Swingtown: 1.2 ‘Love Will Find A Way’ Review
Original Air Date: June 12, 2008
I can barely believe it, but the last time I checked just a few seconds ago, Swingtown still hasn’t been canceled, so let’s continue with the reviews. On the second episode, which was even more boring than the first:
Janet ignores Susan’s phone calls after the first episode’s swinging party at the Deckers, and she cancels the regular bridge game she and her husband Roger have with Susan and her husband Bruce in order to serve dinner to Paul and Martha Hincamp (guest stars Robert Bagnell and Mandy Levin), the couple who’ve moved into the Millers’ old house.
Sadly, Paul turns out to be a “douche,” as Janet and Roger’s son Rick accurately puts it, and after the men of the house fake an emergency to get the Hincamps to leave, Janet owns up to acting so childishly because she supposedly misses her best friend Susan. She and Roger head over to the Millers’ with a pie then, just in time to meet up with them and the Deckers returning from a night at the Playboy Club.
Off Janet huffs again, even more pissed than before. Meanwhile, Susan ends the night in a bit of a huff, as well. Bruce, who it seems is a trader, has a good day at work, and he treats his colleagues to a gathering at the Playboy Club afterwards to celebrate. When he’s late coming home, the Deckers take Susan to the club in lieu of the dinner Trina had planned.
There, the Deckers introduce the Miller’s to their friends Sylvia and Brad Davis (guest stars Erin Daniels and Mark Valley), a lawyer and sex psychologist, respectively. After watching the ridiculous Hustle dance number, all I can say is thank goodness Mark Valley has another gig on Fox’s Fringe in the fall — he deserves so much better than this dribble.
At the club, Susan admits to Trina that she and Bruce have decided not to have group sex again — good for them! — yet she catches her husband seemingly saying an intimate goodbye to Sylvia later, and then at home, she finds the lawyer’s business card in Bruce’s pocket. Of course, wide-eyed Susan immediately grows worried her hubby might be on the road to an affair, which is kind of a foreseeable side effect of having sex with other couples. Just sayin’…
The kids are around during this episode, too. Love-starved next-door neighbor girl Samantha eventually returns home from her adventures hiding out in the woods after the Millers’ son B.J. informs her that her drug-addicted, negligent mother Gail doesn’t even realize she’s gone.
And in another section of town, Miller daughter Laurie attends a play with her dumb boyfriend Logan in order to get a grade on her paper bumped up a notch. Yet, being dumb and all, Logan finds the play a complete bore — kind of like the series — and he embarrasses poor Laurie in front of her teacher Doug Stephens.
His behavior turns out not to count for much anyway, though, since the play’s producer is Mr. Stephens’ significant other. I guess that means Laurie’s schoolgirl crush is crushed for the moment, or at least until the teacher decides he’s ready to date his student instead of a fellow adult after all.
This episode is apparently supposed to have a women’s lib theme, judging by the number of times the subject is brought up. First, airline pilot Tom Decker is pulled from his Miami route and switched to a new Tokyo one after his superiors learn, courtesy of a stewardess trainee’s big mouth, about his and his wife’s swinging ways. Then Sylvia goes on and on about unionized Playboy Bunnies at the club, where she worked for four years herself to pay her way through law school.
The history lesson is nice, but, sorry, it still doesn’t make for interesting TV.
1 opinion for Swingtown: 1.2 ‘Love Will Find A Way’ Review
Swingtown: My Eyes! My Eyes!
Jun 20, 2008 at 5:27 am
[...] the dance number in the following video, an excerpt from the series’ June 12th episode “Love Will Find A Way.” Oh, yes they are doing The Hustle, and I’d bet money that those outfits are all made [...]
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