TV-GPS - HARMONY, MAINE OR MASSACHUSETTS?

Edited from Wikipedia:
‘Passions’ is an American television soap opera that originally aired from July 5, 1999 to September 7, 2007 to August 7, 2008. Created by screenwriter James E. Reilly and produced by NBC Studios, ‘Passions/ follows the lives, loves and various romantic and paranormal adventures of the residents of Harmony.   

A coastal New England town founded in 1646 with a small population, Harmony features a large fishing industry. The shots of the town shown on screen are filmed in the real town of Camden, Maine.
 
Throughout the show's run, Harmony has only ever been identified as being in New England, which is traditionally made up of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island; and on the Atlantic coast, thus eliminating the land-locked Vermont. Though early episodes implied that Harmony is in Maine, this was never established. Characters also frequently take trips to Boston, which is implied to be a manageable distance away.

In 2002 and 2007, Theresa Crane and Luis Lopez-Fitzgerald, respectively, are sentenced to death by the state; only New Hampshire and Connecticut still allow capital punishment. However, during Luis and Miguel Lopez-Fitzgerald's double trial, the jury foreman declares their case names as The Commonwealth v. Luis Lopez-Fitzgerald and The Commonwealth v. Miguel Lopez-Fitzgerald, and, of the four US states that are also US commonwealths, the only commonwealth in New England is Massachusetts.  

I'm going to chalk this up to a difference between Earth Prime and Earth Prime-Time.  Having the televersion of Maine be a commonwealth instead of a state isn't going to be a Zonk-level discrepancy.  The fact that the United States is chock-full of fictional cities and towns already renders "Telemerica" different from "Murrica". 

Another discrepancy according to Wikipedia, "North 22 and North 137 are highways near Harmony."  

But, also from Wikipedia:
U.S. Route 22 (US 22) is a west–east route and is one of the original United States highways of 1926, running from Cincinnati, Ohio, to Newark, New Jersey.

As for 137, almost all of the states have a 137 and not all of them connect.  Even Hawaii has a Route 137!  Both Maine and Massachusetts, the leading candidates for the location of Harmony in the TV show 'Passions', have their own 137.  But neither one of them have a Route 22.  

But that's even less of a concern for Toobworld.  There have been plenty of geographical changes which differentiate Toobworld from the Real World - from fictional countries and kingdoms, fictional islands, rivers, lakes and even subway systems as seen in the TV series 'Clubhouse'.

I lean toward Maine as the location of 'Passions'. One of the neighboring towns is Castleton and I could see that as being a split or a subsection from Castle Rock.

Just because Boston was mentioned all the time on the show, I don't think it's indicative of Harmony's location.  I think it's just because Boston is the largest nearest American megalopolis.  Bangor wasn't going to cut it.
 
And there's that craggy point on the shoreline seen in the opening credits which seems more like Maine.  And skyline shots of Camden, Maine, stand in for Harmony.

But the main reason I think Harmony is located in Maine is because of all of the supernatural occurrences on the show.  Witches, demons, living dolls, Dr. Bombay even!  And Maine is dripping in the supernatural.

This isn't just due to all of the adaptations of Stephen King's stories on TV.  Tele-Maine had the Spooky long before he came along.

Remember that episode of ‘The Twilight Zone’ called “Night Call”?  An old woman started getting calls from a strange voice asking for her.  It turned out that a phone line had fallen across the grave of her long-dead fiancé which gave his spirit the opportunity to converse with her.  I don’t think it’s a coincidence that it happened in Maine.  I doubt this would ever have happened in Delaware.

And then there are all of those murders concentrated in Cabot Cove, Maine, which I think is just down the coastline from not only Harmony but also Crabapple Cove.  All of that violent death in such a small area must be generating serious hoodoo even after all of these years since we as the Trueniverse audience visited.  (Remember, Life in Toobworld continues even after a show’s cancellation.)

But the biggest reason why I think the supernatural aspect of ‘Passions’ locks that soap opera into the Pine Tree State is another location – the town of Collinsport, home of the Collins Family, including Barnabas… a vampire.

Ghosts, werewolves, more witches, and that incredible premise of “Parallel Time” – I think that dark magic saturates the entire state of Maine and that it couldn’t be contained within Collinsport.  I have a feeling some spell-caster in the distant past may have emigrated from Collinsport to Harmony, from one coastal town to another.  And whoever that might have been, they brought their talents to “infect” some of the residents of the original Harmony settlement.  (But like I said, I think it was already there in the land, affecting the settlers like a poisoned water table.)

In keeping with the mood, I’d like to practice a bit of wish-craft: I wish some TV show would mention Collinsport as a real place.  You know, like a past case for the Winchester Brothers or even in a show more grounded in reality like ‘Criminal Minds’ or the ‘Law & Order’ franchise.

Hey, ‘NCIS’ mentioned some characters as having come from Derry, so it’s pozz’ble, just pozz’ble….!

Until next time.....

O'Bservation: The Collinsport sign is from the Cineverse.