Wicked City

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!

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 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.

This might be just one of those cases where the pilot is far better than the rest of the series but this first episode is just impressive.

The story is really original and every character in the show has the potential to be a bad guy/girl. I was specifically impressed by Erica Christensen who plays a role with more depth than in Parenthood.

As per Jeremy Sisto and Ed Westwick, both are giving an excellent show.

This story has a real potential and can run for many seasons if the quality of the scenario doesn't deteriorate after the first 10 episodes... as it's often the case (with the producers firing the expensive writers and directors and replace them with amateurs).

And the music is good too.

If you are looking for an exciting fast paced drama after the disappointing line up fall has had to offer def. check out Wicked City. ABC def saved the best for last saving standout actor Ed Westwick (Gossip Girl) paired up with the equally talented Erika Christensen. The two take us on a Bonnie & Clyde like adventure filled with lots of action, suspense, & great musical soundtrack. The series is different in that you see each point of view given its own substantial air time and instead of waiting episode after episode to find out who did it (Pretty Little Liars) anyone which can be tiresome we already now! The excitement is in the chase of will they or won't they get caught! Westwick shows just how diverse his acting is and this is just the beginning of what is shaping up to be an amazing life long career for the young British Actor. The cast also features Taissa Farmiga popular for her work in (AHS) and Jeremy Sisto who has had many great roles over the years as a sharp but flawed detective dealing with issues of his own. Gabriel Luna & Karolina Wydra are ones to watch as well! Be sure to check this series out of you are looking for a fresh new series to dive into! Also the series will take on an entirely different case each season which will keep things interesting although I will personally miss the steamy chemistry between Westwick & Christensen on screen.