PILOT REVIEW: Wicked City

WICKED CITY

Starring: Jeremy Sisto, Taissa Farminga, Gabriel Luna, Jaime Ray Newman, Evan Ross, Ed Westwick, Anne Winters, Karolina Wydra, with Erika Christensen

Created by Steven Baigelman
Written by Steven Baigelman, Directed by Tom Shankland

THE SYNOPSIS
Wicked City is designed as a crime drama anthology that focuses on crime in Los Angeles throughout its history with each season focusing on a different era. This season is set in 1982 on the drug-fueled Sunset Strip. Kent Grainger (Ed Westwick) is the "Sunset Strip Killer" being hotly pursued by Detectives Jack Roth and Paco Contreras (Jeremy Sisto and Gabriel Luna). Grainger starts up a relationship with single mom Betty Beaumontaine (Erika Christensen) and she soon joins his killing spree. The story is also being followed by an aspiring journalist, Karen McClaren (Taissa Farminga). Rounding out the main cast is an undercover detective on the strip, Dianne Kubek (Karolina Wydra), Karen's boss, Diver (Evan Ross), and Jack's wife and daughter (Jaime Ray Newman and Anne Winters).

THE REVIEW
I had a very mixed reaction to Wicked City. I felt like it started very strong. The opening scene was very captivating and it set the tone and the era quite well with minimal dialogue and lots of 1980s music very fitting to the scene. Then the credits hit and I felt like the show did a whole lot of nothing for most of the rest of the episode before finding its way a little bit more towards the end. I love the idea behind this show but I'm a little disappointed in the execution though I still have hope for it in the long run.

I liked the cast but they weren't given much to work with. Erika Christensen is a pro but it was a pretty thankless role in the pilot. Jeremy Sisto was only OK but the show is not really about him, or at least I hope it isn't. Speaking of, is there a need to spend much time with the wife and daughter? If they're not integral to the story, I hope the show doesn't try to do too much humanizing of an inherently boring character like Detective Jack Roth. Also, stories of a grizzly veteran detective not getting along with a hotshot newbie are so overdone. Just saying. The real standout of the pilot was Ed Westwick, who was charismatic and interesting in the killer role. The network made a good call to make him the focus of the ad campaign.

I want this show to succeed because I think there's a place for these anthologies on network TV and I'd love to see different eras in future installments (1940s would be really cool!) But I'm not going to stick with it long if it's going to continue to bore me. This is a good storyline set in a really interesting era that hasn't been explored much on TV. You have such a good idea, creators and writers! Do something quality with it!

WILL I WATCH IT AGAIN?
Yes but as I said before, it better not bore me again or I'm done.