ABC serial killer show fails in execution

Certain couples are just meant to be together. Antony and Cleopatra. Napoleon and Josephine. Taylor Swift and pretty much anyone who's ever been in Us Weekly.

Then there's Kent Grainger (Ed Westwick), who can't perform sexually unless he ties a girl up while she pretends to be dead, and Betty Beaumontaine (Erika Christensen), who experiences that and deems it "weird and kind of amazing."

They're the central couple of "Wicked City" (10 p.m. Tuesday, ABC), the next-to-last of the networks' new fall shows to debut — NBC's "Chicago Med" doesn't drop until Nov. 17 — and the final confirmation that this is, yet again, another underwhelming crop of series.

A month into the fall, ABC's "Quantico" and "Dr. Ken," NBC's "Blindspot" and Fox's "Rosewood" have earned full seasons. And while nothing has been canceled, NBC's Las Vegas-based "The Player" is in trouble, and its cringe-worthy comedy "Truth Be Told" is on borrowed time after just one airing. ABC's soapy, dopey "Blood & Oil" is about to run dry. And Fox's "Minority Report" already is a dead show walking, having had its order cut from 13 episodes to 10.

It isn't fashionable to say this, but there are still plenty of things network TV does well, including single-camera comedies, crime procedurals and anything Shonda Rimes touches. But when broadcast TV tries to compete with boundary-pushing cable channels, you get weird misfires like "Wicked City."

Set in 1982 on the Sunset Strip, the drama follows serial killer Kent and the duo tracking him: Detective Jack Roth (Jeremy Sisto), who helped bring the Hillside Strangler to justice, and aspiring journalist Karen McClaren (Taissa Farmiga), who's slumming it at the gossip rag L.A. Notorious.

Claiming to be in real estate or the music business or whatever else he thinks will seal the deal, Kent haunts the legendary Whisky A Go Go, looking for young ladies to impress. "I was you once, trying to get ahead in this town," he says, repeatedly. "Kill me, I like to give back." Then when he selects a victim, he calls in a song dedication to a local radio station. That song always happens to play during the perfect, intimate moment. Then he butchers the girl.

The only part of that ritual that really works is the music. The pilot alone features tunes by Iggy Pop, Foreigner, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, Pat Benatar, Soft Cell and Romeo Void, as well as five songs from Billy Idol. The latter, with Ratt forebears Mickey Ratt, is re-created in the shadows in concert at the Whisky.

The atmosphere is terrific. The pay phones-and-pagers nostalgia is a welcome change from the norm. And the idea is, no pun intended, killer. But "Wicked City" is undone in the execution.

Westwick, so wonderful as "Gossip Girl's" predatory peacock Chuck, can't seem to get a handle on Brent. He's never as threatening or damaged as he should be. And Sisto's detective is a flat-out bore. He's an old-school cop, set in his ways, who's forced to partner with a younger man (Gabriel Luna) he doesn't trust. It's the same formula as NBC's chasing-Charles Manson drama "Aquarius," minus the charisma of its lead, David Duchovny.

"Aquarius" worked OK on NBC, but "Wicked City" is, first and foremost, a cable idea trapped in the confines of a broadcast network.

A few weeks ago, I would have said its mix of tame sex and less-than-gruesome murders makes as much sense as Playboy without the nudity. But now that that's a thing, who knows? Maybe the producers of "Wicked City" are just ahead of some strange new curve.

— Contact Christopher Lawrence at clawrence@reviewjournal.com. On Twitter: @life_onthecouch.