YMMV / Ang Probinsyano (2015)

• Adaptation Displacement: The series eventually became far better known than the film duology it was based on.
• Alternative Character Interpretation: Is Cardo a well-meaning folk hero who strives for what is right and sets himself out to protect the weak and marginalised, or is he more of a cold-blooded killer driven more by revenge than by a rational need to serve his constituents? In the former case he could be considered a Well-Intentioned Extremist based on his methods, while in the latter, the deaths of his loved ones gradually eroded his humanity and transformed him into a heartless and brutal murderer especially with the body count, rivalling the likes of Frank Castle, he racked up throughout his exploits both as a police officer and a vigilante.
• Anvilicious: The barangay sideplot is notorious with this. This usually involves a random person committing a minor infraction and being scolded by Flora, the community's leader. In one instance Flora scolded people using dangerous and illegal firecrackers as part of the New Year's celebrations. In the Philippines, firecracker injuries are not unheard of in days leading to New Year's Day, leading to all-out bans on the use of fireworks at least in some jurisdictions no thanks to the fact that hard-headed townsfolk keep on setting off illicit firecrackers and end up maiming if not outright killing themselves despite scores of horrific injuries and house fires being reported every year.
• Archive Panic: Running for 7 years, the show has 9 seasons and 1,696 episodes. Good luck watching through all of that.
• Awesome Music: "Nandiyan Na Si Cardo" (Cardo is Here). The Vendetta theme also qualifies as this.
• Broken Aesop: Whatever moral lesson the show imposed especially in its earlier seasons is now overshadowed by the gruesome torture and death scenes in later seasons. Some have felt that the police procedural themes supposedly presenting the Philippine National Police as model law enforcers in service of the people became non-existent and were replaced by a raw drive for revenge.
• Ending Fatigue: A number of critics and internet users have opined that the show should have concluded already, considering how the series has dragged on for so long. Fortunately, for those who have been burned out by Cardo's adventures, it looked like the series appears to be finally drawing to a close after almost seven years, which came true on August 12, 2022.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Paloma, Cardo's female alter-ego, remains popular to this day in spite of appearing only in a single short arc in the first half of the series.
• Fandom Rivalry: With fans of series sharing the same time slot of Ang Probinsyano airing on GMA 7, ABS-CBN's rival network such as Viktor Magtanggol. When a competing GMA series ends a run, some fans of the ABS-CBN series are quick to point out that their show is still airing.
• Fountain of Memes: Probably one of the biggest factors in the show's longevity. Sure, it's Narm-y as all hell, but in an entertaining way, and a source of endless memes.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • There's clearly room for Emilio Syquia's return much like his previous assumed death (a helicopter he was allegedly on getting shot down), both cases being Never Found the Body. But months later Syquia's actor, legendary actor Eddie Garcia really did die during the production of another show (in a case of Fatal Method Acting, no less). The writers have no choice but to make him Killed Off for Real this time.
  • For a bit of bad timing, President Hidalgo falls into a coma (although it was because of an accidental overdose, not any actual illness) around the same time the Coronavirus Pandemic has started to reach notoriety. And for another case of extremely bad timing, an official rerun of the series, titled Ang Probinsyano: Ang Simula (The Beginning) goes into its first Fugitive Arc, the majority of which is set in Cebu, the Philippines' biggest hotspot of COVID-19 positive cases.
  • There's a reference to movies like Titanic (1997) and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, like both lovers are in a middle in the conflict but are caught in the crossfire/disaster, both are heavily wounded or shivered to death. They tried to reach for their hands and cling on for dear life.
  • The horrific acts the Task Force Agila (or the PNP as a whole during Cabrera's reign) did to their adversaries may remind some of the atrocities and controversies associated with the PNP.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: In 2019, TV show host Vice Ganda challenged Apollo Quiboloy, a controversial pastor charged with sex trafficking, to stop Ang Probinsyano's airing after claiming to have stopped a series of earthquakes. Six months later, ABS-CBN lost their franchise, which many thought would spell doom for the series. However, it managed to continue for another two years.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • Zooming intensifies^ExplanationAng Probinsyano became known for its camera trick of zooming into characters' faces to create tension in an otherwise mundane scene.
  • The "If X was made in the Philippines" parodies.^Explanation Edits made to clips of foreign media to make it seem as though it was produced in the Philippines. Gary Valenciano's rendition of "Wag Ka Nang Umiyak" is cued on the moment something dramatic happens such as a character death or a tear-jerking reveal.
  • When is Ang Probinsyano going to end?^Explanation The series's long run is noted by the detractors, and even some fans themselves. One even guessed that the series will end in 2048 when Cardo is already a old, wrinkly but still active police officer. The answer to the question would turn out to be August 12, 2022.
  • This anime opening, which fortunately isn't yet another Neon Genesis Evangelion intro parody.
  • Kakegurui: Filipino Adaptation^ExplanationNo not a "If a certain series was made in the Philippines" meme. While there is already a Netflix adaptation for the anime series, people are quick to note that there is already a "Filipino adaptation" of the gambling anime. Lily's uncanny resemblance to Yumeko didn't escape the notice of Kakegurui fans.
  • During a period where Cardo has gone missing (kidnapped by Syquia's men, but for a while it was an actual mystery who took him) people are guessing a third protagonist will show up. Fans even used a picture from a commercial for Bear Brand milk where Coco Martin goes Me's a Crowd for the image of triplets. This meme was briefly resurrected when Cardo has a Near-Death Experience at the hands of Bungo.
• Narm:
  • Gary Valenciano's rendition of "Wag Ka Nang Umiyak" (Don't Cry Anymore)^note The original was performed by Sugarfree is viewed by some to be overly melodramatic especially compared to the raw emotion in Sugarfree's original, which led to the above-mentioned meme.
  • While some may cite Susan Roces's portrayal of Flora as a reflection of Filipino values (i.e. pious, God-fearing and optimistic against all odds), others dismiss her as being overly preachy and melodramatic especially whenever she expresses her anxiety over her grandson's safety (or Cardo's atrocities as a vigilante for that matter). Not to mention that it kind of clashes with the gritty and often-times gratuitously violent premise of the series.
  • Gina Magtanggol's madcap misadventures as a crooked barangay official isn't going to win Mitch Valdes any awards either with that hammy acting of hers as a minor antagonist (or more of a nuisance sort of Plucky Comic Relief than an actual threat).
• The Scrappy: Gina Magtanggol, an overblown, overexposed, unfunny minor villain who not only repeatedly escapes karmic retribution for her crimes (most of them are minor, but they just keep piling up), but she keeps coming out on top, all for an overarching Trapped by Mountain Lions plot for Cardo's extended family. While she genuinely doesn’t wish death upon Cardo’s extended family, it comes off as disingenuous at the same time because not only does this side only get brought up when anything serious or tragic happens to them, but she just gets back to harassing them like before once the crisis passes as if nothing happened.
• Too Bleak, Stopped Caring: This is the main problem of being a Long Runner. Both major and minor villains keep getting away with a lot of the crimes they pulled, and the protagonists cannot catch/kill them until the plot required it. The heroes and their supporting cast get put through the wringer numerous times and it will also take a long time before they could come out on top. And the fact that deeply pious characters keep suffering again and again (and again) while Obviously Evil Card Carrying Villains embody Evil Is Petty and keep lording over the misfortunes they cause would probably leave a very misleading message.
• What Do You Mean, It's Not for Kids?: Unsurprisingly given its tone.
  • Sure, there are toys and games made to tie in with the series, but it's baffling to know that a show whose subject matter is more in line with watershed-hour media (drugs, crime, serial killers, sex offenders, political conspiracies and prostitution to name a few) than something more appropriate would be a hit with youngsters.
  • While boys and girls do look up to a hero cop who saves the day and defends the weak and marginalised, some parents may either tell their kids that not everything Cardo does is outright imitable, or take umbrage at the protagonist's Cowboy Cop way of doing things and how it's desensitizing children through glamorizing gratuitous violence; it gets egregious when a TV Patrol report showed that of a young fan who mimicked the Task Force Agila uniform in imitation of the final showdown scenes (and may have possibly seen the more kid-inappropriate gore and decapitation scenes as well).
  • Considering how numerous drug raids in the Philippines turn out to be a bloody mess with the perps "allegedly" fighting back and ending up brutally killed, it's understandable why some don't view Cardo's adventures as the right thing for kids to watch. Said concerns were also expressed in a review for Jack Em Popoy: The Puliscredibles, a similarly-themed film which also co-starred Coco Martin — Francis Joseph Cruz of Rappler stated "If this kind of violence-based entertainment has become so mainstream to the point that it is readily fed to children, then there is a bigger issue here than just the gross lack of creative ambition."
• The Woobie:
  • Cardo endures so much loss in the series, that it would be easier to list who he didn't lose.
  • Oscar Hidalgo. Where to begin? He survives an assassination plot that kills his wife and two of his children, his daughter that survives the initial assassination is killed sometime afterwards, he marries Lily who is only using him for her goals, put into a comatose state by Lily and is one of the two remaining survivors of Task Force Agila. This isn't a complete list of everything Oscar went through but to say he suffered would be a huge understatement.

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