swinging-related stories
Posted Sep 6th 2008 11:01AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S01E13) The summer's officially over on
Swingtown, marked by Tom's Labor Day clambake at the shore, which turned out to also be a key party.
Now that the first season of the show has come to an end, it's clear that while they explored hot topics like open marriage, wife-swapping and group sex, the essence of the show was not titillation or a guide page by page through
The Joys of Sex. Swingtown was about the characters, three families and the changing times in 1976.
Questions, questions. Will Tom and Trina keep the baby? The Deckers are the open marriage couple and they've enjoyed the freedom to swing. But how amazing is it that they are the marriage that's in synch! They actually talk things out and share what they're thinking. You can't say that about the Thompsons and Millers.
Continue reading Swingtown: Take it to the Limit (season finale)
Posted Sep 2nd 2008 4:20PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Industry, Pickups and Renewals, Reality-Free
This Friday CBS will air the last episode of
Swingtown, but the question of the future for the show still remains unanswered. Is this the series finale or just the season finale? Fans are concerned and I've been contacted by one who has started a petition online to present to CBS, beseeching the network to give
Swingtown a second season. If you want to sign up, click
here.
I've been reviewing
Swingtown since it premiered earlier this summer and I've liked the show. In fact, it's grown on me and if I were in a position to make the call, I'd give
Swingtown an order for 13 more episodes. Yes, the series has not been a ratings hit, I'll give you that. However, it has created a lot of buzz and media coverage.
Continue reading Fans unite to save Swingtown
Posted Aug 16th 2008 10:01AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S01E11) Roger and Susan finally had that moment. After eleven episodes, when he showed up in her kitchen and said what we've been waiting to hear him say -- "I love you, Susan" -- it was cathartic. Done to the tune of Carole King singing, "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?"
Swingtown grabbed me by the throat, leaving me dying to see what would happen next. Only that was the end of the show.
I guess that's a good thing, being on the edge of my seat, hungry for more. Of course the next episode is two weeks away and probably the last of the show unless CBS deigns to bring it back in 2009. Based on the level of interest I have and I've seen from readers,
Swingtown has earned a second season.
But I digress, let's get back to "Get Down Tonight." There was an awful lot of getting down, including the kids. BJ and Ricky had a hot game of strip poker with Sam and her very mature cousin Lisa. Not surprisingly, Ricky was all bluff and ran for the hills when things got too advanced, while BJ showed again that he's a real
mensch (Yiddish for a quality person).
Continue reading Swingtown: Get Down Tonight
Posted Aug 9th 2008 1:10AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S01E10) "All right, let's go fix this family."
Oh, if only it were as simple as a family vacation to repair the damage to the Millers. It's clear by now that something's missing between Bruce and Susan because she can't stop thinking of Roger.
And Laurie is going through teenage rebellion -- I recognize the symptoms -- and Bruce's answer is to threaten her boyfriend and rip the phone cord out of the wall. Of all the characters, Bruce needs the most work for the writers. He's way too predictable.
While the Millers are struggling, so too are the Thompsons. Janet made an appointment with a psychiatrist -- for Roger. The truth is that they both need counseling, as the therapist realized when she spoke with them. Janet is so much a woman of that time, unsure about getting a job because it may emasculate Roger and struggling with the attention she's received -- and enjoyed -- from Tom.
Continue reading Swingtown: Running on Empty
Posted Jul 18th 2008 12:02AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S01E07) "Most valuable lesson: it's all about relationships."
That would seem to be the motto for
Swingtown. It is all about relationships. On the marriage front, Tom and Trina's open marriage, which has been the model for marital bliss till now, has hit the rocks. Okay, maybe not the rocks, but there have been some rough waters.
Continue reading Swingtown: Heatwave
Posted Jul 11th 2008 4:02AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S01E06) Where would
Swingtown be without parties? Every week seems to revolve around some kind of get together; it's becoming predictable. This week it was a country club charity function, and while it was hardly a scene as fraught with sexual tension as some of the other scenes in previous episodes, Tom and Trina did wind up in a three-way.
The
menage a trois, which was rather graphically depicted, was not the most interesting aspect to Tom and Trina's marriage. The more we get to know these two and their open marriage, the more we see that they really do love each other and enjoy their partnership. But they also take full advantage of the freedom of the lifestyle they've chosen.
Continue reading Swingtown: Friends with Benefits
Posted Jul 5th 2008 2:02PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Pickups and Renewals, Ratings, Reality-Free
How much of
Swingtown is real and how much is pure fiction? According to Mike Kelley,
Swingtown's creator,
there are elements in the show that come right from his childhood memories of growing up on the North Shore, a trendy suburb of Chicago. But the sex and the swinging? That's mostly creative license.
So were there really sex parties and swinging in the Kelley home? "You know, it comes from imagination, for the most part."
Inspired by 1976, the era of women's liberation, disco-dancing, the end of the Vietnam War, and sexual freedom thanks to the pill and no AIDS, Kelley balances the fantastic elements with nostalgia.
Continue reading What's really real in Swingtown?
Posted Jun 13th 2008 8:06AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S01E02) So, now things are starting to get interesting with Bruce and Susan and Tom and Trina and Janet and Roger. Oh, and there were also Brad and Sylvia who look great doing the hustle, and Paul and Martha who will never be invited back to the Thompsons after that awful dinner.
All in all, I'm getting hooked on
Swingtown. It's a soap, no doubt about that. Being in 1976 is a time and a place and a specific social setting, but ultimately this show is about these characters and their intertwined lives. It's a serialized drama and rather addictive. More about the show after the jump, including all the happenings from tonight's show.
Continue reading Swingtown: Love Will Find A Way
Posted Mar 5th 2008 3:03PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Industry, Pickups and Renewals, WGA Strike
Way back in July 2007, TV Squad wrote about
a bunch of shows CBS previewed and were slating for the upcoming season, including
Swingtown. It was supposed to premiere in mid-season, but then mid-season came and it was nowhere to be found. The network will announce today their plans for the serial drama;
it's going to run this summer. Instead of taking that move as a lack of faith in the show, executive producer Carol Barbee told
The Hollywood Reporter that a summer run creatively suits the project. "A summer launch is perfect for
Swingtown since the pilot takes place on the Bicentennial Fourth of July," Barbee said. Barbee has most recently been working on
Jericho.Continue reading CBS gives Swingtown a whirl
Posted Dec 4th 2006 10:15AM by Adam Finley
Filed under: OpEd, Animation, Adult Swim, Moral Orel
(S02E04) Sadness is nature's spankings. - Clay Puppington
Those of us who have been watching Moral Orel since the beginning know that the show is more complex than it appears on the surface. The inner tensions within his own family and the other grown ups in Moralton were hinted at in the first season and have come more into focus this season. I'm not a television writer, but I imagine trying to meld the funny and the emotional into an eleven-minute amalgam can't be easy, which is why I think the "slow reveal" approach has worked so well for Moral Orel. In this episode, when Orel finds out his mother might have another family, the scene doesn't feel like it was suddenly sprung on us out of nowhere, because Bloberta's unhappiness and detachment has been part of the show's subtext since it first aired a year ago.
Continue reading Moral Orel: Elemental Orel
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