‘Will Trent’ an Uncommonly Interesting Protagonist Boosts ABC’s Procedural

A mother, Jennifer Morrison, returns to her suburban home and believes her teenage daughter has been murdered. She then fights off the man she suspects is the perpetrator. APD thinks the case is easy to solve. Will, however, uses his superpower which, like many Sherlockian gumshoes and illustrated mostly with lots of squinting in order to find holes in what seemed obvious much to everyone’s dismay. Soon, he has to deal with the victim’s father (Mark-Paul Gosselaar), whom he knows from a shared history. He also has to deal with a boss (Sonja Sohn’s Amanda), and a reluctant partner in APD (Iantha Richardson’s Faith), whose grudge against Will is personal.

While Angie Christensen, an undercover vice detective, is quickly interacting with Will’s main case

Also, Michael McLaughlin, her new partner, comes off as a bit of a snob but seems to have a high case clearance rate so we should take him as a work-in-progress and not as a bad cop.

I was instantly invested in the overqualified appearances of Morrison and Gosselaar, who are both expertly blustery but also bullying. This is how the cable version would have been presented. However, I worry that Will Trent may transition to a case/week structure, as illustrated by the completely unengaging B-case at the end of the second hour. It might have been easier to explain the GBI’s jurisdiction, and how it fits into the Atlanta law enforcement scene. The general portrayal of Atlanta is good, and Will’s first case spread over two episodes gives some opportunity for character details.

Will is a great and interesting character. He is full of psychological and physical scars that influence everything he does, from his reluctant series opening decision to adopt Betty, an abandoned chihuahua, to his under-renovation home, in a rough area, to his relationship with Angie, which is half booty and half necessary therapy. Rodriguez is solid as the lead role, a mix of damaged and dapper with enough humor undercurrents. But Christensen is the real standout, frazzled, dangerously on edge, and he is a great actor. It was easy to see why Will/Angie is the kind of relationship I would want to invest in.

Although I could argue that the first two Will Trent episodes spent too much time explaining their peculiarities and pathologies to the viewers, the last thing that I want to do with a broadcast program is to complain about the motivations of the characters. Faith is one of the main characters. She struggles to find her place within a dysfunctional department. Amanda, on the other hand, is still enough of an officer to be angry at Will for his involvement in the corruption case she forced him to pursue. Only Michael isn’t quite able to hook the audience after just two hours, which is far better than most shows of this kind.

These tone failures are more common in broadcast spaces, and they happen almost instantly. The opening scene, which rehashes the main crime, is strangely operatic with slomo screams, and heightened violence bordering upon parody. Director Paul McGuigan makes a series of poor decisions by confusing emotional commitment with flashiness. Only to quickly transition into a comical scene with Will trying to take his dog to a shelter. In these episodes, funny beats and clunky banter subvert the attempts to give gravity to Will and Angie’s backstory.

To see Will Trent on a weekly basis and to learn how the series operates, I would like to see a few more episodes. This will allow me to understand how the series lets its characters’ personalities drive drama rather than using drama to explain their personalities. However, I am still able to give it as much praise as any broadcast drama in the past year.