“Will Trent,” one of ABC’s newest cop shows, has sparked interest as both a four-star show and a recreation of Karin Slaughter’s beloved book series of the same name. The series stars Ramón Rodríguez (Will Trent), Erika Christensen (Angela Polaski), Iantha Richardson (Faith Mitchell), and Jake Mclaughlin (Michael Ormewood) as detectives in Atlanta Georgia, each filled with tons of “character.”
What I found made these characters so strong was their ties to their past. Each detective had copious amounts of trauma from their former lives. For instance, Trent was abused as a child in the foster care system, Mitchell was raised by his single mom since the age of 15, and Ormewood battles problems that arise from his past mistakes in his marriage.
I love how this is emphasized by giving each character different trauma responses that affect the show. Trent gets hallucinations of past traumatic experiences, while Polaski falls through the cracks of drug addiction, but what makes their stories so interesting and in-depth compared to those found in other shows is their diversity.
Each person in this show has a different trauma and, in turn, a different coping mechanism. It made the story feel far more alive than others like “The Rookie” or “High Potential,” both being put in the spotlight with “Will Trent.” While all three shows revolved around crime, I was drawn closest to “Will Trent” because, even without any experiences like theirs, it was easy to feel their emotions making connecting with the characters easier too.
Not only is this diversity shown in the way they act, but also in their fashion. Trent always wears a three-piece suit, which I found helped express his character’s confidence and authority, proving he is both charismatic and unbreaking.
Michell, on the other hand, often wears sweaters with vibrant colors, and yet they are both partners in crime. I’m impressed with how different each character can be, but at the same time co-exist in one story.
With such great characters, it’s easy to tell that this story came from a series of novels, where each character meticulously created over years of storytelling, something that TV and media often does not get. You can tell the producers must have had some time on their hands with less character-building because the music is phenomenal. Every time the end credits play, I feel like I’m actively within the story with the tune being “traditionally detective.”
In fact, not only is the music incredibly noir, but the whole atmosphere too. When Trent sits in his office, there is always light creeping through the shades that illuminate the room in hues of yellow. Not only that, but the structure of the show, with each episode often showing how the crime was committed, leaves me waiting until Trent looks over the scene and tells me what happened.
The directors also used many shots to convey extra suspense and tension in a detective fashion by pointing out specific details while a crime is committed to make viewers speculate. This helped make the show much more engaging because, unlike most detective dramas, where you watch the detective solve the case with clues you didn’t even know of, in “Will Trent,” it feels like you know just as much as the detectives the whole way through.
Of course, you can also expect a lot of action in this show. Not an episode goes by without a bullet finding its way into someone. This impressed me; most cop shows have to juggle either a focus on relationships, cool-paced drama, or action, but “Will Trent” easily does all those things at once, with the bonus of a cute dog. Which, by the way, is reason enough to watch the show on its own.
Trent’s Chihuahua, Betty Maria White Trent, is introduced in the first episode, to which Trent ends up having one of his strongest bonds throughout the series. In each episode, Betty ends up trotting onto someone’s lap, and with elaborate sweaters to symbolize Trent’s love for Betty. When Betty appeared, it was always a nice, refreshing way to stray from the depressing crime show, one example of many times I half thought “Will Trent” was a comedy series.
This show ended up impressing me with the second season being my favorite so far, but that could change with the release of the third season. The show got over 20 million live views with each season, and I would say it deserved it. The cast was always good, the story was always enticing, the atmosphere couldn’t feel more noir, and the characters made me rewatch the show four days after I finished it.
My only problem was with the first part of the series. While each crime solved was both interesting and emotional, it felt a lot like “Scooby-Doo” in the way you can tell who the criminal is early on. There also seemed to be a system to the way each episode was carried out.
The show would start with the crime, and then Trent would show up. There would always be a straightforward detective case, and then there would be a big twist that pulls attention back to the characters. Luckily, with the final half of the first season and in all of the second, this system is much rarer.
All in all, I would give “Will Trent” an 8/10 for strong characters but repetitiveness in the first season. I strongly suggest you add it to your watch list; in fact, I implore you to throw away your watch list and just start watching “Will Trent.”
