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Swingtown
SERIES: CBS, Thursday 10:00p (60 minutes)


8.3

based on 26 reviews
read critic reviews
how did we calculate this?

based on 97 votes
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Get more information on this show at TV.com.

Official Show Site

Starring Molly Parker, Jack Davenport, Grant Show, Lana Parrilla, Miriam Shor, Josh Hopkins, Shanna Collins, Aaron Howles, and Brittany Robertson

CBS attempts to turn up the heat with a drama about three couples in suburban Chicago who experience the cultural revolution of the 1970s.

GENRE(S):	Drama
CREATED BY:	Mike Kelley
FIRST AIR DATE:	June 5, 2008

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

Time James Poniewozik

It's also, judging by the pilot, flawlessly art-directed, full of well-chosen period music and--for a drama about a country searching for its bearings in its bicentennial year--a lot of fun.

Variety Brian Lowry

This series about suburban angst circa 1976 exhibits rare depth for the procedural-packed web, and includes plenty of nifty touches, from the pop-song score and "Boogie Nights" fashions to the first-rate cast.

Washington Post Tom Shales

It's rather a bold, retro step for CBS to attempt this kind of show in the era of reality television and domestic fights that appear to be actual and spontaneous rather than cooked up by a writer. But the airwaves are so choked with reality that a return to fantasy seems strangely refreshing and, ironically, even more realistic.

Kansas City Star Aaron Barnhart

Once you get beyond the show’s homages, both to 1970s style and “Desperate Housewives,” this proves to be a groovy little summer soap opera.

Slate Troy Patterson

The relative tameness of Swingtown makes the unease it provokes more inviting: You tune in to see the bodies and stick around for the minds.

USA Today Robert Bianco

The show itself, sad to say, is not done well enough to work. But it's not dull, and it's worth watching if only to try to figure out what CBS could have been thinking--beyond, "No one's going to confuse this with NCIS."

The New York Times Alessandra Stanley

Swingtown has ’70s mystique, but not much mystery.

Los Angeles Times Mary McNamara

Swingtown walks a fine line between being a period piece, down to the pudding cups, baseball shirts and snatches of the old "$10,000 Pyramid," and parody.

Boston Globe Matthew Gilbert

Kelley's fascinating concept--the personal and sexual politics of an open marriage--is stifled by CBS prime-time superficiality and an inability to intimately explore intimate subject matter.

New York Post Linda Stasi

Swingtown could have been great. Instead it's a hit-you-over-the-head production--with product placement and wardrobe so obvious it begs us to scream, "That's so authentic!"--best forgotten.

Newark Star-Ledger Alan Sepinwall

The sex is all implied rather than shown, as is much of the drug use. It's a very PG-13 approach to potentially R-rated subject matter--and that's the problem.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Rob Owen

Swingtown isn't just misguided because it's on the wrong network. The show's bigger problem is that the resident "squares" are much more interesting characters than the swingers at the core.

San Francisco Chronicle Tim Goodman

Swingtown was created to portray a broad but nuanced picture of '70s suburban America, but it might be too ambitious.

LA Weekly Robert Abele

Swingtown is far from a great show, but until it feels obligated to give killjoy lip service to the downside of sexual freedom--note the transformation on Molly Parker’s postcoital face at the end of the pilot--here’s hoping it has its chance to be rompish and fun and a pain in the side of standards and practices.

New York Magazine John Leonard

Since Swingtown isn’t even peekaboo, much less dirty, I wish I could say that it’s played for laughs. But I don’t know what it’s played for.

Newsday Verne Gay

Swingtown can't decide whether the '70s were transformative or deformative; there's a distinct ironic edge, applied mostly through the use of music.... But that edge isn't nearly sharp or funny enough (unlike "Weeds"), which tends to muddle the point of view.

Philadelphia Daily News Ellen Gray

Sadly, though, there's nothing quite that earthshaking going on in Swingtown, which boasts the same eye for detail that characterizes AMC's early-'60s drama "Mad Men"--from a woman smoking on an airplane to another sipping a Tab--but none of its style.

Salon Heather Havrilesky

Basically, the whole thing is stylish and '70s-sexy but also shallow enough to feel like a less funny, hollowed-out combination of "The Wonder Years" and "Boogie Nights."

Hollywood Reporter Barry Garron

Even skillful performances by its largely unknown cast aren't able to hide the lack of character development and the sense that the people in this series are almost self-parodies.

TV Guide Matt Roush

No one is more than skin-deep, so there’s little in the way of irony or metaphor to disguise the fact that Swingtown is so determined to be shocking it seems a little quaint.

PopMatters Michael Abernethy

With so much going on, one would expect Swingtown to be exciting, but it’s not. Behavior that was scandalous in the ‘70s isn’t today.

Wall Street Journal Dorothy Rabinowitz

It has one thing going for it--the essential thing. That is, deft writing that yields the kind of suspense that causes people to want to know what comes next. That's no small achievement for a series whose characters are so entirely devoid of, yes, character--or anything resembling an interesting thought.

The New Yorker Nancy Franklin

Swingtown is a little too fond of the seventies to reveal anything about them that we don’t already know.

Philadelphia Inquirer Jonathan Storm

It's ugly and bloated, too, bringing back memories of tawdry times, tasteless fashion and terrible music.

Orlando Sentinel Hal Boedeker

There are vivid reminders of the era's ugly clothes and hairstyles. But the writing is obvious and ham-handed.

Miami Herald Glenn Garvin

Kelley's compulsive fascination with erratic eroticism turns everything in Swingtown into hypersexualized sleaze.

The average user rating for this tv show is 8.3 (out of 10) based on 97 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Stacey K. gave it a10:
Best show all summer. The writers keep us guessing. I love it - please bring back for another season.

Dean gave it a9:
It's fun.

Ron D. gave it a10:
We have watched every episode of Swingtown and have enjoyed it immensely . The character development and human angst is interesting. We are left each we to see what will develop next week. When we saw last night that there is only one more episode, we were very disappointed. I hope there is enough outcry and interest that CBS or one of the cable or satellite companies will continue it. This, we feel, could be blockbuster for someone. Let’s hope it continues.

Elaine S. gave it a10:
Great program...not that I was a swinger, but reminds me of my life in the 70's

Julie F. gave it a10:
I watched the first two episodes my self and told my husband that he really needed to watch this show. He watch it and with in the first 10 minutes he was hooked! Now it has been our weekly ritual. We absolutely love everything about this show. He is even going to buy the episodes he missed on Itunes. It is so well written so you know exactly what is going on even if nothing is shown. That is what makes this show so brilliant. I love the fact that CBS took a chance on this show. Now we just hope it gets enough ratings to stick around for the fall line up! We will really miss this show if it were to get canceled! There isn't anything on TV like this show which is such a breathe of fresh air.

John K. gave it a9:
Realistically depicts (as my memory serves anyway) a time when the 60's flower power youths are now married, the girls now women want a more meaningful contribution and marriage, family and growing up in a fast changing world collide. The cast really mesh well, making you believe the story they tell - maybe they have their own recollections to draw upon like those of us who enjoy an hour's trip back in time to remember how we started the path that got us where we are today.

T P. gave it a10:
I think it is a great show...as for the Cliches, well, it's the 70's.//what more do you want? The characters are great. The mystery is just what is really happening between the proverbial sheets, not what the characters are thinking. I will be truly disappointed if CBS cancels this show.

Swingtown SERIES: CBS, Thursday 10:00p (60 minutes)

Swingtown
SERIES: CBS, Thursday 10:00p (60 minutes)