I was born in the 70s. I drank Tab, and bought records, and wore frighteningly huge jeans. My family would go to potluck block parties, kids rode their bikes throughout the neighborhood, and we all thought that Jello salad satisfied the “fruit” requirement of a square meal. In that way, I recognize the world in Swingtown, a world that looks just how I remember it. That is, until everyone starts taking off their clothes. I don’t remember that 70s at all (which is probably for the best, considering that I was six when the decade drew to a close). However, after viewing the first episode, it is a world I plan to visit again.
Swingtown is CBS’s entry into the original summer programming schedule. It’s an interesting show, a strange cross between the groovy goodness of Boogie Nights and the emotional brittleness of The Ice Storm — with a liberal helping of Wonder Years nostalgia topping it all off. Perhaps the strangest thing about the show is that it’s on CBS, a network that has no aversion to dismembered body parts (see its CSI catalog), but has remained nearly virginal in regards to sexual matter. Suddenly, it’s airing a primetime show that happily features orgies, partner-swapping and implied teenage sex, in addition to such 70s treats as quaaludes and coke. The Parents Television Council is already in a tizzy, I assure you.
The promise of naked, writhing bodies and the controversy surrounding the show drew a fair number of viewers for last week’s premiere, despite the show receiving only fair to middling reviews — proof that you can never underestimate the prurient interest of the American people. And this is a good thing, because the show is better than the initial reviews would suggest, and it has potential to be a damn good show.
It’s easy enough to comment on the strangely unerotic orgy scene (hey, it’s hard to make muttonchops look sexy in 2008), or the coked-out neighbor, and to think that the show is geared toward the lowest common denominator. However, much like Big Love, it seems to have less interest in exploring the details of this, well, unconventional lifestyle choice and more in using it as a springboard to explore universal human emotions of love, jealousy, longing and, yes, lust.
I may remember the 70s as a time of roller skates and disco, but sociologists tell tales of a darker world, one of people trying to find their way when stuck between the traditional family values of previous decades and the more permissive values that emerged from 60s counterculture. Swingtown takes a fairly literal view of this conflict, plopping traditional families and marriages into the heart of a sex-crazed, anything-goes neighborhood. Here, the fact that it’s on CBS may actually work in its favor. The show cannot hope to titillate through excessive amounts of bare flesh or gratuitous sex scenes. Instead of finding drama in the bedrooms, it mines everyone’s reactions to the sexual liberation, and the fallout that’s sure to ensue.
The show offers strong acting across the board. Jack Davenport and Molly Parker convincingly and subtly portray the complex emotions that would inspire them to open their marriage, a feat more remarkable for the script’s lack of subtlety. Grant Show and Lana Parrilla have a bit less to work with, as the confident pros of partner swapping, but they convincingly swagger around the pilot and are entirely believable in their seduction of the neighborhood noobs. The only weak spot is Mirriam Schor, though that fault may lie less with the actor than the script. Her shrill Puritan is the show’s biggest misstep, as her character’s strident moral judgments only make the sex-and-drugs lifestyle far more appealing. Simplistic characters have no place on a show that seeks to deal with complicated moral issues, and this women is in dire need of some character development.
Currently, Swingtown only has a 13-episode summer run, and if it continues to sit on the fence as to whether it’s a good-time guilty pleasure or a thoughtful exploration of the sexual mores and contradictions of the time, 13 episodes will be plenty. If, however, it manages to pick a side or — better yet — seamlessly blend the two, we may find ourselves wanting to visit Swingtown long after the summer heat has subsided.
If nothing else, at least it will teach a new generation how to do the Hustle. Some things are timeless, after all.
Swingtown airs on CBS, Thursdays at 10:00pm
