NBC's Passions: What a Strange Soap

This soap opera has just about every off the wall storyline you could think of , and some you couldn't imagine.
They have a 300 year old witch Tabitha, with little "witchling" baby, a house that was "sucked into hell" , a living doll,a mermaid, people wearing realistic looking masks to pretend to be other people, and a girl using another girls "essence" to get a guy to sleep with her. One of craziest characters was an Orangutan nurse named Precious. Yes you heard right, a nurse that was not human.

The problem with passions is that the draw the storylines out much too long. To the point were the viewers no longer care what happens. They had a storyline were TC Russell would never let anyone go in his shed. Viewers wasted about five years guessing what could be in there. Some thought he was hiding a body in there. Viewers felt punked when they found out that the only thing in there was a out rundown, rotten car.

Passions also keeps couples together too long. When then do that viewers have a problem picturing the characters with anyone else. Once they do switch up the couples people hate it. Or they have characters that come to Harmony already coupled up.

With a show being called Passions you would guess that there are always passionate scenes, that is not the case at all. The passion is few and far between, and least that's the way it was the first five years.

The best thing about the show in beginning was the friendships, Grace and Eve, TC and Sam and Whitney and Theresa. The romantic relationships on the other hand were mostly boring. Everyone was so lovesick, and you didn't understand why. Soap opera writers need to write a story so that the viewers feel something other than just indifference. The Viewer has to feel the love or hate, or they won't care or root for the characters.

You get the impression when you watch this soap opera that the writers think the viewers have amnesia.They Change the stories midstream. Martin and Katherine were away from their families for over twenty years. Yet Martin's daughter with Pillar was a teenager.

Whitney dumping Chad when she found out he was married before and not telling her. But then she found out he was her brother she claimed she couldn't stay away from him, and she went back to sleeping with him. Another example is Theresa drugging Ethan. Ethan constantly said he didn't know that she wasn't he wife Gwen, then all us the sudden he did know that is was Theresa he was sleeping with.

A lot of the stories don't make sense. Fox who came to the show being a "player" fell in love with with several women in the course of two years. The show never showed him being a player they just said he was. Instead of being a player his is the one getting played, since the women he falls for ends up in love with someone else.
How about Simone hating her sister for stealing a boyfriend she never had. Or Eve's sister Liz hating her for not protecting her from abuse that she didn't know occurred

When Passion start about eight years ago it seemed to have promise. There were four main families. The Cranes, The Russell's, The Bennett's And the Lopez-Fitzgerald's. The Cranes are a wealthy family in Harmony . They own Crane industries and pretty much everything else is town.The Evil Alister Crane spied on the the whole town with hidden camera. Ivy Winthrop and Julian Crane, Alister's son were forced to marry each other by their parents for business reasons. They had five children to together , three daughters and two sons. Ethan, Fox , Fancy and two other daughters that have never been seen.

Ethan is later found out to be the son of Sam Bennett who was Ivy's first love. Sam Bennett was married to Grace and they have three kids Noah , Kay , and Jessica. Grace ran a Bed and Breakfast and Sam is the chief of Police. There marriage fell apart when Ivy hired a man named David to claim to be Grace's long lost husband. Since Grace had amnesia before she married Sam she fell for the lie. Her best friend Dr. Eve Russell did a DNA to prove that David's Son John was in fact Grace's son. The tests were fake because Ivy was blackmailing Eve. Ivy knew that Eve and Julian had an affair before Eve and her husband TC Russell were married. TC hates Julian and all the Cranes , so Eve could never tell him that she not only slept with Julian buy also had his son.

TC Russell is high school Athletic coach who thought he had the perfect wife and kids. He tells everyone that his wife is perfect. TC had no idea that his wife was a drug addict and alcoholic before they married. His perfect daughter Whitney who was a up an coming tennis pro, when decided to leave that all behind. She wanted to have a boyfriend and become singer. He boyfriend Chad was a music producer. He thought he could produce a great album with Whitney. Whitney's younger sister had a crush on Chad, and mistakingly thought Chad loved her. He was medicated and though that she was Whitney. Simone hated Whitney because of Chad. Simone later dated John, Grace supposed son. Simone has since come out to her family and friend and is a lesbian dating a woman named Rae.

Eve's sister Liz came to Harmony and wanted to get back at her for the pain she felt Eve caused her. When they were younger Eve left home leaving Liz alone with their abusive father. Liz was raped by her father and thought that if Eve had stayed home she could have helped her.

After Whitney finds out she is pregnant she learns her boyfriend Chad is her brother.He is Julian Crane and Eve Russell's son. Since she doesn't want anyone to know she is pregnant with her brother's baby she decided to date Fox. Fox Crane has been in love with Whitney since he first heard her sing. Fox and Whitney dated until she gave birth and put the baby up for adoption. Whitney used Fox's power of attorney while he was out of town. Fox want the baby, and tried get him back. Chad ended up adopting the baby and later finding out he was the father. Fox moved on to Kay Bennett, and Whitney and Chad turn out not to be siblings and both couples married. Chad's parents turned out to be Alister and Liz . Which would have made Chad and Whitney cousins, except it turned out Liz was adopted.

Kay Bennett was in love with Miguel Lopez-Fitzgerald since they were kids. Miguel was in love with Kay's psychic cousin Charity. Charity was Grace's twin sister's daughter, she came to live with the Bennett's when her mother died in a fire. Charity was sweet and innocent and everyone is town loved her except her cousin Kay and Tabitha. Kay befriended her next door neighbor Tabitha who wanted to get rid Charity . Charity had the power of good that would ruin Tabitha powers of evil. Kay got Tabitha to give her Charity's essence, something that would make her look like Charity. Kay used the essence to get Miguel to sleep with her and she became pregnant. Once Charity left town Miguel ran after her. Kay finally moved on with Fox, and now Miguel back in town trying to win her over.

Jessica Bennett's life changed for the worst once her mother left the country with David and John. She started out as a good girl, who never did anything wrong. Jessica became a prostitute,a drug addict and started cutting herself. She later married her abusive pimp named Spike.Spike led Jessica to believe that she had killed several of her Johns when she was high on drugs. He used that lie to blackmail her into staying with him. Passions could have made the cutting issue into a great storyline but they just dropped it all the sudden. One day you saw she cutting herself with a razor and then suddenly you didn't anymore. Jessica also was drugged and raped by a john, because of the poorly written storyline is wasn't effective enough to make the viewers care about it.

Whitney's best friend Theresa Lopez-Fitzgerald has been in love with Ethan Winthrop since her was a teenager. But she has trouble getting to meet him at first because he was rich and she was the maid's daughter. They ended up dating and falling in love. Right before they were married an article in a tabloid magazine leaks that Ethan wasn't a Crane. Ethan mistakenly thought Theresa did it and they broke up. Ethan's ex girlfriend Gwen and her mother were behind it. Gwen and Ethan later marry , but Ethan and Theresa continue to have feeling for each other.

Theresa dated Ethan's brother Fox to make him jealous and it works, but he still stays with his wife. Ethan and Gwen were going have a baby , but Gwen has a miscarriage after having a fight with Theresa. Theresa later sleeps with Ethan after drugging him and wearing a wig to make herself look like Gwen. Theresa gets pregnant for the second time. The first was from a drunken "marriage" years ago with Julian Crane. The marriage turned out not to be real. After giving birth to Jane, Gwen and Ethan get custody of the baby. Theresa marries Alister Crane so that she can get her baby back. Alister end up raping Theresa like he did with is Ex- wife Katherine,who everyone thought died twenty-something years ago.

Katherine was alive and well living in Puerto Rico with Martin Lopez-Fitzgerald. Martin's wife Pilar and Kids Luis, Theresa, Miguel, and Antonio thought he died all those years ago. Martin and Katherine were raising Martin and Pilar's other daughter Paloma . Paloma had no idea Martin was her father.

Sheridan Crane, Julian's Sister thought she had killed her mother when she was a child because of a nightmare she has had all these years. Sheridan fell in love with Luis and then with his brother Antonio. Antonio later died , Sheridan and Luis reunited only to be torn apart again . Luis and Sheridan have a son Marty that was a kidnapped by Luis's ex girlfriend.

Beth was Luis's ex-girlfriend, and she had been in love with him for years. They dated for a while but it didn't last. Beth made Luis think she was pregnant by wearing a pregnancy pillow. Sheridan and her best friend Gwen had trouble believing Beth was really pregnant, but they could never prove it. Sheridan was pregnant and Beth kidnapped her. She held her hostage in a pit that the dug in her basement. She wanted to keep her there until Sheridan gave birth, and then she could pass the baby off as her own.

Beth dressed up as a clown and distorted her voice so Sheridan wouldn't know who she was. Beth ended up getting Sheridan's baby and making her think the that baby died. Whenever Sheridan was around Beth's "baby" she felt a connection. After several months she convinced some people that the baby was hers. Beth was made to get a DNA, and everyone was shocked that the baby was proved to be Beth's. No one was more surprised than Beth.

As it turned out Beth and Sheridan were half sisters, Alister was their father. The doctor that did the test didn't look at the results close enough to notice that. Beth later left the country with Marty,and was followed by Luis. Luis found Beth but she ended up getting away.

Beth's mother Edna was being cared for by her Orangutan nurse named Precious. Precious did everything from cleaning up , changing diapers, cooking to making drinks. Precious was in love with Luis. The show had numerous fantasy scenes that Precious had about her and Luis being a couple. Even a fantasy where Luis and Precious had a baby together. The baby look just like Precious, a little monkey. Precious eventually left town to take care of her sick aunt, I believe.

Sheridan has moved on to and married a man named Chris , and they are raising his son. Luis and Sheridan's niece Fancy are in love. Fancy came to town as a spoiled rotten rich socialite, and later fell in love with Noah Bennett. Noah and Luis's youngest sister are beginning to like each other.

Word has come out that Passion is canceled by NBC after eight years on the air. The last Episodes will air in August 2007.