...uhm, although not sure which is home now.
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by PAM
Yup, it's been quite confusing lately. We have a second home in a place outside Metro-Manila that is also within "MegaMetro-Manila", and which is close to my workplace 'annex'. So, I have been spending most of my time in the second home. Whenever I need to be in the main workplace, however, I go back to our first home. And when I need to shuttle back-and-forth between the old and new home, when people ask, "are you going home," I would not know exactly how to answer.
So, where is home, really? I guess, this song has the answer...
🎶 "But don't think of me not being around
Just listen for the sweet, sweet sound
of the taxi pulling up the driveway
I'm coming home soon..." 🎶
I guess it's about where your presence is awaited and welcomed... and where you feel awaited and welcomed. Home is where you are surrounded by love - in many forms, through many forms. Sometimes through the presence of family members, sometimes through the bits and pieces that evoke warm memories shared with loved ones, sometimes its the delicious smell of fresh cooking or that smell of cleanliness and freshness that seems to hug you to rejuvenation... many forms, indeed. All lovely, cozy forms.
Therefore, whether I was in our place in Metro-Manila or in Mega-Metro-Manila (or even in Pangasinan where I was born... or in New York where I studied and where I became the person that I am now), I'd be home. And I am glad.
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Oh, and about the song...
I came across the song "Coming Home Soon" (CHS) by Adam Woodall by binge-watching the Hallmark drama series "Chesapeake Shores" (CS) on Netflix while I was convalescing from a bad, bad case of flu, and it's all I can do not to go insane from boredom and frustration. CHS is the theme song of CS.
"Chesapeake Shores" is a Hallmark series that started to air on Hallmark Channel in 2016, and streamed internationally on Netflix. I've heard so much about it then but I just can't be bothered. I was a 'woman on a mission', and paying attention to fiction-on-TV was not my cup of tea that time. Well, unless it was Star Trek... and the likes. Well, of course, knowing what I know now, I should've enjoyed life more then... and didn't give too many pieces of myself... to the carnivorous vultures that pretended to be gentle doves of peace. Now that I can no longer retrieve those little pieces, I had to learn to grow more of myself within to fill out the voids and be stronger than ever. It's not easy but it's only a matter of time now and the 'new version' of myself should be ready to roll.
Now, back to CS. Chesapeake Shores is a 'tree' of stories of the big O'Brien family from a small town in Maryland called, yep, Chesapeake Shores. The story snaked to many branches of mini sub-stories following the lives of the five O'Brien siblings (Abby, Kevin, Bree, Connor and Jess), their parents (Mick and Megan) and their Irish grandmother, Nell O'Brien... with a whole bunch of people, mostly those in relationship with them. I think the general storyline of family, enduring family ties, love, and family love was very good and quite interesting given the widespread erosion of family as the basic building block of society... especially in many parts in the US. It is just a little bit intriguing, too, given how the O'Briens, as a family, seem to embrace tightly their Irish foundation in a place that can be considered hardcore American. It was mostly centered on the love story of the eldest O'Brien sibling, who was a divorcée based in New York City, Abby O'Brien-Winters, and her childhood sweetheart, Trace Riley. A downturn in her high-flying career in New York made Abby decide to return to Chesapeake Shores with her two little daughters at the O'Brien's family home. Just before that, Trace returned from a colorful music career in Nashville. It was a case of love, love lost, love-found-again, and what-now for Abby and Trace. In the background was the O'Briens' broken family history, which inched its way to the surface, trying to mend itself... creating many emotional sub-plots in the process.
And so, the lyrics of CHS fit how, after living a 'life on the road' for so long, Trace finally returns home to Chesapeake Shores to fulfill a dream that was mostly inspired by his love and early relationship with Abby. They broke up when, after High School, Abby moved to New York without saying goodbye. Trace followed his dream to New York but found her involved with someone else - the person she married, and with whom she shared two daughters. He moved to Nashville where he found success. Meanwhile, in New York City, Abby became successful in her career at Wall Street, but got divorced. As she became a single Mom and was forced to resign from her position of power at work, she sought solace with family at home in Chesapeake Shores. She found Trace rebuilding his life, after a tumultuous fast life in Nashville, and retracing the root of his music's inspiration.
Abby and Trace came home to Chesapeake Shores... and, as fate would have it, they came home to each other. It was sweet... beautiful and touching. Until the story went this way and that... and beautiful it no longer was. The theme song remained beautiful though... a good reason to keep binge-watching.
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Alright, so... Chesapeake Shores
I liked Season 1. Seasons 2 was a decent follow-up for Season 1's success. However, into Seasons 3 and 4... it started to feel drab... and exhausting as binge-watching goes, especially that storyline on Abby and Trace... and Jesse Metcalfe's one-dimensional portrayal of Trace's character. It became agonizingly boring towards Season 4, and it almost brought the whole series down the drain. Well, for me. Add to that Emilie Ullerup's overacting portrayal of the queen of overthinking, Bree O'Brien - too annoying. Everytime she was on screen, I felt that my energy gets zapped by all the facial expression and tone somersaults, argh. Also, the back-and-forth emotional turmoil of Jess O'Brien (Laci J. Mailey) was quite unbearable... it was almost painful to watch David Peck (played by Carlo Marks) fall for her and put up with all that waste of emotional energy... he deserved better. But, my goodness, Jess was so ethereally lovely though! She had the most exquisite pair of eyes. So, it's almost easy to forgive the mushy character. Not that Ullerup was not beautiful because she was... just overacting, that's all. Still, by Season 3, I almost gave up on the entire Series! Thank goodness for Abby and Mick O'Brien, portrayed very well by Meghan Ory and Treat Williams, respectively, there was some respite from all the poorly acted melodrama. By Season 4 and into Season 5, aside from Ory and Williams, I believe it was Andrew Francis (Connor O'Brien) that did most of the heavy weight lifting in the acting division. Francis' Connor just shown through and just made his way to the surface of strength of character - very good character development and acting there. The sweet and low key story subplot about Kevin, and Sarah, who became his wife, was also kind of easy to watch. Brendan Penny is such a reliable actor. He did a very good job, and he managed to make his character interesting without awkwardly 'stealing' the limelight like... yeah, Bree O'Brien.
By Season 5, Hallmark saw the light, and eliminated the character of Trace Riley. Hurrah! Trace was becoming Abby's biggest 'child' that, by the end of Season 4, both Abby's daughter, Carrie and Caitlyn, have outgrown him. Yep, that storyline was all that drab. But the show runners introduced another big mistake though, Jay Ross (Greyston Holt) as a romantic character opposite Abby - man, not again! And then, on Episode 3, Evan Kincaid (Robert Buckley), like a (weird) knight in a shining armor (well, more like Under Armour, actually) came on board to save the entire Series, making Jay Ross fade to oblivion! Buckley's Evan - an eccentric self-made billionaire was a breath of fresh air. His strong and commanding presence, and pushy-without-sounding-like-it-because-he-is-humurous-and-charming ways made Abby bristle, bringing up the very best of Meghan Ory in the acting division. They had a very, very good chemistry - it didn't feel forced. Their banters were so funny with Buckley's well-timed punchlines, and Ory's spirited returns. I felt like I was in the same room, participating in the conversation. I found myself laughing out loud whenever they are on screen together and bantering in high spirits, and especially when Mandrake (Wesley Salter), Evan's enigma of a chauffeur, was also involved. It was beautiful! Mick and Evan had a very good chemistry, too. Their scenes together were easy, brilliant and, at times, surprisingly touching.
See, it worked! Season 5 was like the renaissance of CS. Everybody seemed to be at his/her best in Season 5. Bree was not as annoyingly overacting as she was in the first four Seasons. There were moments when she was actually funny, relatable... and, yeah, loveable. Surely, Luke Tatum (Stephen Huszar) had a lot to do with it. Luke did a very good job taming the wildly emotion-somersaulting queen of overthinking. And if Bree can have that reinvented version of herself, imagine all the rest of the characters! Perhaps, Ullerup went on an acting workshop, huh? Good for her! But I gotta say, Ory was at her best - in acting and in looks - just gorgeous! I can say the same for Connor. In fact, S5E3 was my favorite, not just because Evan was introduced in that episode but because Connor, the awesome lawyer that he became, was unveiled in that episode, too. See? All Hallmark had to do was get rid of Trace. Too harsh? Uhm, okay, sorry!
I will certainly post more about Chesapeake Shores... although the final Season, Season 6, aired from August to October 2022, I am kind of wishing that Hallmark gives us another Season... or better yet, a spin-off. C'mon, Hallmark, we want us more Evan Kincaid here! And we want to see how little Mickey turned out. Let's go, Hallmark!
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Video credit: The owner is indicated in the video itself. Thanks, YouTube, for the link.
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