Jeremy Sisto’s cop chases Ed Westwick’s killer, Totally Tubular 80s-style.
By Matt Fowler
On Tuesday, October 27th, at 10/9c, ABC longs to take you back to the early ’80s Hollywood glam rock scene for the first season (that is, if there’s more to come) of a new anthology series called Wicked City. A ham-fisted, paper thin “cat and mouse” cop series featuring a bunch of great performers who deserve much better material.
The idea behind Wicked City, we can presume, is that each future season would track a different murder case in a different city and era. Here, the 1982 Sunset Strip “scene” is projected with such tired tackiness, and lands with such an unsubtle thud, that it makes so much of what you’re watching a chore. Sure, there’s smirk value in hearing a few notable tunes from the era creep in, but you’re not going to hear a few. You’re going to watch an entire soundtrack in 40 minutes. Three Billy Idol songs, some Joan Jett, a Soft Cell track, as well as many more. Enough to choke the life out of any story and make you wish you were just listening to a Spotify playlist.
Of course, I get that music was the crux of this particular time and place, but the tracks don’t accentuate anything here. They don’t add, they subtract. And all we ever see of the scene are people crowded around bars, in low-lit crowds, with the music being used as a kitschy backdrop. Nothing feels authentic. It’s all just dress-up.
The main thing pulling Wicked City down though is the writing. It’s basically a mismatched “buddy” cop story with a necrophiliac serial killer at the gross glue that brings them together. And here you’ll find some of the most carelessly recycled dialogue on primetime network TV. In fact, the captain comes SO DAMN CLOSE to saying “Meet your new partner” that I’m now a bit heartbroken that those weren’t the actual words. He says “I see you’ve met your new partner.” See, close, but not the gold standard of suck.
Jeremy Sisto plays straight-laced, toiling Detective Jack Roth while Gabriel Luna slicks it up as smarmy “always has an angle” Paco Contreras, who always has an angle. How do we know he always has an angle? Because Jack loudly proclaims “You’ve always got an angle, Contreras!” In front of everyone. Right before loudly stating “I don’t trust you!” Also in front of everyone. Because cliched back-and-forths like this demand the full attention of all your co-workers.
Oh, but Jack’s not perfect. He may not always have an angle like Contreras, but he’s got a piece on the side. Jaime Ray Newman may play Jack’s doting, unsuspecting wife, but True Blood’s Karolina Wydra plays his coke-dealing Strip-adjacent mistress. But it’s okay, right? Because Jack has genuine feelings, and a past, with her. Which, by TV rules, excuses adulterous protagonists.
Filling the killer role here is Gossip Girl’s Ed Westwick, who plays the mysterious Kent – a psycho chameleon with terrible on-the-nose catchphrases who preys on young women frequenting the Strip by promising them stardom. Then he takes them on a car ride and gets all stabby. Juicing up his side of the story is Erika Christensen’s Betty, a nurse who goes from being Kent’s target to his default girlfriend/accomplice. It’s utterly ridiculous. As mentioned, there are bunch of good actors in this doing really rotten things. Taissa Farmiga, who’s no stranger to anthology work due to American Horror Story, is also present, as a wet-behind-the-ears reporter out to write a lifestyle piece on the club scene.
Wicked City is a woefully tired affair that’s even unable squeeze a few drops of joy out of a famous retro scene and its enjoyable music. It’s hard to watch strong performers like Sisto, Christensen, and the others run through such rudimentary notes.
