Swingtown

Reviewed by:
Robbie Throckmorton

The Skinny: A couple (Deadwood's Molly Parker and Pirates of the Caribbean's Jack Davenport) moves with their kids across the street from a pilot and his wife (Grant Show and Lana Parrilla), who invite their new neighbors to join in their lifestyle of parties, drugs, and wife-sharing in this series set in the late '70s,.

The Good: The show is well cast, and each actor appears authentically '70s. We're a little confused that the show is on CBS, but we have to give the network props for being controversial. Smartly, it features a prude housewife (Miriam Shor) who is riotously appalled by the antics, so maybe she'll resonate with Bible Belters.

The Bad: A show about a sexually adventurous group of swingers should have lots of sex, and this show doesn't. (CBS owns Showtime—why didn't they just do it there?) Even overlooking that, the pilot is excruciatingly slow, and springs too many subplots that fall outside of what most viewers will be tuning in to see.

That Other '70s Show: While Topher and Ashton's version took a mocking approach to the decade that taste forgot, this show painfully re-creates it. What's that mean for you? Tons o' polyester and annoying close-ups on cans of Tab and other "look how '70s we are" props. On the plus side, the pilot's soundtrack is awesome.

Watch, Ignore, or Read a Book Instead? Pass. It may get better in Episode Two, but we doubt it. Even with more sex, this would still feel extremely irrelevant.

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