Wellington Paranormal Season 4 Episode 2 Review: The Wicked Man
Wellington Paranormal Season 4 Episode 2, “The Wicked Man,” pulls pages out of The Wicker Man and Midsommar‘s playbooks to delightfully whimsical results. It’s an amalgam of fun folk horror elements.
While not necessarily the show’s best episode, “The Wicked Man” is still good fun. Even Wellington Paranormal‘s so-so outings are still leagues better than your standard sitcom. Plus, who doesn’t want to watch Minogue almost become a ritualistic sacrifice via a pagan cult to a goat god?
MAAKA: If a pigeon or a flock of pigeons are near or in the middle of a drug bust, the pigeons are not culpable.
Maaka Pohatu and Thomas Sainsbury are a pitch-perfect comedic duo, and the show rightfully gives them more of a spotlight this season. The upside to these characters is any one of them could carry their own spinoff. That’s the product of rock-solid writing and airtight performances.
“The Wicked Man” manages to craft a rich, intricate world in the episode’s 20-some-minute runtime. It’s always impressive when any show does this. It’s not easy to create intriguing mythos in a short amount of time. Wellington Paranormal deftly executes this task, depicting the terrifying cultist world of Sales Island.
Additionally, every one of the cult members looking significantly older than their actual ages is a hilarious touch. Participating in cult activities ages you severely, people!
PARKER: I didn’t say they were culpable, Sarge. I said they impeded my investigation by im-poo-ding on me.
That said, perhaps more time spent in this world would’ve better served the story. The pacing feels inconsistent at times, notably toward the end. While most Wellington Paranormal outings end abruptly, “The Wicked Man” boasts a narrative that could’ve stretched at least two episodes.
Spending extra time immersing ourselves in the story of Sales Island, maybe even exploring more inexplicable disappearances courtesy of the cult, would have added a fresh spin to the standard Wellington Paranormal episodic model.
MINOGUE: Hey, O’Leary? Are you experiencing an ominous sense of foreboding?
Sure, the show’s format works well for what it is, but injecting new life into that model, switching things up to keep viewers on their toes, certainly doesn’t hurt anyone.
We’ll see what these last episodes hold for us. Here’s hoping Wellington Paranormal goes out with a (polite) bang, delivering all the supernatural goodies, brilliantly biting dialogue and hilarious performances for which it’s known. “The Wicked Man” is a bite-sized, lighthearted dose of folk horror featuring our fave paranormal unit bumbling through yet another outlandish case.
Stray Observations:
- In the opening scene, the whiteboard behind Sergeant Maaka claims there were 16 taser incidents at the precinct that week. That’s 12 more than the week before! This reviewer bets at least 95 percent of those belong to Minogue.
- Looking at the “Daily Briefing” section on the whiteboard behind Maaka, you’ll see a line that addresses handcuffs and how they’re solely for “work purposes only.” Perhaps we need an episode of Wellington Paranormal showcasing the various uses of handcuffs beyond work purposes? No, not that. Get your minds out of the gutter! (Okay, maybe a smattering of that.)
- Minogue would confuse “Virgo” with “virgin.” That bit is such a brilliant episode-long gag.
- As this is Wellington Paranormal‘s final (sniffle) season, hopefully, we’ll see O’Leary get a girlfriend. No particular reason other than representation is essential, and we all wish nothing but unadulterated happiness for O’Leary. She deserves it after spending years tolerating Minogue’s Minogue-ness.
- We need to see Parker get in a tussle with those pigeons. You know, the ones im-poo-ding on him.
- Captain Quinn is back, baby! You might remember him from the Season 2 episode, “Taniwha.”
What did you think of this episode of Wellington Paranormal? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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Wellington Paranormal airs Wednesdays at 9/8c on The CW, with next-day streaming on HBO Max.
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Melody McCune
Melody loves TV. Maybe too much. Besides being a Senior Writer for Tell-Tale TV, she's the Managing Editor for Geek Girl Authority, an Independent Contractor for Sideshow Collectibles, and a Senior Writer for Eulalie Magazine. Additionally, she has bylines in Culturess, Widget, and inkMend on Medium. To top it all off, she's a critic for Rotten Tomatoes and CherryPicks.