A typical start for a string of wicked events.
What They Say:
“Wicked City” follows a unique case set in a noteworthy era of L.A. history, starting with a murder case from 1982 centered on the rock ’n’ roll, cocaine-infused revelry of the Sunset Strip. Alliances are formed to solve a serial murder case.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Entering the club called Whisky Go Go, a young girl tries to meet the band to talk to them without no avail. She then goes over to meet a handsome young male talking about how she wants to meet the band to get a story. The male, seeing how he used to be in her same shoes says he can help her improve her chance of moving on up to bigger magazines, obviously trying to impress her for romantic reasons. However, we see this same guy leaving with another girl named Emily, but not before requesting a song on the radio to impress Emily. Once going to the top of the hill in the car, we start to see Emily put on moves for the handsome male and all seems fine. Just as her request song comes up, the male pulls the knifes and stabs her to death as the song plays. That is just the opening scene of Wicked City.
Wicked City is an anthology thriller drama developed by Get on Up’s Steven Baigelman for ABC. This series has two cops (Gabriel Luna and Jeremy Sisto) following a string of homicides plaguing the city of Los Angeles as they try to find out who the killer is and try to stop them from taking more victims. Wicked City, as a format, seems to follow a slow burn drama. Rather than having things one and done by the end of the episode, it wants to draw you in. Making the cast relatable and bringing emotional investment, Wicked City deliberately pace itself to keep the audience informed as well as brought along. Introduction of characters are done upfront, the ideas start to stand in place, but nothing feels resolved but rather seeded into place for a more intriguing drama. Now, this method would surely work and would seem interesting, if the execution didn’t feel so cliche for the first episode.
If you’ve seen any cop drama, then you probably seen a lot of the episode before. One is a lone seasoned cop that wants to handle things his way. The other is a upstart that seems to shine wherever he goes to move up. Weathered cop, doesn’t want said young star but gets forced upon him. All of these things played out within the series and unfortunately nothing feels deviated from the norm. True, the setting and the time feels different compared to other series. Relatively speaking for its time frame, it’s just a typical long drama cop show.
The script certainly doesn’t help. Multiple times we hear lines that come from cop 101 drama with quips such as “Don’t give me your constitution crap” and “I don’t need a new partner, I’m fine working alone.” These blase lines don’t do much to help it stand out. If anything, to some it maybe groan worthy as they almost know how the script will play out once knowing the format of Wicked City The script certainly feels restrained by the acting.
While the performances don’t feel phoned in, it doesn’t stand out. The way each actor come off with their lines, it feels like everyone did just enough to make it as believable as possible (lines notwithstanding). The few times it feels like there’s a breakthrough in moving beyond believability came from female actors Erika Christensen and Taissa Farmiga (Betty and Karen respectively) where their character’s motives seemed to twinkle a bit in the overall passable performances of the first episode.
In Summary:
The first episode of Wicked City did its job. Nothing more and nothing less. With its cast setup they’re certainly going to bring them closer, having them play off each other. However, much will need to improve as they try to escape the feeling of been there done that. The biggest focus going forward needs to emphasize the drama while contrasting itself from other cop shows so that remaining viewers will hook themselves into the series. If it can do that and improve everything else, it maybe become a good television build up cop drama.
Grade: C
