Where did "Swingtown" go wrong? - [ TV t a t t l e . c o m ]
"After four weeks it has become, almost irrevocably, a bad TV show," says Peter Ames Carlin. "Swingtown's" badness, he says, "indicates that it probably used to be a lot better. That maybe its creators came to the table with a story whose characters did embody the larger issues (cultural upheaval, social change, personal malaise, etc.) that the extant show flails at so incompetently. But -- here's my educated guess -- somewhere along the line the TV process gutted that show. The characters became caricatures. The thorny sexual/spiritual questions got smoothed down, simplified, played for laughs and titillation." **
Still hooked on "Swingtown": It's "almost really good" after 4 weeks ...The drama is almost really good, or, said differently, good enough to reveal how really good it could be. I've written on how the show, which is about the fallout of the 1960s sexual revolution, truly belongs on a cable channel, where it wouldn't have to be so coy about sexuality. But I have to add, four episodes in, that the writers have admirably avoided knee-jerk network moralizing. They have consistently resisted turning a show about love and marriage into a narrow cautionary tale about adultery. The heart of "Swingtown" is Susan, played with such sweet openness by Molly Parker, who was so memorable as Alma on "Deadwood."
Susan is at her most graceful dealing with the triangular tensions between her, her old friend Janet, and her new friend Trina. Alas, Susan is less savvy when it comes to Roger, Janet's husband, who seems to be developing a crush on her.
The subplots involving the children aren't very engaging, and some of the characters are as flat as the rampant 1970s kitsch. I've read elsewhere this disinterest in the children's plotlines, or at lst that they are not integrated and so feel like interruption. but compare below, PAC & cmmtr there re children as best part of the show.
"Swingtown" producer: CBS paid $10,000 to digitally amputate a woman's leg ...The threat of FCC fines makes the network extra vigilant in order to prevent crossing those ill-defined lines into indecency. "They're spending more than the fine would ever be to fight it in court. It's a point of honour," Poul explained, decrying the hypocrisy of a system that seems unconcerned with brutal violence but that keeps close watch on indecency like "the sound of a zipper opening" or "how long a character's head dips out of the frame." Two weeks before the Swingtown pilot aired, the network suddenly got cold feet over a scene where Grant Show's character was having sex with a flight attendant in the background while his wife walked out of the room to get a Tab. "I guess they were distracted by the Tab or something," is Poul's explanation for why the network hadn't previously objected to the fact that the stewardess's legs were wrapped around his body. It was too late in the process to cut the scene, so they performed a digital amputation of the woman's right leg. It cost the network $10,000, which they happily paid.

** As It Turns Out, "Swingtown" Is a Terrible Show - Idiot Box - A Smart Look at TV by by Peter Ames Carlin - The Oregonian : Another mitigating factor, which is more interesting the more I think of it: The scenes about the kids tend to be way more thoughtful and insightful than the ones with the adults. Samantha is a compelling character, largely because she keeps so much just beneath the surface. The layers of heartbreak, yearning, anger and need. The tentative friendship she creates with B.J. Her wounded love (contempt, sympathy, more) for her damaged mother. It's all very compelling and way more interesting than what's going on with any of the adults around. Here's what I'm betting. The guys who wrote 'Swingtown' are actually those kids.
And therein lies the problem with the show. The adults swooped in and took over. And they wrecked it. well - the problem wld be that this is those kids imagining the lives of their parents. more insightful re own experience remembered.
Posted by Dback1221 on 07/01/08 at 8:40PM: I think folks are being a tad hard on this show. It's still finding its footing, true. And the repetitious face-offs between the 3 sets of couples is becoming rote. (The housewarming party episode was great; why repeat the themes at the cabin a week later?)
However, there are lots of moments that I really like. I didn't feel Roger's initial excitement/interest in Tom and Trina's party/lifestyle necessarily conflicted with his later remoteness and chilliness--there's a big difference between being at a really cool cutting-edge gathering for the first time, vs. knowing folks are having an orgy downstairs--especially if your "friends" (or at least people you've hung out with for a decade) are getting involved with it. Of all the characters, I'd say Bruce is at this point the most underdeveloped--he's just a little too much the affable goof, like the Bridges brothers before they developed gravitas in the 70's. I think PAC is right on when he discussed the glimmers of dissatisfaction Trina evidences--they're very subtle and feel true, as does Tom's vague implication that he knows the good time train he's on is eventually going to come to an end, and then what? (The job transfer is a good starting point for his realizing this.) Miriam Shor's character is problematic, only in that the writers aren't giving the actress enough layers to play in her scenes, and she comes across as shrill. But why has no one mentioned Molly Parker? For my money, she's giving one of the great performances on TV right now, right behind Mary Louise Parker in "Weeds" (which, in a way, this show is a distant cousin of). Emotions play over her face with such delicacy, she can make a very simple scene seem like something almost Chekhovian. (I personally thought her interplay with Roger at the cabin felt just right; it felt like people who've interacted socially for a long time as "friends," yet really don't know each other very well.) I also think the pop culture details feel right (I was 10 in '76)--not just the Tab, but the fact that Trina was using baby oil to tan at the lake, and that these kids seem like precursors to the latchkey kids of the 80's who would populate Spielberg's movies. I think the younger kids are all terrific (and I'm curious to see if one of the boys has a platonic crush on his best friend, or something more), but the notes that strike me as false involve the older daughter and her teacher--she seems way too mature and wise for seventeen.