Examining the connected life

COMPARED to Black Mirror’s edgy commentaries on the modern world, iwanttfc’s Click, Like, Share feels tame, partly because Filipinos are at the helm of this series. Black Mirror is a stunning show that identifies the terror around us in this modern world—in dating apps and virtual reality, for example—and revealing the horrific conclusions. But that’s not to say that Click, Like, Share is a series not worth your watch because it really is. Especially nowadays when the real world is so scary, who needs more of it?

Season 1 of Click, Like, Share asked viewers to reevaluate their relationship with technology and loved ones as they gained valuable lessons on the harmful effects of excessive use of mobile devices and social media. Season 2, meanwhile, showed the catastrophic consequences of cruel behavior on social media, offering a mature take on how abusing and misusing technology and social media twists one’s self-acceptance, purpose and beliefs. This latest season aims to continue the series’ social media advocacy while examining how technology or social media affects personal relationships and emphasizing the values of forgiveness, paying it forward, sacrifice, and contentment.

Starring Vivoree Esclito, Jane Oineza, Elmo Magalona, JC Alcantara, Shanaia Gomez, and Belle Mariano, Season 3 still follows the same anthology format that features individual stories.

The first episode, titled “Repair”, is a story about healing with JC portraying a young cop, James, who lives with the shame left behind by his late dad, a notorious convicted criminal. When the death anniversary of his father’s victim comes, the issue resurfaces online, and JC finds himself transported back in time to confront his father.

In “QR Code”, Vivoree discovers kindness as a security guard who gets fired from her job for allowing a man without a QR code to enter the building. Fed up with her misfortunes, Ellie (Vivoree) decides to apply for a job overseas, but a series of coincidences complicates her decisions along the way.

In “Unseen,” Jerome (Elmo) and Mariel (Jane) are longtime lovers whose relationship is changed by an accident that leads to her blindness. Driven by guilt, Jerome dedicates his time to looking after Mariel until one day, he suddenly disappears from her life forever.

“Swap” follows the gripping tale of two sisters whose bond is torn apart by jealousy. Jessie [Belle], a deeply insecure “jologs” who envies the life of her famous vlogger sister Jenny [Shanaia], gets her ultimate wish when she wakes up to find out they have switched bodies. What follows is a startling realization that there is more to their lives than meets the eye.

Judging from its first two episodes which are currently streaming, Click, Like, Share balances social media concerns with an obvious affection for the ABS-CBN formula of story-telling. Again, it might not be as bleak as Black Mirror or even Twilight Zone but there’s just enough darkness and dimension. It is equal parts ominous and exciting, mysterious and enlightened.

The third season of Click, Like, Share, produced by ABS-CBN Entertainment and iwanttfc in association with Dreamscape Entertainment and Kreativ Den, also stars Allan Paule, Nikki Valdez, Mark Rivera, and Bernard Palanca. It drops new episodes every Wednesday.

All episodes of Click, Like, Share are also streaming for free in the Philippines on iwanttfc.