Not always good empirically, but better than the boring title and awful opening sequence would suggest, ABC’s Will Trent quickly emerges as above-average television procedure — even if it’s precisely those structural trappings that so often undermine it.
Will Trent delivers a distinctive lead character and leading performances, a promising ensemble cast and – based on the first two episodes – it seems easily able to appeal to the same audiences that found solace in Netflix’s Lincoln Lawyer and Amazon’s Reacher.
Will Trent
The Bottom Line A television drama with promise.
air date: 10 p.m. Tuesday, January 3 (ABC)
Occupation: Ramón Rodriguez, Erika Christensen, Iantha Richardson, Sonja Sohn, Jake McLaughlin
Creator: Liz Heldens and Daniel T. Thomsen from the books by Karin Slaughter
Named after the same strategy that got us Lincoln Rhyme: Hunt for the Bone Collector on NBC for a few months in 2020, Will Trent is based on a long-running series of novels by Karin Slaughter set in Atlanta — a fact that exists Fans could probably have deduced with a more descriptive title. Surely the current title is the least vibrant imaginable, and it falls short of Trent himself, an endearingly quirky, interestingly damaged special agent for the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
Will (Ramón Rodriguez) is one of those archetypal Holmese investigators who just sees the world differently. His secret gifts — observation and not following the book because Will, we quickly learn, is dyslexic — were honed during a rough childhood in the Atlanta foster system and various group homes.
Adapted by Liz Heldens and Daniel T. Thomsen, the series begins with Will experiencing a setback from his role in orchestrating a major police corruption investigation. With GBI and APD sharing an office building, Will is constantly forced to interact with people who think he’s a rat or a snitch, which becomes even more difficult when he’s called out on an important case involving the department’s cooperation requires.
The case follows a mother (Jennifer Morrison) who returns to her fancy suburban home, believing her teenage daughter has been murdered and in a fight kills the man she believes to be the perpetrator. APD decides it’s an easy fix, but Will uses his superpower – like so many Sherlock wellies, which are mostly illustrated with lots of squinting – to poke holes in what seems obvious, much to everyone’s chagrin. He soon finds himself dealing with the victim’s uncouth father (Mark-Paul Gosselaar), who knows Will from a shared past, a grumpy boss (Sonja Sohn’s Amanda), and a reluctant new APD partner (Iantha Richardson’s Faith), whose grudge against Will is personal to do.
Alongside but quickly interacting with the main case is undercover detective Angie (Erika Christensen), a recovering addict and another slice of Will’s traumatic past; and her new partner Michael (Jake McLaughlin), who comes across as a bit of a jerk, but apparently has a high case clearance rate, so we should think of him as a capable work-in-progress rather than some bad cop.
The over-qualified presence of a raw Morrison and an expertly stormy and bullying Gosselaar built an immediate investment and made me wish the first case could possibly have been stretched out over an entire season rather than rushing to a conclusion by the end of the second hour. That’s obviously how the cable version of the series would have played out, and I’m concerned that Will Trent might switch to a case-of-the-week structure, perhaps exemplified by the completely uninteresting B-case in the second hour. Giving everyone more breathing room could have eased some of the challenges in explaining the jurisdiction of the GBI and how it and Will fit into the Atlanta law enforcement scene. But at least the general narrative of Atlanta is well-handled, and the two-episode spread of Will’s initial case offers some chance for character details to emerge.
Will is just a good and interesting character, full of physical and psychological scars that mark everything he does – from his reluctant decision early in the series to adopt an adorable abandoned Chihuahua named Betty, to his under-renovated house in a rough neighborhood to his relationship with Angie, which is half booty play and half necessary therapy together. Though Rodriguez is solid in the lead — a good mix of elegant and damaged, with just enough humorous undertones — Christensen, disheveled and dangerously edgy throughout, is the real standout. I could immediately understand why the Will/Angie pairing is the type of relationship I could invest in on the site.
I could argue that the first two episodes of Will Trent spend too much time formulating explanations for their eccentricities and pathologies, but the last thing I ever want to do when it comes to a show is complain about it , that the characters are too clearly and specifically motivated . That goes for most of the main characters, including Faith, who tries to find her place in a department dominated by her mother’s now-conflicting legacy, and Amanda, who’s still cop enough to convince Will for his role in the von to annoy her brought corruption case pursue him. Only Michael still doesn’t have a catch after two hours, and again, that’s a lot better than shows of this nature usually manage so early in their run.
The audio dropouts are much more familiar in the broadcast range and are almost instantaneous. The opening scene, which rehashes the main crime, is bizarrely operatic, with slo-mo screams and heightened violence that borders on parody – director Paul McGuigan makes one bad decision after another, mistaking flashiness for emotional involvement – only to immediately be thrown into skipping a purely comical scene of Will trying to get rid of his dog at an animal shelter. Repeatedly in these two episodes, humorous beats and clumsy banter undermine attempts to give seriousness to Will and Angie’s backstory.
I would have loved to have seen another episode or two of Will Trent, to find out how it works from week to week, to see how the show embraces letting their characters’ personalities drive the drama rather than using the drama explain the personalities of the characters. Still, the desire to see additional episodes is as commendable as I’ve managed to give aired drama in the last year or two.