Censored Sex Not As Fun As the Real Thing

While there is no shortage of innuendo or sexual references on network primetime, sex is a subject that seems to belong exclusively to cable. CBS’s new series Swingtown, though, is all about sex: adolescent sex, adult sex, monogamous sex, polyamorous sex, moral sex, immoral sex, safe sex, and unsafe sex.

Set in 1976, seven years after Woodstock and three after Roe, Swingtown centers on the Miller family. Susan (Molly Parker) and Bruce (Jack Davenport) are hoping to reinvigorate their marriage as they move from their average, middle-class home to a mansion in an upper class neighborhood outside of Chicago. The new neighborhood presents the Millers with the opportunity to participate in the society of drugs and sexual experimentation that they were precluded from exploring earlier—due to Susan’s unintentional pregnancy with their oldest daughter Laurie (Shanna Collins), who is now in high school.

They are introduced to this society and encouraged to join by Tom (Grant Show) and Trina Decker (Lana Parilla), a couple who describe themselves as in an “open relationship,” by which they mean that they enjoy fooling around jointly with other couples and individuals, not just with Facebook’s relationship status options. Pulling the Millers away from this lifestyle, however, are their friends from their old home, Roger (Josh Hopkins) and Janet Thompson (Miriam Shor), who are shocked and disgusted when they encounter an orgy at the Deckers’ 4th of July party.

And it’s not just the adults who are exploring sex and sexual freedom. Laurie, though hesitant at first, is proud to tell her mother that she is having safe sex and is actively seeking to attract her philosophy teacher. And her younger brother, B.J. (Aaron Howles), has dug up his father’s box of pornography magazines.

Through all of these explorations, it appears that director Alan Poul, whose previous credits include HBO’s Rome and Big Love, is attempting to take the viewer on a journey through the sexual revolution that occurred during this time. Indeed, the show’s website notes that Swingtown “portrays the ‘swing’ of the pendulum that reflected the change in America’s collective value system—morally, politically, and socially.” And Swingtown is also a clear reference to “swingers,” a term that is often used to refer to sexually open couples like the Deckers.

While the show’s attempt to have a drama principally about sex and sexual exploration is certainly brave and ambitious, it falls flat as a result of Swingtown’s place on network television, where the restrictions on content are prohibitive. Any show about sex has very little chance of reaching its full potential if it is on the same network that provoked serious outrage and incurred fines for accidentally showing a woman’s breast. While other shows, like Friends or Seinfeld, can work around the restrictions by suggesting and referring to sex, a show about sex cannot just depend on references and suggestion. It needs to be able to talk openly about sex and present sex.

Otherwise, as the first episode of Swingtown demonstrates, the content feels unnatural and pointless. The dialogue seems to be more like a game of Taboo—in which everyone tries to imply what the subject is without saying anything related to it—than a real discussion about sex and its liberalization during this time period. The direction, meanwhile, feels extremely awkward, as Poul tries to present and explore sex while hiding it at the same time. As a result, the audience cannot believe the characters and, more importantly, they cannot feel what the characters feel. In the end, Swingtown is just a bad melodrama with some good period music mixed in.

Swingtown airs Thursdays at 10pm on CBS. The pilot can be seen at cbs.com.