I hardly ever make posts about Filipino primetime soaps, and its mainly because Filipino series last for more than a hundred episodes, and mostly revolve around the same formulaic topics.

Late last year ABS-CBN premiered Dream Dad, a nightly series about Baste (Zanjoe Marudo), the bachelor president of a dairy company, and  Baby (Jana Agoncillo), a cute six year old whom he meets at an orphanage during one of their events. The two immediately hit it off and share a connection until Baste decides that he wants to be Baby’s official daddy.

I should be embarrassed to admit this but I’m so hooked to this drama, so much so that after I’ve watched it in its usual timeslot, I avidly wait for the episode to be uploaded on iwantv so I could watch it again. Not only that, I also check youtube for select clips of the drama’s best moments and it always manages to bring a smile to my face. Liking is too much of an understatement to describe how I feel about this show. I LOVE IT! (Yes, I wrote it in all CAPS, and I used an exclamation point, which I rarely do so you know how serious I am)

Without further ado, I outline why I am obsessed with this show.

Baste and Baby. The show’s main characters President Baste and Baby are an awesome duo. They have great chemistry and their level of comfort translates to the screen. When they share scenes together, Jana obviously enjoys Zanjoe’s company and this lends more credibility to their encounters. When these two do comedy, the timing is perfect but when it comes to drama, the scenes are heartwrenching.

Family. The family values in this series is great. It depicts different family bonds — joy, conflict, and finding family even beyond blood relations. The dialogue and the interactions are spot on. The show is overflowing with love and the characters are so real that its hard not to find something in common with the characters. I love watching Nenita (Gloria Diaz) and Eliseo’s (Ariel Ureta) petty squabbles. Even if they’re old, they’re really cute and so natural – just like a real mom and a real dad. The scenes of Baste and Michael (Ketchup Eusebio), like Baste and Baby are some of my favorites. These two are so funny when they rib at each other. I count Michael (Make) as family because he’s an honorary part of the Javier family.

BASLEX <3. I don’t know but I’ve been shipping Baste and Alex (Beauty Gonzales) since the beginning. Seeing these two together just make me smile and follow the series more. My twitter is filled with #BasLex posts. As a matter of fact, I think that’s all I post about these days. 😀 I also love how Nenita supports her son’s courtship of Alex. Such a stage mom and no subtlety at all.

No villainy, just love. Unlike other soaps where audiences’ blood simply boils at the mere mention of a certain name (I’m looking at you Janine of Two Wives), there are no real villains in Dream Dad. Most of the conflict are not from characters but rather situations and this is a plus on my book.

Overload of cheesiness. In truth, cheesiness in any form of media is a negative thing and honestly, most of the scenes in Dream Dad give me goosebumps — as in I am cringing with embarrassment at the amount of cheesiness on screen and yet, it still works for me and I find myself laughing uncontrollably or hiding under a blanket because I just couldn’t take the sweetness. Hah!

All in all, Dream Dad is a light drama that delivers in spades on the feel good aspect. Its funny, its charming, its cute and its heartwarming. If I had more time to dissect it, I could probably come up with a longer list but for now, I will just content myself with congratulating directors Jeffrey R. Jeturian and Chris Alan Chanliongco, as well as writers Arlene Tamayo, Zoilo Barrel, Julius Villanueva, Cyrus Dan Cañares and June Anthony Amarillio and the entire cast and crew of this series. Just like the term popularized by this program, Magandang Buhay, Dream Dad truly makes life a bit more happier with the good vibes it provides.