After nine years the daytime drama Passions is coming to a close. As I write this there are two episodes left of this peculiar, supernatural, semi-comic series.
Premiering in 1999 as NBC's newest daytime drama, Passions had things in store for viewers that the average soap didn't have. Legendary actress Juliet Mills starred as Tabitha Lennox, a 300-year-old witch.
Tabitha was merely an eccentric old lady as far as her neighbors in the New England town of Harmony were concerned. Little did they realize that her primary goal in life was to bring evil and destruction to them all.
With Tabitha's antics as the central supernatural theme, the residents of Harmony went about ordinary soap opera business, occasionally encountering unearthly phenomena. It was perhaps because of this that many dismissed the show as silly and not a true soap. And it remained consistently in the lowest rating slot for eight years on NBC. The fans it had, however, were doggedly loyal.
In 2006 NBC announced it would be cancelling the series. But like a presumed dead soap character who turns up alive, Passions suddenly lived again, thanks to satellite provider DirecTV. Passions would switch from NBC to DirecTV's channel 101 in September of 2007. While this gave those few Passions viewers who happened to be DirecTV subscribers reason to celebrate, the majority of Passions fans were outraged that the show would continue without them. DirecTV began an advertising campaign to lure Passions fans to subscribe to their service. The success of this was apparently not what DirecTV had hoped, as late in 2007 Passions was cancelled - again.
This time there would be no rescue. Filming wrapped up in late March of 2008 and the last episode was set to air on August 12th. This was then moved up to August 7th. After that fans can only hope for a miracle, or for the show to be released on DVD from the beginning.
The New England setting and supernatural goings on are obviously reminiscent of the popular 1960s daytime drama Dark Shadows. But unlike the former, Passions' formula involved not ever taking itself too seriously. More than a daytime drama, it was a very intentional comedy. It paid homage to Dark Shadows, Bewitched, Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho, and a host of other classic TV shows and movies. Not to mention modern movies and Broadway musicals. Passions was camp, it was fun, and it has always been my feeling that anyone who dissed it as being "stupid" simply didn't get it.
Not that it wasn't stupid. Even those of us who loved the show frequently complained that the writing was sometimes atrocious. The characters could never seem solve problems that had solutions doing cartwheels in front of them. And it dragged. It frequently took years for secrets to come out, and days for characters to finish a sentence. Then there was the dream sequence fake out - a storyline appears to be resolved, but a few scenes and commercials later it turns out it was just someone's daydream. This is one of the more maddening soap opera tricks played on the audience, and Passions made a sport of it. The show's creator and head writer James E. Reilly was nicknamed JER by online fans, and JERk by those who were especially annoyed.
So why did anyone continue to watch Passions? Because of the humour. The show was simply funny, and as it has started nearing the end in the past few months it's been downright hilarious. Pushing the envelope with themes such as hermaphrodism and incest, the show has simply gone mad. And it's been better than ever before.
I will miss Passions. As exasperating as it was, at times, to watch, it brought a humour and originality that no ordinary soap ever has. I certainly hope it has a future in reruns or on DVD. I know I would watch it all over again.
