Arcana Studios Presents Swerve 1-6 (2012)(Digital)(Son Of Anarchy-Novus)

Swerve, a self-contained series from Archaia, is set in a seedy underworld of sex, drugs, and violence. What makes it stand out is that at the heart of the story are these compassionate characters. It’s not a flawless story; the alchemy of mixing the staged violence inside the ring with the very lethal violence outside it maybe doesn’t 100 percent click, but there are passages here that feel sharp and fresh.

Set in San Antonio, Texas, way back in 1976, before the big razzle dazzle days of WWF in the 1980s, a crime syndicate has set up shop, using the league as a front to launder drug and prostitution money, with some of their toughest enforcers doubling as star wrestlers. Enter our hero, Eric Layton – an ex-football star with a bum knee, turned college dropout – who’s desperate for cash for his cancer-stricken mother. With the promise of more cash dangling in front of him, he quickly discovers that the real money in his line of work is to get mixed in with the shadier aspects of the league.