JasMINE The Series (TV5 – 2014) Episode 1 Recap

I always love a good mystery thriller and I'm hoping Jasmine will turn out to be one; if the next 8 episodes is as good as this first one, then this could very well be TV5’s big break. I appreciate TV5 doing something new with producing weekly shows; I'm not sure but this is the 4^th weekly show they've done after FTLOM, Positive and Obsession and I hope they continue producing more shows with this format.

Episode 1 Recap

Our female lead Jasmine (Jasmine Curtis-Smith) cries inside the car, having just accepted the end of her relationship with an ex-boyfriend. Her manager Steven Yap (Carlo Orosa) comforts her albeit unsympathetically.

They're on the way to the annual Kislap awards where Jasmine is a Best Actress nominee for the indie film ‘Balaraw’. Her PA Carly (Justine Pena) tells her to compose herself and they step out of the car to walk the red carpet. 

A showbiz blogger Wendell Bautista (Alwyn Uytingco) is blocked by a guard from getting inside the hall but a word from Jasmine gets him in, turns out they’re really close friends. Jasmine is interviewed by a reporter with the usual questions; she answers them all except for the last one about her lovelife. Steven answers for her; Jasmine is moving on but she will remain friends with her ex.

She runs into fellow actresses Selina Pascual (Marvelous Aleja), Selina’s best friend Sarah Mae (Nicole Estrada) and their manager Mama Mia (Cai Cortez). They're all in the same network (TV5) and Jasmine and Selina are both nominated for the Best Actress award. It’s apparent that they're not too fond of each other as well as their respective managers.

On to the awards, the presenters (cameos by Mark Gil and Elizabeth Oropesa) announce the Best Actress winner and it is Selina Pascual. She goes to the stage to accept the award. Steven(while texting) tells Jasmine to focus on her career as he gets up and leave.

Jasmine is emotional and teary-eyed as Selina is giving her acceptance speech. Suddenly, the overhead stage lights drop on her head and everyone is shocked.

We cut to the opening credits, as Maskara in a creepy and candle lit-room makes his/her mask out of newspaper clippings(all about Jasmine). The walls of the room are covered with various pictures of Jasmine.

Flashback to 5 days earlier (before the awards night). Carly brings Jasmine another set of bouquet from one of her many admirers. Jasmine is still in post-breakup mode, gobbling up ice cream in her room and looking up her ex’ status updates online.

She goes to meet with Steven to talk about the new script for an indie film she’s really interested in. Steven shoots her down and tells her that she needs to focus on doing mainstream projects more; indie films don’t bring in endorsements that mainstream shows do.

Jasmine wants to be a real actress but Steven is adamant and tells her to audition for the female lead for a new TV5 show cheesily titled ‘URLoved’ which is expected  to be TV5’s next hit show. On top of that, she gets to work with TV5’s primetime prince, Alexis Vergara (Vin Abrenica). Jasmine is still unsure whether she’s ready for a television starring role but Steven is sure that she is.

Later that night, Jasmine posts a photo on Instagram and someone comments under the username maskara011 (who I surmise is Maskara) wishing her good luck for the URLoved audition. She thanks him/her but wonders how Maskara knows about the audition. Maskara just replies that he/she is her biggest fan. They wish each other a good night.

The next day, Jasmine is at a studio practicing for a dance performance, she runs into Selina and Sarah. They’re still nice to each other, but only Jasmine is being sincere. They talk about the URLoved auditions and it turns out Selina is also auditioning for the female lead. Jasmine is having a little trouble with her dance outfit so Selina fixes it for her.

Selina snidely wishes her good luck for her performance, Jasmine seems oblivious to her tone but Carly catches it. Selina and Sarah watches Jasmine’s performance waiting for something to happen and sure enough, her dress falls off. She quickly covers her chest and gets off the stage.

Later, as they’re jogging, Carly tells Jasmine that Selina intentionally did that to her dress to scandalize her. Jasmine doesn’t believe her because no person is that evil (Oh honey!). Steven calls with a bad news; someone already uploaded her dance video on YouTube.

It’s unfortunate that her scandal happened but they could use it as a publicity stunt. Jasmine doesn’t think that way; it’s still embarrassing and she hopes the video could be taken down.

As they continue jogging, a car stops in front of them. The passenger is Miguel Asuncion (Gerard Sison), a wealthy senator’s son and one of Jasmine’s persistent suitors. He gives her a bouquet of flowers and invites them for drinks. They head to a nearby café to talk, Jasmine sweetly rejects Miguel and asks if they could just be friends and he complies but he’s still gonna do anything to win her over.

Two of her fans walk up to them and asks for a picture. Turns out fan#2 follows her on Instagram and Jasmine asks if she knows who maskara011 is but the fan doesn’t know and is just as curious as she is.

Audition day. Jasmine is studying the script while Carly advises her to stay away from Selina, but Jasmine won’t listen. Speaking of the devil, Selina tells Jasmine that she saw the scandal video but Jasmine just laughs it off. Selina notices the glasses Jasmine is holding, she brought it as a prop because the character she’s auditioning for is kinda nerdy.

Selina tells her that the producers are not looking for a stereotypical nerd so she should ditch the glasses, so Jasmine follows her advice. But when she’s not looking, Selina swipes the glasses so she could use them for her own audition, you sly fox!

Only when Selina leaves that they notice that the glasses are gone. They follow Selina and they watch her audition. When Jasmine sees Selina wearing her glasses, she finally believes Carly. Jasmine resents Selina for not only stealing her idea but embarrassing her by sabotaging her dance performance.

At an internet café, the uploader of Jasmine’s scandal video receives a message from an anonymous user, telling him that he should be punished for what he did. The uploader wonders what the message means and suddenly Maskara appears on the uploader’s computer screen.

After Selina’s audition, Jasmine confronts her about the glasses. She breaks them in half, gives it back to her and she even thanks Jasmine, mockingly. Jasmine heads inside for her audition and there she meets Alexis, who is playing the male lead.

Alexis notices Jasmine is distracted so he pulls her aside to give her a pep talk. He even compliments her performance on ‘Balaraw’ which gets her to smile. She says that she’s ready for the audition but it’s clear that she’s not. Alexis advises her that just for this moment, forget her problems as Jasmine and embody her character, Justine, instead.

After the audition, Jasmine calls Steven to tell him that she tanked her audition; she got too distracted by what Selina did. Steven tells her to toughen up; there are worse celebrities than Selina that she still hasn’t met. They talk about Alexis and Steven eggs her to admit that she finds him attractive; she does. He informs her about a scheduled interview tomorrow for Showbiz Police. The bad news; she would be joined by Selina.

The next day, Jasmine and Carly are on their way to the interview but they don’t know where the studio is and they’re already running late. Luckily, they run into Alexis and he takes them to the studio using a shortcut. They reach the studio with enough time to spare, Jasmine thanks Steven and she takes this moment to ask him how he endured being in show business for a long time.

He’s been acting since he was 8 years old and ever since then, he got used to being in the spotlight. He knew early on that acting is what he really wanted to do; and also because of the talent fee. Lol!

Alexis tries to ask her out for coffee later but his nervous hand motions accidentally hits a guy and when Jasmine heads inside the studio, she clumsily trips on her feet because she’s still gazing at him. Aww, these two are adorable together.

At their interview, Jasmine and Selina are acting nice to each other. The rumored rivalry that they supposedly have is not true at all. Yes, they’re not close friends but they care for and respect each other. But, we know otherwise. While the interview is going on, Carly is watching them through a monitor backstage and what she doesn’t know; Maskara is just a few feet behind her.

The interviewer gets personal and asks Jasmine about her suitors, particularly Miguel and whether she’s gonna take him to the Kislap Awards later that night. She says the contrary; Miguel is just a good friend and she’ll be taking her manager as her date.

The interviewer also asks her if she had already moved on from her last relationship and how does she feel that he’s dating an actress from the other network station. Jasmine gets teary-eyed but says she’s fine since the relationship ended a long time ago and she wishes him nothing but happiness.

After the interview, Mama Mia delivers good news for Selina; she got the lead role for URLoved, while this is obviously a bad news for Jasmine. Later that night, Jasmine gets ready for the awards night when she suddenly receives an influx of text all from the same unknown number, the text just reads a threatening ‘Magbabayad silang lahat’ (They’re all gonna pay).

Now, we’re back to the beginning. Selina is delivering her acceptance speech when suddenly the stage lights drop on her head and everyone panics.

We cut to the aftermath of the accident. The inspectors in charge of this case arrives at the scene as Selina is wheeled out, luckily, she’s alive but badly injured. Insp. Emilio Osorio (Jelson Bay) deduces that this is just a mere accident but his partner Insp. Ramon Ramirez (Matt Padilla) thinks otherwise.

Insp. Ramirez instructs everyone to get off the stage so they can set up a perimeter to inspect the crime scene. It’s apparent that he’s the serious and no-nonsense cop unlike his partner Insp. Osorio who took his time taking selfies with celebrities rather than help Ramirez. He argues that this couldn’t have been an accident; the stage lights that fell were new and had no signs of rusting.

Osorio counters that maybe they were just installed wrong. That’s possible but Ramirez picked up a wrench in the crime scene that fits the nuts of the stage lights perfectly meaning someone intentionally removed the nuts while Selina’s onstage; this was a deliberate attempt to harm her.

He is not sure who did it and why; the motive could be because of love, career, or simply because of revenge. But there’s one thing he’s sure of; he’s gonna catch whoever did this.

Meanwhile, Jasmine is at a bar with Steven brooding about her recent misfortunes; would it be best if she goes back home to Australia? He tells her she’s still young and that she would undergo a lot more setbacks. Jasmine goes home still in a sour mood.

She goes online and sees the headlines are all about Selina’s accident. She receives a message from maskara011 asking if she’s hurt along with a link to a website: jasmineallmine.com (an actual website created by the show’s production team).

She clicks the link and is shocked to see that the website is all about her; it even has stolen pictures and videos taken of her. maskara011 sends her another message ‘Lahat ng ito, para sa iyo’ (This is all for you) which creeps her out. At his/her lair, Maskara watches Jasmine’s news interview about Selina’s accident.

Comments

I like how this show is advertised as an interactive series and it is; take for instance the website (jasmineallmine.com) I’ve looked at that website and knowing that if was for a TV show, I still got creeped out. Wendell’s featured showbiz blog is also real (showbizscoopsbywendell.tumblr.com) although it’s not updated daily. I also like the commentary about the show business industry sprinkled throughout the episode. More of those please.

This was an entertaining pilot episode; all the key and supporting characters have been introduced and we have the remaining episodes to figure out which one of them is Maskara. It could very well turn out to be more than one person which you could argue is not possibly the direction the production team is taking but I counter that this is a mystery drama after all, we’re bound for twists and turns for the rest of the series. It’s too early to conclude who Maskara really is, it could be any one; the one who you least suspects or the one who you most suspect.

Screencaps via TV5 Philippines