Give It Up For Love

I'll be the first to admit that I do not love my father's shows (for those of you who don't know he's a television producer). I mean, The Commish was great, but I think I was just too young to really connect with it, the Millennium pilot freaked me out and made me cry, so needless to say I ignored the rest of the series, The Twilight Zone was just plain bad and Night Stalker was way too esoteric for me (Besides, Gabrielle Union has been going downhill since Bring It On).

There are exceptions, of course: I loved Strange Luck very intensely and I want it back, mainly because it fed my insatiable appetite for mystery and perhaps formed my love/hate relationship with that elusive bitch coincidence. Then there was Wolf Lake, which was way too insane for it's own good. Hello? An entire Pacific Northwest village of ACTUAL werewolves?! Yes, please! It's a damn shame it got canceled, let me tell you. Ugh, and a brilliant cast headed by Lou Diamond Philips!

Well, good news for Papa, I can add another show to the latter list. Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to present Swingtown! Two parts The Ice Storm, one part The Wonder Years, half a shot of autobiography, add six amazing actors (dressed in mind-blowing garb), shake well and serve totally chilled.

As the name implies the show is about, simply, swinging. Meet Susan and Bruce Miller (Deadwood's Molly Parker and Peter Smith-Kingsley himself Jack Davenport) a married couple who break into the swinging scene in a Chicago suburb in the summer of 1976. Lana Parrilla (the chick from the underwater station on LOST) and Grant Show (omg, Melrose, much?) play the Deckers, little devils sitting on the right shoulder of the Millers, urging them further and further into their sexy wife-swapping world. On the left shoulder sit Janet and Roger Thompson, old friends from the old neighborhood stuck in their old ways. Watch as Bruce and Susan feel their way through this strange and morally dynamic world of orgies, quaaludes and the best soundtrack you've heard in years!

Without taking itself too seriously Swingtown deeply explores the importance and relevance of relationships in a time that is not too unlike our own. Political unrest, sexual revolution, pop-culture booms: all still happening in this advanced new millennium. The writing is quick and witty, while still maintaining a thoughtful if not leisurely pace. And the quality of the production is superb, with a staff lead by Alan Poul, of Six Feet Under fame, Mike Kelley, who lends his own personal experience to the show's narrative, and of course, my dad!

I understand that I may be biased, given that the show employs both my father and myself (yup, you're lookin' at the post production assistant himself!), but I liked this show a lot even before I worked on it. And I love it now that I do. It sucks, yes, that I have access to scripts, dailies and full episodes all the way through to the finale (which will happen at the end of the summer, and is great!) but, despite the spoilers and seeing the same scenes over and over, the show still makes me laugh. And it makes me think. And I really feel for these characters. The six main actors weave so effortlessly in and around one another, it's so compelling! (Janet's my favorite! Miriam Shor is truly a talented lady. I knew it years ago when she played a dude in Hedwig). And take it from me, someone who KNOWS what's going to happen on this show: you don't want to miss it!

Three episodes have aired so far, but you can catch up online at the link above. Make sure you catch this week's episode; the show really picks up from here. Swingtown will be on all summer, Thursdays at 10PM on CBS.

Update: Swingtown's been moved to Fridays at 10PM