Ah, those adorable swingers…

Swingtown made quite a buzz when it first aired this past summer; it quickly developed a reputation for being even more lascivious and trashy than Desperate Housewives (and that’s saying something). Wife and husband swapping is not just a central tenet of the series but blatantly implied by the show’s title; Swingtown was deemed in many media markets as being a too-hot-for-TV look at love and lifestyles in the sexually tumultuous ‘70s. You can tell that the show’s makers wanted to make this primetime broadcast as HBO as it could possibly be.

Alas, sex has little to do with it. I can almost picture creators Mike Kelley and Alan Poul pitching the show as more Ice Storm than Saturday Night Fever, and this is what ends up hampering Swingtown almost irreversibly. In Mark Keizer’s fantastic review of Ang Lee’s Ice Storm, he definitely loved the picture more than this writer did, but he understood that Lee saw in the wife-swapping key-party ethos of the ‘70s a certain sadness, a confused social status that was exacerbated by the sexual proclivity of the age.

What turned me off about The Ice Storm - and Swingtown, as well - is how dull sex is presented. I know, I know… that’s the point of the whole thing. Yet while I’m all for an investigation of a complicated subject, it’s difficult to present sex and all it entails in a fashion that is both removed and erotic. (Kubrick pulled it off with Eyes Wide Shut a decade ago and critics still haven’t come around to it.) It’s all fine and good to present sex as a lifeless red herring to other concepts and ideas, but you gotta back it up. That doesn’t happen here.

After one episode of this first season, it becomes readily apparent that things just aren’t going to work. The major problem is the plainness of the show’s narrative makeup. The show is basically set up as a triptych of American sexual sentiment. There are the Deckers (Grant Show and Lana Parrilla), who are the real anything-goes types. There are the Millers (Jack Davenport and Molly Parker), who are mid-range in their outrageousness. And then we have the Thompsons (Josh Hopkins and Miriam Shor), the squares. I understand that this is a quick way to throw characters of different volitions into the mix, but the whole scenario gets humdrum really quick.

Swingtown wants to take characters with differing (and often antithetical) perspectives and tries to force them to dig deep and discover their inner truths. But it’s so painfully mired in a blah television presentation (its structural similarities to new “hip” shows like Desperate Housewives and Grey’s Anatomy are many) that it never takes on a life of its own. In trying to put a complex, decidedly human face on the swinger lifestyle, they’ve sucked the life out of it. I’m sure being a swinger isn’t exactly all fun and games, but it’s got to be at least a little more intriguing than it is on Swingtown… right?

The Video: How Does The Disc Look?

Swingtown’s 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen transfers are perfectly appropriate, but not eye-popping. Finely grained textures come across nicely (there is a wonderful clarity to both the dark and bright scenes), and black levels are consistent and wonderfully deep. Color accuracy isn’t rock-solid; flesh tones err toward pink, even though more saturated tones are presented with excellent punch. But coupled with the other attributes and a presentation that is clear of blemishes, Swingtown comes across well.

The Audio: How Does The Disc Sound?

Music is loud on these Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks, and while there’s clarity to their presence, it’s a bit overwhelming. Dialogue is presented with robust fidelity. Although effects and atmospherics don’t infiltrate surrounds with the intensity they could, they nevertheless do their jobs well. The ‘70s pop music, though, just steamrolls everything else in its sonic path; it’s just too damned loud in the mix. Otherwise, these tracks are just fine.

English Closed Captions are included.

Supplements: What Goodies Are There?

The pair of screen-specific audio commentaries (on the pilot and on Take It To The Limit) aren’t exceptional. They illuminate aspects of the show’s production that makes more tangible an appreciation of at least the aims of Swingtown’s creative team. Featuring creators Mike Kelley and Alan Poul, it’s hard not to find the wonderfully hedonistic intentions of Swingtown such a pull, but even though these guys know how to defend the end result, the proof is in the watching (and in this case, the watching ain’t great).

There are some so-so deleted scenes, two ho-hum featurettes (Have a Nice Revolution: Sex and Morality in 1970s America and Spirit of ’76: The Making of Swingtown – both of which are self-explanatory and really quite unimpressive), and a gag reel.

Exclusive DVD-ROM Features: What happens when you pop the disc into your PC?

There are no DVD-ROM features on this DVD.