Passion Filled or Passionless?
Passions, is an acquired taste, obviously. Critics either love it to the point of insanity or hate it. If you don't have the sense of humor the show asks of you, then you're lost. Fans tell me all the time; "don't you get it? It's all a joke!" No, I guess I don't, because I don't think every single thing on the show is supposed to be a joke, I don't think the romances are supposed to be laughed at, and I think a lot of the funny stuff is accidental. I think it is a guessing game as to when and where the show is just having fun and when someone wanted the story to have some believability. I also happen to believe that sometimes when they are specifically going for humor, they fall flat on their face.
I said it before in my very first column and I'll say it again now, Passions would be a far better soap if it would be simply an escapist soap and stick to it. Reilly doesn't want to be taken seriously; it is obvious James want to be able to have no boundaries. Passions pokes too much fun at itself, the genre, and life to take the same path. So why not always have tongue firmly implanted in cheek? You can still care about the characters even if you don't pretend they could really live down the block. Every week shouldn't be a spoof of something, but if you want to really keep your audience in stitches, you can find some humor in the absurdities of every day life. There is a difference in being cleverly absurd (Eve's Jerry Springer fantasy) and being absurd to be absurd (Timmy's Wizard of Oz journey).
And despite that, you just don't know what to take seriously and what not to take seriously on this show. If you get emotionally involved with a character, a couple, or a story, it could all get whisked away. For example, Luis and Sheridan were a romance many Passions' fans were behind and then, pow, Sheridan is gone and here is Diana (and a boring Diana at that). This doesn't move any story for Luis nor does it create anything truly interesting for Sheridan. And what about this Diana story is it just me or is only Amelia Marshall working hard? She works hard to gives Liz layers and conflicts even though the story, the dialogue, and Christopher Douglas isn't helping her in the least. Liz would be a wonderful character, on another soap, here; she's just wasted. Since she is the most interesting thing in the story in my mind, that makes the time "Diana" and Brian go on and on about their love and Nick looks menacing and promises to get even, mind numbing.
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