When they announced this back in 2021, I was excited to see this because I loved the Korean adaptation The World of the Married and its original Doctor Foster which became really popular all over the world. Its suspenseful and gripping tale makes the viewers thrilled to see more, even if the plot about infidelity and broken family has already been used in a lot of TV series and movies.
I'm glad that they also released this on Viu, so people who are not based in the Philippines can watch it. I live in Hong Kong and I grew up watching Korean and Philippine dramas. And for me up until the late 2010s Philippine dramas weren't evolving too much in terms of plot and film strategies. But still, it's enjoyable to watch somehow. I lost my interest in Philippine dramas when I started college, and I can say The Broken Marriage Vow offers something new but it's definitely nowhere near perfect, or what others say "the best adaptation".
The original Doctor Foster only has a total of 10 episodes while its Korean adaptation has 16, which for me is a perfect episode count for a series. The Broken Marriage Vow is longer, it has I guess more than 50 episodes already which for me is a little too much. It has so many unnecessary scenes, and it begins to get dull as the show progresses to the middle. I stopped watching when I reached episode 56. It started out good.. very similar to the Korean adaptation, but the show became dragging and loses its potential as they tried to stretch out the story adding too many scenes that are not even worthy.
When it comes to cinematography; the camera movements from the first few episodes are very shaky. If they were trying to use the single camera style of filming, shakiness shouldn't be too much because it will make it look like a found footage type. The color grading seems confused. I don't understand why they didn't make it cohesive by having just one color. Though, I like the color grading in the scenes where Doctor Jill is in the supermarket. The background sound and music are too loud, you can also hear background noises in some scenes.
Acting is not a problem. From its main cast to supporting ones, they delivered their characters very well. They are all great. Also, can we appreciate their wardrobe? The costume design is stunning!
All in all, The Broken Marriage Vow is overhyped. It has many flaws, but a game changer to Philippine drama. It's way better than the dramas I used to watch back then. I like how they are starting to adopt western and eastern styles of filmmaking. I understand that this is an adaptation, but I hope they continue to do this even on their local series.
If you're a fan of a series that has fifty to a hundred episodes, I recommend this to you. But if you're the kind of person who has a short attention span and enjoys shorter, straight to the point series then The Broken Marriage Vow is not for you. Just watch the original or Korean adaptation, because you might end up not finishing the entire series.
