"Passions": You have probably seen this soap mentioned on Buffy, but what is it? What makes it so special? Well, it is a daytime drama on NBC that has completely captured the interest of people that aren't into the typical soap opera and a handful that are. It has interesting characters (a with and her talking doll form many of the misdeeds), weird plots and an over all kooky feel.

Passions takes place in the harbor community of Harmony, which, beneath it's charming, small-town facade hides many secrets. It explores the trials and tribulations of four main families and the satellite people that go with them.

The four families:

The first family is the Bennets, which include father Sam, mom Grace, kids Kay and Jessica. Then there is their niece Charity and Sam's brother Hank Charity is psychic and Kay and Charity are in love with the same guy: Miguel Lopez-Fitzgerald. Grace and Sam keep having marital problems because of respective pasts.

The second family is the Lopez-Fitzgeralds. This includes mom Pilar and children Luis, Theresa and Miguel. Pilar's husband disappeared a long time ago and left Pilar to raise her children. Luis blames another family, the Cranes, and has tried to investigate them for years. But this has become difficult since Luis is in love with a Crane, Sheridan and Theresa fell in love with Ethan (although he is technically not a Crane). Oh yeah, and Pilar works as their housekeeper as well.

The third family is the Cranes which involve father Alistair, and offspring Julian (with his wife Ivy) and Sheridan. Julian and Ivy had a son, Ethan Crane, but Ethan turned out to be illegitamite, so he now goes by the name of Winthrop. Ivy is in love with Sam Bennett, and Ethan is the love child of that union. But now Sam wants nothing to do with her. Sheridan keeps falling the victim of machinations of her father and brother who alternately want to kill her or break up her relationship with Luis. Alastair is the keeper of the family fortune, and is kinda like Mr. Claw on Inspector Gadget, while Julian bumbles around and consumes more alcohol in one day than I can drink in a month.

The last family is the Russels, who include mom Eve, father TC and children Whitney and Simone.Before Eve met TC, she had an affair with Julian Crane, and gave birth to his illegitamate son, who died in delivery. No one knows this because if her husband found out, he'd kill Julian, since all he needs is an excuse anyway. But niether Whitney nor Simone know this, which is important since they are in love with the same man, Chad Harris, who is an orphan and trying to find his real parents. The writers keep trying to make us think that Chad is that son, but who knows?

If you would like to know more about this soap, see what the characters look like, or catch up on what you missed, the site to go to is:
http://www.nbc.com/passions/