Just what IS "Passions"? The brain child of former "Days of Our Lives" head writer James E. Reilly, "Passions" follows the lives, loves, and losses of the residents of Harmony. There's the Bennett family, complete with a police chief husband, over-worked amnesiac wife, and sniping teenage daughters. Then there's the Crane family, pretty much despised by most of the town, with the philandering Julian, the depressed Ivy, and the charismatic Ethan, eldest of their four children. Add in Julian's sister Sheridan, off in Paris right now where her lover is actually loving someone else.
Don't mistake "Passions" for another "Days of Our Lives" clone though -- in the four core families, Reilly has already established that he won't fall into the stereotypical soap trap. The average soap tends to be fairly multicultural. If they do have Black or Latino actors/characters, they're often shoved onto the backburner, or exist solely in their own little world. But on "Passions", the Lopez-Fitgeralds and the Russells are front and center players. In fact, it would be safe to say that Theresa Lopez-Fitzgerald is "Passions" diva-in-progress.
In addition to their core families though, "Passions" also has the requisite filler characters. Creepy witch Tabitha Lenox and her "living doll" Timmy who live next door to the Bennetts. Faith Standish, who turns out to be Grace's long-lost twin sister, and her naïve daughter Charity. (I'm assuming there's a Hope in the family somewhere.) Reese Durkee, high-school chum of Miguel, and the show's requisite "budding genius". Hank Bennett, younger brother of Sam, who just can't seem to settle down. Frank Lomax, the Crane's private detective, hired to spy on Julian by his wife. And last, but certainly not least, Gwen Hotchkiss, girlfriend of Ethan Crane, and the one most likely to be set up as the show's reigning vixen.
It's a pity the show is doomed to failure. Although by no fault of it's own, the show has been blamed for the originating network (NBC) cancelling the low-rated 35-year-old soap "Another World". Fans all over North America have been protesting the cancellation, so it came as somewhat of a shock to many to learn that, in it's first week, "Passions" moved right in on the ratings, replacing "Another World"'s spot, even managing to get the rating that most likely would have belonged to the show that week. Despite the effort of hundreds of fans, there has been no move to recreate the show.
