HIT Passions Is For The Birds
Soap Opera Weekly
January 30, 2001

Passions outdid itself with its recent homage to Alfred Hitchcock's 1963 The Birds. When mischievous Hecuba unleashed a feathered fury that turned the Bennett household into an aviary, the show really took flight.

The sequence worked on several levels. The incredible special effects used to create the birds gave the sequence wings. The slick production values allowed us to suspend our disbelief and enjoy the moment, instead of being distracted by the cheesiness of second-rate special effects.

As usual, the Passions cast handily deadpanned throughout the farcical material. Bruce Michael Hall was hilarious as a battered Reese ran a fowl of the birds and stormed into the Bennett house.

The irony of the birds attacking the Bennett house was the highlight, since Grace is the consummate nest-builder to a ridiculous extreme.

There were only two things missing from this sequence: a cameo by Tippi Hendren (ex-Helen McClain, The Bold and The Beautiful), and the reappearance of Orville's bird statue.

By: Robert Schork