2015 was a year in which quite a few new shows premiered to critical acclaim and instant adoration, although that definitely wasn’t the case for every freshman series. While NBC’s Truth Be Told was met with an impenetrable wall of criticism, ABC’s Wicked City would probably win out as the biggest failure of the year, getting canceled after only three episodes aired. There are people out there who loved the crime drama, though, and they’ll be pleased to know that the remainder of Wicked City Season 1 is now available to stream on Hulu. Well, mostly.
At this point, there are seven episodes of Wicked City available for binge-viewing, with the eighth and final episode still absent. That’s mostly understandable, as production on the show just ended a little over a month ago. According to executive producer Laurie Zaks, we can possibly expect to see it popping up at some point relatively soon. Here’s how she put it.
Zaks has been a great source of information about Wicked City’s fate ever since the ABC cancellation, and she was the person who soothed irate fans by saying the eight episodes that were filmed told a complete story with a planned ending. There are few things worse than a canceled TV show that didn’t get a chance to create an ending. Zaks has also been teasing the show’s uanaired episodes finding a home, and now we know Hulu is that home.
The first three episodes of Wicked City were already on the streaming service, so Hulu execs probably had a good idea of the traffic they could expect from securing the remaining five episodes. The rapidly declining ratings (coupled with almost universally negative reviews) pushed ABC’s decision to make the killer thriller the first network cancellation of the fall season while also pulling it from the schedule, but maybe the show will gain a larger audience on a streaming service, when dedicating a weekly hour of primetime isn’t necessary.
Created by Get on Up screenwriter Steven Baigelman, the 1980s-set Wicked City certainly had a cast tailor-made for TV audiences, with Gossip Girl’s Ed Westwick starring as a woman-hunting serial killer, Parenthood’s Erika Christensen as his curious new partner, and Law & Order’s Jeremy Sisto as the troubled detective tracking them down. There’s also Matador’s Gabriel Luna, American Horror Story’s Taissa Farmiga, Tyrant’s Anne Winters and more.
So when you’re done unwrapping presents and cleaning up, catch up with (most of) the remainder of Wicked City lone season on Hulu, and let us know if ABC was dumb for canceling it so quickly.
