In 1982, ABC was running in its 10 p.m. Tuesday timeslot “Hart to Hart.” Every episode that year opened with Lionel Stander telling us, “when they met, it was murder.”
A tale of a team of mixed-race cops trying to stop a team of mixed-gender serial killers in 1982 Los Angeles, “Wicked City” comes to us from writer-producer Steven Baigelman, who also penned 1996’s “Feeling Minnesota” (which garnered positive reviews from 16% of critics polled by Rotten Tomatoes) and 2002’s “Brother’s Keeper” (40% positive reviews).
The “Wicked City” cast includes Jeremy Sisto (“Law & Order”), Taissa Farmiga (“American Horror Story”) and Erika Christensen (“Parenthood”).
... drenched in an unpalatable sensationalism …
... abysmal …
The San Francisco Chronicle says:
... there should be a greater sense of suspense than there is. …
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette says:
... not a terrible show for fans of crime dramas but it’s not great either, occupying the same mushy middle ground as summer’s “Aquarius” on NBC. …
… great soundtrack or no, there isn’t a lot in the pilot that encourages sticking around …
... heinous …
Offensive, predictable and awful …
... Why did anyone think television needed yet another serial-killer drama? Why did someone at ABC greenlight this pallid copycat, which is almost exactly like NBC’s “Aquarius,” a bland retro murder mystery that aired on NBC last summer? How did “Wicked City” survive the pilot-script stage, when its groan-inducing dialogue and paper-thin characterizations were surely obvious? …
10 p.m. Tuesday. ABC.
