Will Trent Review

Horrible people skills when talking to strangers. Incredible insights to solve a mystery. Complicated relationships with all those close to him. If you think you’ve seen this character before, you’re probably right.

In yet another take on a Sherlock Holmes-type, Will Trent from the new ABC show of the same name is a mix of other Holmes-inspired characters. Trent (Ramón Rodríguez, The Wire, Charlie’s Angels) is a Georgia Bureau of Investigation detective who works on important cases, often alongside the Atlanta Police Department on high-priority homicide and missing person cases.

Trent suffers from dyslexia and has significant trouble reading, so he talks into a tape recorder to remember the notes on his cases. But Trent sees all the minor details everyone else misses, so he barely needs the recorder. He’s a combination of the full-of-himself House, a less neurotic Monk, and a Detective Goren from Law & Order Criminal Intent without the encyclopedic knowledge (although Goren knew everything about every subject in the world).

I haven’t read any of the eleven novels featuring this character, and I have a feeling most of this show’s audience hasn’t either, but the episodes are still enjoyable and understandable.

Every Holmes needs a Watson, and Trent finds out in the pilot that he cannot continue to work alone. His boss, Amanda, (Sonja Sohn from The Wire) asks Trent to “mentor” a partner named Faith (Isantha Richardson from American Soul). Faith isn’t thrilled about working with Trent, especially since he implicated Faith’s mother when he exposed corruption in the Atlanta Police Department. Add Trent’s inability to effectively open up or communicate (about himself or the cases they are supposedly working on together) and you get one tense relationship.

The show also follows the Atlanta Police Department, where Detective Angie Polaski (Erika Christensen, Ten Days in the Valley) is a recovering addict who is partnered with a veteran cop (Jake McLaughlin, Quantico). Their relationship is also complicated.

And of course, there’s a dog to humanize our tortured genius. Not a drug-sniffing German shepherd or a bomb-sniffing lab but an adorable chihuahua named Betty. Trent brings her home in the pilot after being told by the shelter that they can’t guarantee she wouldn’t be euthanized. She becomes his most important relationship, of course: he has his colleagues check up on her when he’s too immersed in a case to come home and indulges her by playing music to improve her mood. Betty seems to bring out the softer side of Trent that few others see.

The first two episodes are particularly compelling because of the guest stars. Jennifer Morrison (Once Upon a Time) and Mark-Paul Gosselaar (NYPD Blue, Saved by the Bell) play a soon-to-be-divorced couple whose daughter was kidnapped at the same time her friend was murdered. If the producers can continue to get top quality guest actors this show will certainly be more watch-worthy.

After the first two episodes, the series seems to be settling into a typical stand-alone episode-based police procedural, with Trent and Faith working special cases assigned by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and Michael and Angie working homicide cases in Atlanta. In the third episode, Trent, Faith, and Amanda head to a rural community where a modern-day murder is connected to a horrific, decades-old racist crime. While this story could have been compelling, the show’s unsteady writing caused the episode to lose believability. Writing that tries so hard to be different can also mean there are so many twists and turns that the show isn’t quite believable.

While the writing seems to be creative, the characters are cliched, with police show tropes ripped from Hill Street Blues and NYPD Blue. Co-partners who don’t want partners (Trent and Faith). Co-partners who had a one-night stand, but now aren’t together (Angie and Michael). The hard-nosed boss who barks out orders to motivate the detectives to move quicker (Amanda).

But in a television landscape filled with so many rather-generic police procedurals, the quality of the acting ensemble makes things just interesting enough that we want them to stick around for a while. Rodríguez is best when playing the sensitive, frustrated Trent. If writers let him explore that more than the “crime-solving mastermind,” the show will thrive. 

At one point in episode two, Angie says, “Thinking about the past always gets me in trouble.” In the case of Will Trent, the more trouble these characters get into by examining past wounds, the greater the chance the show grows into something compelling. It’s not there yet, but this case is still solvable and it doesn’t take a genius to see that.

Will Trent airs Tuesdays at 10pm Eastern / 9 Central on ABC and it can also be streamed on Hulu.