Wicked City

After 2 episodes, I think this one may turn into a winner--I'm wondering if they might get bogged down in the whole "period piece" thing of the 80's because frankly, I didn't even pick up on that until halfway through the first episode... but the entire second episode put it right in my face. I absolutely love Taissa Farmiga in everything she's done so far, but in this series, her acting is horrible. I don't know whether it's on purpose or not, but she'll say a line and THEN react to it; like, "He tried to kill me..." in a deadpan and then she'll remember she's supposed to look like she's surprised. She's a doll, though.

I started watching Wicked City the day after it premiered. It is an interesting concept. I studied serial killers, deviant behavior, psychology in college and I've always been fascinated. The problem is when a show just becomes like every other crime drama on TV. You need something to set yourself apart and unfortunately, this one tries to hard with the sex and violence.

The other problem I had was with the homicide detectives at the scene. For a seasoned detective whose repertoire including the notorious Hillside Strangler, he doesn't know a thing about crime scene protocol. I know it was set in the 80's and there were some continuity errors with the exact date, but starting in the 70's detectives carried gloves to use at crime scenes.

I'll keep watching to see where it goes from here though. I do love a good crime drama.

Kent Galloway (Ed Westwick) is a serial killer hunting the Sunset Strip in 1980s L.A. Karen McClaren (Taissa Farmiga) is an aspiring journalist who has a close encounter with him. Betty Beaumontaine (Erika Christensen) is a single mom nurse who begins a twisted affair with him. Police detectives Jack Roth (Jeremy Sisto) and Paco Contreras (Gabriel Luna) hunt for him. They track down McClaren as an witness and she's working with photographer Diver Hawkes (Evan Ross). Jack is married to Allison (Jaime Ray Newman) with a daughter and having an affair with undercover cop Dianne.

I actually like the style, the music and the killer story. I don't mind the Gossip Girl killer, and I really like Erika Christensen, Taissa Farmiga and Jeremy Sisto. A lot of things go through my mind about why this show crash and burn so badly both critically and in viewership. I have no problem with this getting canceled. There is no denying the horrendous rating. It deserves to be canceled after only 3 episodes. So what went wrong? Despite the minor success of Aquarius, I don't think this is a network show. This would work better as an 8 part serial with a lot more blood splatter. The story could move much faster. Aquarius is a summer show anyways. As for Wicked City, I don't care about Jack Roth's personal issues. I don't care about his love life. It would be better to concentrate on the killings and the investigation. I'm one of the few who actually like the show but I won't shed a tear for its cancellation.

Quite why this has been cancelled, I have no idea!

The premise is simple, a serial killer on the loose and a two focused plot on both the killer and cop chasing him/her! Sounds simple, but made better. Why? Because it doesn't try and complicate the story with interwoven plots (yes, true detective I mean you!), because it is set in an era when serial killers started to gain notoriety, because it doesn't shy from the gruesome aspects of a serial killer and more importantly, that sets it aside from true detective, it gets into the mind frame of the sociopath quality (yes I wrote quality, as its the one thing that sets us all apart, be that bad or good!) of manipulation and total confidence in the act by the said sociopath.

The casting is great, not newbies, but not stellar casting, this makes it convincing from an actor point of view as there is no cheesiness and its believable, the story is really well written, simply because it focuses on the main subject and rarely deviates from the chase, and the setting of the 70's for me at least, means the genre is right at the heart of the time when serial killers started to attain focus on what they did.

In all this is a cleverly scripted TV show and could easily have gone on to spurn multiple series, but for some reason it was cancelled, some cite the brutality of it (it's not that gory), but I expect it's because it's so similar to True Detective, but was made on a lesser budget with less well known actors, that was it's downfall. None the less, this is a well made TV show and deserves a second chance, but only if it is in keeping with what it set out to do...Tell a good story, with no over dramatisation, and using the simple basic methods of script writing...Keep it simple, make the plot believable, and keep the viewer hooked! I am hooked!

After watching the 8 episodes of Wicked City, I am appalled it was cancelled so hastily. In the aftermath of Ted Bundys fame, charisma, and semi-success, Kents story isn't shocking, it's appealing.

The luring intrigue of Ed Westwick as a serial killer with a misunderstood heart, holds up throughout the show, allowing mild sympathy for the killer, and growing disgust for the cops who hunt him down. The audience sees the while the killer exposes his truth, the "good-guy" cops hide theirs from all who know them.

Who will win, the good, bad, or other, and which is which?

While nearly perfect in believability, the only discouraging force in the show is Taissa Farmingas acting, parallel to her constant deer in the headlight approach to each situaion, in every other show. She is underwhelming, and distracting from the smoothness of the rest of the cast. Highly recommended, reboot desired, dvd release, a must!