• by Adam Buckman , Featured Columnist, June 15, 2023

Four youngish New York City residents travel out of their comfort zones to find love in a new dating reality series that takes its title from the addictive behavior of swiping on dating apps.

The show, “Swiping America,” is described at the outset as a “rom doc in eight parts” -- the first time I have ever heard the newly coined phrase “rom doc” to identify a docuseries whose topic is love and romance.

The goal for these four seekers can be described thusly: Supposedly, they want to trade in their sex lives, all of which are just fantastic, for love lives.

The scenario of the show is this: In a bid to change their lives, they are turning themselves over to a camera crew who will take them to eight U.S. cities so they can experience the romantic possibilities elsewhere.

The eight locales are Asheville, North Carolina; Miami; Austin, Texas; New Orleans; Santa Fe, New Mexico; Boulder, Colorado; Seattle; and Honolulu.

Once there, the film crew members will send these four on dates with prospective mates who the film crew has “curated” from dating apps. 

Although the show’s central dating-apps gimmick appears to be a new wrinkle in the pantheon of TV reality dating shows dating back about 20 years, most of it is the same-old thing.

However, since “Swiping America” has been made for Max, it is a lot more raunchy and explicit than the bulk of other such shows made for broadcast networks and basic cable.

The four contestants are described as diverse. They are a straight white woman, a straight Asian-American woman, an African-American lesbian and a gay, male Indian-American. 

The diversity officials apparently forgot to include a straight man of any kind.

One of the show’s more off-putting characteristics is its condescending, dismissive attitude toward cities other than New York, an all-too-common trait in TV shows and movies.

In Episode One, their first destination is Asheville, which to their way of thinking may as well be Hooterville. And yet, they go anyway.

“Swiping America” premieres Thursday (June 15) on Max.