Erika Christensen romances a serial killer on ‘Wicked City’

ABC’s new drama “Wicked City” is aptly named: Set in the anything-goes club scene in LA in the early 80s, the show follows the exploits of a serial killer (played by Ed Westwick of “Gossip Girl”) and the cop (played by Jeremy Sisto of “Suburgatory”) trying to track him down. But Westwick’s Kent isn’t just some sick loner — he gets involved with a lonely single mother, played by Erika Christensen (most recently of “Parenthood”). As to what could suck someone in to such a monster, well, Christensen says it’s complicated.

“She’s on such a ride from the moment she meets Kent. She’s just in, hook, line and sinker, but she doesn’t know where she’s going. I think that she’s going to learn a lot about herself,” she explains.

It seems hard to believe she could be so oblivious to the actions of her paramour, and Christensen says she may eventually work out what Kent’s up to. “I think she has to at some point, and I don’t know how much she learns, how fast, and how on board she’s going to be with it. But we have to start from the place of knowing that she is madly in love with this person,” she explains.

And Kent is pretty good at getting people to like him. “He’s everything she’s ever wanted in a man. He makes her feel comfortable in her own skin. He makes her feel sexy and wanted and he offers an excitement that she doesn’t have in her life. She’s an abused person. She’s not been treated well. And so for someone to be a kind of Prince Charming for her, she’s going to follow him wherever she goes.”

It’s certainly a pretty drastic shift in tone from the world of “Parenthood,” and Christensen jokes that she’s a little concerned about her fans. “Listen, I’ve been trying to warn them that this is not the same thing, but it should be a whole different kind of fun.”

And it’s been fun for her to explore a new kind of character. “I am loving seeing the twists and turns she takes. She’s learning so much about herself so fast in the course of these 11 episodes. And if we find out that she’s crazy, then I haven’t done that in a while, so that’s fun.”

Might she be referring to her early turn as the deranged stalker of a cute classmate in the 2002 teen classic “Swimfan”?

“Yeah, getting back to my roots, there,” Christensen says with a smile.

Follow Ned Ehrbar on Twitter:@nedrick