17 Dec 15
17 Dec 15
Even if those limits are a bit like a glass ceiling. There's only so far an audience is willing to let you push things and the creators of these edgy series know that. It's like manners at a dinner table. People can theoretically behave however they'd wish. It's the unspoken rules that keep them within certain boundaries. Likewise there is an etiquette show's feel obliged to abide by for mainstream viewers.
This brings us to "Wicked City" and the rather
envelope pushing premise that featured a serial killer in a leading role, his
psychopathic cohort as his love interest and a morally duplicitous cop as their
foil. Right off the bat "Wicked City" didn't offer up any characters
to really care about. In the television landscape's ever increasing focus on
"grey" characters, "Wicked City" chose to focus on protagonists and antagonists that couldn't even pass for checkered.
It's tough to recruit viewers to check out a
show without a single character worth rooting for.
One explanation for why there might've been such a cache of bleak
characterizations is that "Wicked City" wasn't counting on selling
viewers on these characters because they weren't central to the long-term life
of the series. These characters were temporary. ABC planned "Wicked City" as an anthology series, though
it was never strongly promoted as one.
That lack of knowledge could’ve cost the series potential viewers who might have been intrigued to know they were investing their time in a series that would have a beginning, middle and end storyline that exclusively included these characters. After this season, the series would've switch gears a la "True Detective" or "American Horror Story" and start over with a completely new cast, setting etc.
That lack of knowledge could’ve cost the series potential viewers who might have been intrigued to know they were investing their time in a series that would have a beginning, middle and end storyline that exclusively included these characters. After this season, the series would've switch gears a la "True Detective" or "American Horror Story" and start over with a completely new cast, setting etc.
The good news with the anthology set-up for TV fans is that
they will typically get a complete story because what an anthology basically equals
is a renewable mini-series. The network typically goes in giving the go-ahead
for a "full season" order (which is normally around 10 episodes) and
with most of those being produced before it goes on the air, it's in the
network's interest to go ahead and air them, despite whatever happens with the
ratings.
11 Dec 15
02 Dec 15
Plus, who would’ve expected that after 8 episodes spent with Liz and Red on the run evading federal authorities, their undoing would be a caravan of crazies? It’s unclear if it was the jarring nature of their introduction or just the set up to begin with, that made the plot twist hard to accept.