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At dinner last Saturday our friends kept referring to MHL. Yes, the GMA telenovela My Husband’s Lover is now referred to by its acronym, saving speakers two syllables. When there is a lull in the conversation, our friends have taken to singing, “Should we stay or should we raid the fridge for snacks?” or whatever those lyrics, which we can tell you were not written by The Clash. Every time that song is played, does the network have to pay Kuh Ledesma (or the songwriters) royalties? If so, she could buy an island in the Pacific by now, that song is ringing in our ears.

Our sister’s mother-in-law watches the show every night; so do the mothers of all our friends overseas, who find that if they try to skype Mommy while MHL is on, they will be ignored. (So the next time your mom complains that you never call, tell her you were trying to reach her but she was watching Vincent and Eric.) When proper church-going ladies get addicted to a show about the travails of gay lovers (“Disente naman sila” is a typical comment) you know it’s a hit. When your friends discuss fictional characters as if they had just come to dinner, you know it’s huge.

Faithful fans post entire episodes on YouTube; others write English subtitles for the benefit of viewers who don’t speak Tagalog. Foreign audiences have caught on, and American bloggers have noticed that their Pinoy friends keep discussing an Eric and a Vincent they’ve never met. MHL has been trending on Twitter since it began airing, and it merited a rebuke from the Catholic Bishops Conference, bringing it to the attention of a wider public. TomDen/DenTom is probably the number one loveteam in the country at the moment.

We reviewed an episode of MHL early on, but that was before the show had become a certified phenomenon. It’s time to watch MHL again.

Coming up: Our thorough recap/review of the episode above, which was the first to pop up when we googled My Husband’s Lover. Join us in Comments!

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My Husband’s Lover, episode of 12 July 2013

“From the original story by Suzette Doctolero.” We’re always pleased when the writer gets so much prominence. Who else gets that kind of treatment around here besides Carlo J. Caparas? Mars Ravelo. Maybe Jose Rizal.

The relentless music that makes us want to give an award to the inventor of the Mute button.

Recap: Vincent (Tom Rodriguez) visits his lover Eric (Dennis Trillo), Vincent’s wife Lally (Carla Abellana) stalks her husband as her best friend eggs her on. “Kalukadidang”—the word is still in use? A bit dated, no? We much prefer the classics: talipandas, haliparot, hitad, kalaguyo.

Hey, isn’t Carla the daughter of the star of D’Punks? For the record, after our friend Vivien watched the Shake, Rattle and Roll edition from two or three years ago, he predicted that Carla Abellana would become a gay icon. Voila.

Lee has noted that Dennis Trillo’s acting has become more overt, more effeminate. What do you think, and does it work for you?

We conducted a poll at our last dinner: Tom or Dennis? Tom won overwhelmingly, though no one would reject Dennis. Apparently Tom gives great interviews. (Most artista give the impression that you’d be better off interviewing their publicists.) Intelligent, possibly a nerd.

Ooh, they’re planning a weekend holed up in Eric’s flat. Some face-touching, but apparently the leads have never been shown kissing.

And if the recap is too subtle for you, Chanda Romero as Eric’s mom breaks it all down. Very helpful for people who have just started watching the show.

Lally approaches the door of Eric’s. She looks scared. Mystery-thriller music plays as she turns the key in the lock. Someone remarked that it was horror music. More Hitchcock-school thriller, we think, like the man with acrophobia looking down the belfry in the Spanish mission. The door opens: Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! Lally’s handbag falls and its contents scatter in slow motion, like a vase of flowers in an 80s music video by Human League.

Then churchbells ring out. Hey is this really music from Vertigo? No, it’s Lally recalling the birth of her child with Vincent present. She says she almost died but her life did not flash before her eyes. Well it’s flashing now. What is that church chorus in the background? Fortunately for new viewers, the scenes flashing before her eyes constitute a complete recap of the series so far!

All together now: “Siya si Beh?”

We get a shot of Lally’s high heels and Vincent’s oxfords. Ooh what leather is that? They’re very pointy. We have shoes like Vincent’s, but not Lally’s. It’s confirmed: we’re a bakla.

With restraint unprecedented on a telenovela, Lally passes on a “Bakla! Bakla!” harangue and goes straight to unconsciousness. Romantic weekend: spoiled.

Did Vincent just call his wife “Mommy”? We find it a little disturbing when married couples call each other Mommy and Daddy. It’s like they’re never going to have sex again because that would be incest.

Did they have to cover the entire trip to the hospital?

Lally’s shoe falls in the hospital corridor. Eric picks it up. Cinderfella? And the first segment clocks in at 6:45.

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If you watch MHL on TV you can’t miss the MTRCB advisory that appears after every commercial break. Yeah, we got it the first 200 times, but give it to the MTRCB—they behaved fairly and sensibly throughout the “controversy”, pointing out that they found nothing objectionable about the show, and that if other parties were offended they had to cite the specific scenes they found objectionable. Good way to deal with kneejerk reactions. The advisory itself is carefully worded. We’re sure that if the ultra-conservatives had their way, it would read: “Warning! This show can make you gay! Pramis!”

“Are we gay or should we say we’re bi? Walk away or make some poor girl cry?” – Song lyrics rewritten by PinayTG

Lally regains consciousness—apparently her blood pressure had shot off the charts. We approve of the actress playing the doctor. Many actors playing doctors look like they couldn’t get into a medical school parking lot.

Vincent hastens to Lally’s side and she’s all “Get away from me, leave me alone!” Way to show compassion, woman, why don’t you just gift-wrap him and send him back to Eric. Doctor, shoot her full of tranquilizers until she recovers her manners.

Oh great, the song again.

Question of the year from Eric: “Galit ba siya sa akin?” No, she wants you to go shopping with her. On the other hand he seems genuinely concerned about the woman he’s just…what’s the female equivalent for “cuckolded”?

Vincent tells Eric they have to cool it for a bit. Guilt!

And another commercial.

Lally’s sister Evelyn calls, but Lally’s phone is still in her handbag on Eric’s floor. Apparently they were supposed to meet and now she’s broke.

Lally has not calmed down at all; now she wants her bag and cellphone. The moral of the story is, If you intend to pass out, put the strap of your bag around your neck so you don’t drop it. She gets shouty. Told you to shoot her with tranquilizers.

Survey: You are a woman and you discover your husband in a clinch with his gay best friend. What do you do?

Vincent calls his kids to tell them their parents won’t be home that night. Before they became doughnut holes, munchkins were the little people in The Wizard of Oz. Ooh, Dorothy connection.

Kuh Ledesma as Vince’s battle-axe mother demands to know what’s going on and he evades the question. In the past we have used forest-based adjectives to describe Kuh Ledesma’s acting (See our post on Danny Zialcita’s Tinimbang Ang Langit), but we are impressed by her scary mother-in-law.

Eric has still not left. Uh-oh, he’s just realized that Vincent has not come out to his wife. Double-guilt! And the musical repertoire of MHL expands some more, with string music.

And the network makes more money cause here’s another commercial.

That white vest: yes or no? Another scene in which the lovers gaze at each other, but this time it’s not a prelude to a kiss we don’t see. Vincent is outed as having lied to both Eric and Lally! Eric learns he’s been made a fool of, but forgives the liar. Because he’s in luuuv.

We get two full hours of Vincent emoting. Naah, just 30 seconds. Oddly, it is not cringe-making. Hey, this Tom guy is not a bad actor. A nurse interrupts the emoting with a summons from the angry wife.

Then we rejoin another problematic family: Lally’s. Hmm, let’s see…We don’t care. And the showrunners know it too, because we immediately cut to Vincent and Lally.

“You left my stuff in the house of your gay mistress!” Carla does the holding-back-her-rage face quite well. Lally, if you had just paid attention, you would not be in this predicament. All you ladies watching this, remember: Just because you land a rich, handsome, seemingly perfect husband, it does not follow that you will live happily ever after. So don’t get smug.

Lally cannot understand why Vincent would carry on with Eric when he doesn’t need money. Aha! Very astute of the show to tackle a common misconception about gay relationships: that they are undertaken for economic reasons. She adds that she would’ve understood if he’d had an affair with a woman.

Survey: Would you, a woman, prefer that your husband’s lover be male or female?

Three hours of Lally emoting, then Vincent finally says it: “I’m gay.” Lally is so flummoxed her face doesn’t know what to do.

Commercial! Minting money!

Lally tries to convince Vincent that he is not gay. He doesn’t look, sound, or act gay, she argues. Aha again! Delivering the point that there is no specifically gay behavior.

Prayer didn’t “solve” my gayness, Vincent declares. There’s a headline we want to see. And he has learned to love his wife, he adds. Which just makes her feel worse.

Sampal! She wishes she were dead. We wish the musical score would die.

End of episode. Thanks for watching with us, and if you’d like to volunteer to do weekly recaps, let us know.