Should I Get With Swingtown?

So, I just got around to watching the pilot for CBS’ 70’s drama/soap/who knows “Swingtown” and, despite very critic kinda savaging it, I somewhat dug it. But I’m not entirely sold on it, so I’m asking you, loyal reader(s) (the s is in parentheses because I doubt there’s more than one of you reading this), should I keep messing around with “Swingtown” or kick it to the curb?

On the plus side of the bed filled with swingers, there’s a majority of the performances. Now, I liked “Deadwood” when it was on, but I could never quite make it all the way through the show (I’ve still only seen about half of the final season). One of the problems I had with “Deadwood” was the characters all seemed incredibly stilted (although this was probably because they were supposed to be), and one of the biggest offenders was Molly Parker. On “Swingtown”, however, Parker is, well, kind of delightful. Her behavior and general air after she took the Quaalude were really fun to watch. Also, on the delightful side are Lana Parilla and Grant Show as the Deckers, the main swinging couple. They made the show entertaining to watch.

I’m not as sold on Jack Davenport as Parker’s husband or Josh Hopkins as Roger Thompson, the Parkers' old neighbor, but they were serviceable, and both seemed charismatic. And, while a lot of critics detracted from the show for being over the top on 1970s references, I thought it was a little funny on how much they felt the need to enforce the 70s-ness. But funny in a good way.

But there are a bunch of problems, which may just be too big to overlook. First off, you’ll notice that I left one of the main adult characters off the previous lists. That’s because I firmly believe that the show would be 1700% better without Miriam Shor. Now, this is absolutely nothing against the actress, I just thought the character was obnoxiously fake. Marcia Cross plays a similar role on Desperate Housewives, but she comes across like a real person. Shor, on the other hand, was a complete and total bad caricature. Sure, there were people who hadn’t mentally escaped the 1950s then, but they weren’t that bat-shit crazy too. She just did not work. I also didn’t find the younger characters nearly as entertaining as everyone else did. The only one who was interesting was the daughter who was clearly in love with her teacher. But my interest was only mild.

So, the question is: Do I keep swingin or do I break it off? Summer TV is kind of a barren wasteland right now (thank God for the returns of Weeds, Burn Notice, Psych, and The Closer), so should I stick with the show for a while at least? Help me, folks. There’s a can of Tab in it for you.