filipino viewers following these Chinese drama serials. And I’d rather have us watch people from our own region than those Latinos from Mexican tele-novelas – never mind if we had a galleon trade with them centuries ago. (But wouldn’t it be nicer if we just watched and patronized our own products?)

But the F4 mania is already too much. And I suggest that we get a hold of ourselves before this Meteor Garden fever transforms us completely into a sick nation.<