Passions’ Julian is sleeping with the fishes and, once again, writer/creator James E. Reilly’s gift for camp leaves our mouths agape.

It was funny enough when Julian burst out of the Crane garage, his car blaring Diana Ross’ I’m Coming Out, but things really took off when Julian took off on foot. Reilly outdid himself with the campy double and triple split-screen shots of Julian’s fearful flight and Harmony’s Deadly 10 (Rebecca, Ivy, Ethan, Theresa, Pilar, Luis, Sheridan, Antonio, Eve and TC) in simultaneous flight across the screen, guns poised.

While Fox’s ultra-modern 24 uses split screens, Passions’ kitschy background music was reminiscent of 1960s/’70s action television, calling to mind old faves like Mission: Impossible and Charlie’s Angels. It kept the audience laughing while building tension and turning Julian’s pending murder into a proper whodunit.

And then there’s Julian, wounded by an onscreen shooter, hanging precariously over a boiling cauldron of fish. Ben Masters hammed up Julian’s final moments wonderfully as his life – well, at least the threats made against it this year – flashed before his eyes in a nightmarishly choppy vision. One almost felt sorry for the poor scoundrel as Julian’s hand finally slipped…

When Reilly brought the Deadly 10 back together, there was clearly something fishy going on. Not only did they all want to kill Julian, but they were all acting (and smelling) as if they had - Deanna Barnert