Passions Discussion Group

Topic: Just found out

So former headwriter James E Reilly died three years ago and I just found out? I really keep up obviously. Wow.. Plus no one has posted on this board for like six months. Wasn't he the headwriter for DAYS as well? He was the one who came up with all the strange/supernatural storylines.

Passions had some really great (unique) stuff going on. But I also think the now-deceased head writer, Reilly, needed a strong voice of reason (the exeutive producer or some consultant) to help rein him in, in some areas.

IMO - Three areas where enforced change was necessary were:

1)  Pacing.  There were just way too many drawn out stories with far too many repetitious scenes being written over and over and over.  It got to the point where one need not watch the show every day ...  so repetitious that I often wondered how the actors didn't confuse their lines from one script to the next.

2)  Someone needed to ''Just Say No'' to the intersex, incest stuff with sociopath Vincent/Valerie.  Even with a soap like Passions where parody, satire, fantasy, humor, and wild stuff was thrown in, none of that story was entertaining in any way, shape, or form.   He should have just left it where the blackmailing Vincent was gay and had been able to seduce the bisexual Chad into a downlow relationship and taken it from there.   Sorry, Reilly, but the successive story we got came off like the product of a very sick mind.  Looking back, I now wonder if someone was on meds.   

3) Figure out what you want to do with your one-time, highly-touted supercouple, SHUIS.   Was Sheridan really supposed to be with Antonio all along?   If so, then write something substantial toward that end and make viewers want it too.   Don't leave Sheridan hanging out there or write toward ruining her character while you play the Luis and Fancy stuff. 

IMHO - If those things had been addressed earlier, then the show may have survived a little longer.

Replies: (list all replies)

Right, there was some stuff that was just TOO out of the box. It was like he was playing every possible fantasy that he had in his head and Passions was his outlet. Storylines took way too long to complete. You felt like you were banging your head against a wall sometimes because a character wouldn't find something out for like a year. That was too long. I watch Y&R and it has been my soap since I was very young but sometimes on there they don't leave you in enough suspense. They move onto a new storyline too quickly sometimes. There should be a happy medium between that and what Passions did. They had some talented actors but then they had some really untalented ones too. It made it seem silly and took the focus off the ones that really were great. Linds EOM

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Posted by: Pittman
Date posted: Fri Jun 17 12:21:46 2011
Message:
I posted that he had died.  Passions was his baby.  I watched the last 2 years it was on...faithfully.  I still miss it.

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Ya, I know. It had a certain je ne ce quois about it didn't it. Even thought it was kinda crazy at times it was enjoyable. Not that it exactly started the downfall of soaps but it kinda did for this decade :-( Linds EOm

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