Swingtown TV Show

Swingtown is the new summer series from CBS, this time looking to capture a little of that 1970s nostalgia in all its ugly glory -- polyester is everywhere! And so are the wife swappers.

After viewing the first episode, my immediate reaction is that they were trying to hard. Unlike the very superb 60s show, Mad Men, which always seems to capture its time period without wagging a finger under your nose saying "Look, Sixties stuff that people don't do today!" Swingtown seems to lack subtly. My other reaction is that this show looks an awful lot like the British mini-series "Take Me' from 2001. This first episode almost seems like a remake of that series, but I don't think it is, which is really odd.

Three episodes into Swingtown, however, it's become a lot more fun. It's not really uncommon for pilots to feel a bit forced and for later episodes to have a different tone to them and that seems to have been the case with Swingtown as well. It's still not the best tv show I've ever watched, but it's a good summer fling!

Oh, there's one other thing that strikes me as quite odd. Jack Davenport with an American accent. I don't think it suits him very well, but maybe I am just so used to hearing his own accent that the American is really throwing me for a loop. At any rate, if Jack looks familiar to you, you've probably seen him either on his other naughty tv series, Coupling, or you saw him in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, as Norrington.

The rest of the main cast is rounded out by Grant Show (remember him from Melrose Place?) as the airline pilot , Tom, who lives across the street from Bruce (Jack Davenport) and Susan (Molly Parker) with his wife Trina (Lana Parilla). Molly Parker also starred in Deadwood and Lana Parilla has done a ton of tv work. Her last tv series, Windfall, didn't live past its first 13 episodes so cross your fingers for Swingtown. I believe they have 7 episodes filmed. That may be it for the summer though as summer series tend to run short.