What to Watch on Tuesday: ‘Wicked City’ debuts on ABC

Set in this milieu, ABC’s new serial-killer drama, “Wicked City”, could use a jolt of something, as the first episode, premiering Tuesday at 10 p.m., often comes off as stiff as its initial victim.

If the series didn’t begin with a graphic murder, the whole thing might seem more campy than creepy, what with the silly ’80s hair and clothes.

When a serial killer brutally claims the lives of unsuspecting women as they perform sexual favors for him, it’s not “wicked”. Along the way he finds love with sadistic single mother and nurse Betty Beaumontaine (Erika Christensen, “Parenthood”). And we’re supposed to be entertained as LAPD detectives Jack Roth (Jeremy Sisto, “Suburbia”) and Paco Contreras (Gabriel Lunas) try to hunt him down.

The writing is cliched, the characters cartoonish and the action tedious, punctured by bloodshed.

I’m not certain why ABC waited so late in the new fall season to unveil Wicked City, but it’s finally here. If only it were possible to mute everything else. The Sunset Strip, where all the action happens, is the place to be seen and make contacts. He is likely meant to come off as charismatic but feels more like an oily, obvious operator in the hands of Ed Westwick (“Gossip Girl”), who is in a tough spot since he is revealed nearly immediately.

Did Wicked City leave you hungry (like the wolf) for more? So to help ease the transition, Kent chose to tie Betty up and basically have her play dead while he got down to business. Kent phones radio stations with dedications to the women he’s murdering.

The possibility exists that the stronger members of the cast could make a show with better dialogue work, but one of the dangers of the audience knowing who the killer is at the outset is that it might become quickly tedious waiting for the Sisto and Luna characters to catch up or be consistently set back as the body count grows.

Zippy though the vintage tunes may be, the rest of the time we’re stuck listening to clunky dialogue, and expected to find Kent and his killing compelling. There’s no way where we can say that they aren’t. Kent gets very frustrated with her because he has another friend meeting them there and is something he wanted to show Betty that he thinks she will like. Pagers and beepers go off at opportune and dramatic moments; Kent’s favorite turn of phrase is “Kill me!”