It's a hodge-podge of everything...

The much awaited teleserye starring John Lloyd Cruz and Angel Locsin finally premiered last night to the anticipation of both fans and haters. Imortal had been marketed as a Lobo sequel, but some are skeptic enough if it can surpass its predecessor in terms of quality. What was great about Lobo was that despite being branded as a Forbidden Love/Blood and Chocolate-rip off, it managed to elicit discussions in messageboards regarding the characterization and how the story was progressing. The CGI effects though leave much to be desired.

Imortal's pilot episode provided viewers a background on the centuries-old war between vampires and werewolves. Here we were introduced to Magnus (Jake Roxas), the vampire-sire of Roman (Jomari Yllana). Both men are the polar opposites of each other despite now being the same kind. Magnus is ruthless and relentless in his pursuit of vengeance against the taong-lobos whom he accuses of murdering his family. Roman, on the other hand, is dismissive and repulsed of his newfound ability. Sparing his life had meant immortality and endless years of torture being away from his loved ones.

From the premise alone, looks like John Lloyd's Mateo is poised to be the central character of the series. Angel's Lia was wisely tied up as a love interest by making her a descendant of Lyka, the central character of Lobo. Critics may argue that the plot is a hodge-podge of all vampire fiction we've come to known of late. What else is new, huh? A series always needs some point of familiarity with the audience in order to rake in the ratings.

Just some nitpicks though...

• LOVE 
  
  - Jomari Yllana, FTW! One of the very few people who can pull-off the "Keanu-Reeves-school-of-acting" and still look convincing. I hope his character stays around. I want Roman and Mateo reunited in the end.
  
  - Casting Sheree as the younger version of Vivian Velez' character. They're like two peas in a pod.
  
  - That we were given closure as to what happened to the Ortega/Raymundo family. TPTB did a good job of concealing that c** c*a*h in the previews.
  
  
• HATE 
  
  - That they did not make Lia a twin.:( She's apparently the youngest in a brood of three. It would've been better if she had some long-lost twin out there as the series progressed. Yeah, I'm a sucker for Star Wars-themed storylines.
  
  - They killed Noah and Lyka's twin sons. Will somebody from ABS take notice and craft a teleserye revolving around twins? Fraternal ones, to be more specific. Don't give me the Agua Bendita argument since they were identical twins to begin with.

So yeah, I'm sticking around for a few more episodes just to see if they can sustain the momentum generated by the pilot.