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| Ivan Shaw plays the father Marco de la Rosa in the TV series "The Cleaning Lady." |
OPINION
There are three Filipino American families depicted on US television and they all have one thing in common. There's no Filipino father!
Usually, having Filipino characters, lead a television show would be a cause for celebration for an audience starving for representation. This season, there are three Filipino American families. Hooray! Even though that's not a whole lot, but it is better than zero, which was the case five years ago.
The shows where a FilAm family is a recurring part -- in varying degrees -- of the storyline are The Cleaning Lady, NCIS Hawaii and True Lies. Usually, we would be giddy with such an excess of representation (said with a hint of sarcasm).
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The three fictional action-oriented shows share one missing element and that's what this rant is about: there is no Filipino father figure.
OK, True Lies, which stars Ginger Gonzaga as the Filipino American mother, Helen Tasker, is married to a white guy, Harry Tasker, played by Steve Howey, so essentially, the Filipino-father factor has never an issue because the character was never included in the script. (Nevertheless, I support the writers' strike.)
The Tasker's racially mixed marriage, is not uncommon for Filipino Americans. Along with Japanese Americans, Filipinos are the most likely AANHPI group to marry someone not of their race.
Besides an occasional mention of Lolo and Lola, Gonzaga's Filipino heritage has not been a part of the storyline, at least, thus far and I'm more than half-way into the season.
In NCIS Hawaii, Vanessa Lachey plays Filipino American divorcee Jane Tennant, who is also head of Hawaii's NCIS unit. The separated father, Daniel Tennant, is played by Anthony Ruvivar, who in real life is a Filipino American. Although he plays a recurring role in which he shows concern for his kids, he is not part of the day-to-day life of the family.
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| NCIS: Hawaii's Anthony Ruvivar, right, with his TV son played by Filipino American Kian Talan. |
The Filipino family in The Cleaning Lady is a complex unit. The lead character is Thony de la Rosa, a Cambodian doctor played by Elodie Yung. Thony's Filipino husband, Marco de la Rosa, is played by Ivan Shaw, a Taiwanese American actor. (Apparently, The Cleaning Lady casting director couldn't find actors of Filipino descent to play these characters, but, I digress.)
The de la Rosas have a Filipino Cambodian son, who suffers from an autoimmune illness, the driving motivation for Thony to do whatever it takes (legal and illegal) to obtain his medication.
Unfortunately, for Marco, who was introduced and killed off in the second season. In his short-lived existence in the acclaimed series was a gambler and a bully. He was not a likeable man who probably deserved his fate.
The other family in the same series is that of Marcos' sister, Fiona played by Filipino Australian Martha Millan. The father of her two children is K.C. Collins, a non-Asian.
The two women, Fiona and Thony, plus their children form a complicated, mixed-race family, but, unfortunately, not a Filipino father among them. Maybe with a strong father-figure, they might not be the predicament they find themselves in week after week.
I realize that a Filipino American father without drama probably wouldn't make for an interesting enough character to sustain a television series. But, in the totality of American television, I long for some balance.
Oh, how I wish there was a Filipino American Everybody Loves Raymond-type character; an ordinary, Filipino American father on TV; someone who watches Sunday afternoon football, cheers for the Golden State Warriors, likes to cook adobo or sinigang, complains about not getting appreciated at his job, and shows up for his kids' soccer games and occasionally gives fatherly advice. You know, some guy I could be buds with.
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