Got to get down to Swingtown

As a child of the 70's (the decade which contained my high school and college years), I was interested in seeing Swingtown, the CBS summer series advertised as being about "swinging" (i.e. mate-swapping) couples at the peak of the sexual revolution before AIDS and other STDs brought it all to a crashing halt--as least according to our mass media. My parents were not swingers, and I've only known one couple who went to Plato's Retreat, the notorious NYC sex club, and I suspect they did more watching than swinging. At any rate, though I am a mongomist in practice, I always approved of the ethos of open relationships for others, but it's been difficult in the past 20 years or so to find any positive portrayal of such behavior in mainstream media, with the downer messages of movies like The Ice Storm the norm.


I was pleasantly surprised to find that, at least based on the first two episodes of this show, the message here may not be as bleak as one might expect from network television; it's being directed by Six Feet Under's Alan Poul, and Jericho's Mike Kelley created and is co-writing the show. The set-up: in suburban Chicago during the summer of 1976, the upwardly-mobile Bruce and Susan (on the left in the above picture) have moved into a new neighborhood and been befriended by airline pilot Tom and his wife Trina (on the right above), who have an open marriage. At a Bicentennial party, we see folks smoking dope, taking Quaaludes, and engaging in group sex in the basement "playroom." (Yes, this is on CBS!) Tom and Trina convince Bruce and Susan to "swing" that night, and surprisingly, the next morning, there are no regrets. (Yes, this is on CBS!) The new couple decide once was probably enough, but temptations will continue popping up, as in the second episode when they have a few drinks at the Playboy club and Sylvia, a former Bunny turned lawyer, begins flirting with Bruce.

Providing some "moral balance" are Bruce and Susan's former neighbors, Janet and Roger. Janet sternly disapproves of the swingers, and though she is the butt of several of the show's jokes, she also seems to be developing into a three-dimensional character. I find the teenager subplots of most TV shows uninteresting and so far these are no different, though there was a fun scene of a feminist production of Waiting for Godot that Bruce and Susan's high school daughter attends. She has the hots for her summer school English teacher, and her brother is getting interested in the emotionally damaged neighbor girl, whose slutty mom does coke and puts aluminum foil up on her windows.

The acting is solid all around, but especially good is Lana Parrilla as Trina, the swinging wife, who is so far the most interesting character. The music is solid period stuff including "Spirit in the Sky," "Golden Years," and "Dream Weaver," which was particularly well used in the pilot episode. We've also heard Fleetwood Mac's "Go Your Own Way," which didn't come out until '77 (did the producers really think we baby boomers wouldn't check up on this stuff?), and where the hell is "Afternoon Delight"? As long as the teen stories remain secondary, I'll stick with this for the summer, though I can't believe it will last any longer, both due to network behavior and the seemingly built-in limitations of the show--for how many seasons can Bruce and Susan remain on the fence about swinging?