I'm eagerly awaiting the fourth (!) season of "Prison Break," which begins this September. In the meantime, I'm filling the void of sexy but questionable programming with "Swingtown," which is everything summer TV should be: trashy, funny, forgettable, and strangely touching. I'll admit that my appreciation of this show is fueled in no small part by my total girl-crush on Molly Parker.
Just as HBO's "Big Love" gave America (or at least, me) the warm and fuzzies - or at least a different perspective than the usual stereotypes - about polygamy, "Swingtown" attempts to make swingers less icky and more approachable.
Susan (Parker) and her husband Bruce move with their two teenage children to a new neighborhood, where they are enthusiastically welcomed by Trina and Tom Decker, who are wealthy, fashionable (as fashionable as you could be in the 70s, anyway), childlesss, and - swingers! Naturally, this is all-too-shocking for Susan and Bruce's old neighbors and BFF's, the super-square Janet and Roger Thompson. It's nothing less than fascinating to watch as Susan tries to strike a balance between the lifestyle she'd always lived without questioning, and a new one that forces her to examine everything she thought she knew about herself as a woman and as a wife.
Maybe ironically, as it was in "Big Love," this show is unabashedly feminist. Though swinging is also thought of, rather insultingly, as "wife swapping" to many people, the women we've met in this show (so far) are all in control of their own sexuality. Though this ranges from the positive (Susan and Trina, who decide whether they want to participate in swinging) or to the negative (Janet, who withholds sex from her husband excepting every other Friday night), "Swingtown" makes it clear that every individual must decide their sexual activity (not orientation - and I'm extremely curious as to whether we'll meet any non-heterosexual characters on this show) for themselves.
Too, "Swingtown" also revolves around Susan coming to terms with her identity beyond a wife and mother. When Trina throws a legal fundraising party for adult film star Harry Reems, Susan makes the decision to go see "Deep Throat" by herself, and to attend the party against her husband's order (blech!) not to do so.
Equally fun is watching prudy Janet flirt with danger, from eating a pot-laced brownie on a weekend at the lake, to inadvertently chatting with Harry Reems, and to being aroused enough by "Deep Throat" to have sex with her husband on a night that's not every-other-Friday. If that's not progress, I don't know what is.
It's not all fun and games, though: I think we're about to see cool, comfortable swingers Trina and Tom hit some turbulence as his new assignment piloting non-stop flights to Toyko (...I think) forces unprecedented time apart between the two. How will her already obvious insecurity match up against his frankly wild past and party-time co-workers? We'll see...
Elswhere in suburbia: Susan's daughter Laurie is so obviously going to have sex with her interested but reluctant summer school teacher, and who can blame her? He's the most adorable literature geek I've ever seen, and, in fact, looks younger than Laurie herself. Ha. Another cute storyline (I guess for the young kids watching the show??) is Laurie's little brother, who is helplessly crushing on neighbor Samantha, who has her hands full trying to take care of her alcoholic mother. Say what you want about suburbia, but its inhabitants will always provide material for enjoyable melodrama. |
Sunday, July 6, 2008 
posted by Yvonne at 12:26 PM - 
