CBS’s earnest, serious, new drama, “Swing town,” about wife swapping in the 1970s is like watching that great old classic “Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice” – but without the laughs.
Making a show about suburbanites who swap recipes by day and spouses by night without making it out-loud funny is a feat in itself.
VIDEO: Watch the trailer for ‘Swingtown’
Just the clothes the characters drop on the floor on the way to the swap meets should keep you in stitches. But, no.
The story centers on Susan and Bruce Miller (Molly Parker of “Deadwood” and Jack Davenport of “Coupling“), who move to a giant house in a well-to-do neighborhood north of Chicago.
Right off, we see that small is good and big is bad.
The old neighbors are decent, church-going, apple pie-baking types who wear plaid. The new neighbors (a pilot and a stewardess no less!) are sleazy, well-to-do wife-swappers who swing and schtup and wear Qiana.
The show opens on moving day – July 4, 1976 – when Susan and Bruce take time to attend a block party with their old neighbors before moving a few blocks away to Sodom and Gomorrah.
They leave, and seemingly without any effort, move into their new house where not one packing box is evident. The beds are made and the curtains hung. (How they also managed to move on the Bicentennial, a giant federal holiday, I don’t know.)
Anyway, this freedom from unpacking allows them time to go to the new neighbors’ bash where everyone is snorting coke and smoking pot. Formerly-uptight Susan takes a Qualude proffered by new neighbor Trina (Lana Parrilla), who then explains the wonders of wife-swapping.
She and Bruce inexplicably and immediately start to swing with Mrs. Sleazy and her husband.
The redeeming and best part of the show are the various tween-age kids who are stuck with these unlikeable parents. They are the real heart and whatever there is of a soul of “Swingtown.” These briefly-met characters should be developed into a much larger part of the whole.
In the hands of AMC, which recreated the 1960s with a perfectly subtle brilliance in “Mad Men,” “Swingtown” could have been great.
Instead, it’s a hit-you-over-the-head production – with product placement and wardrobe so obvious it begs us to scream, “That’s so authentic!” – best forgotten.
As one swinger said to the other swinger, “Next!”
“Swingtown”