The Will Trent Effect: What Makes This Show Feel So Refreshingly Different From the Usual Police Procedural?

Since it premiered in January 2023, ABC’s Will Trent has been a massive hit. The network just renewed the series for a third season, and the GBI and APD will return to solve more cases.

The renewal wasn’t much of a surprise because Will Trent’s ratings have risen to 4.8 million viewers and a .4 in the demo.

What makes Will Trent so intriguing to watch? Why is it different from other police procedurals? There are many reasons, but at its core are the characters.

Based on Karin Slaughter’s best-selling novels, the hour-long procedural focuses on Special Agent Will Trent of the GBI.

While no two series are the same, Will Trent is most similar to The Mentalist and Mobk, whose protagonists also see key details differently than most investigators. Adrian Monk also had a dark past, and digging into a character’s past allows for more interesting storylines.

Will Trent Connects the Characters to the Cases.

The main element that differentiates Will Trent from other procedurals is that Will, the main character, is neurodiverse.

He’s been forced to find different ways to communicate with others and spot details at crime scenes that others wouldn’t because he’s had dyslexia since he was a child.

Both Erika Christensen and Sonya Sohn mentioned in interviews that Ramon Rodriguez does an excellent job of handling Will’s battle of emotions and challenges.

Part of the series’ strength was that it included the characters’ backstories and histories in cases. You can have many other procedurals in the background and not invest in the characters as much, only the cases

Will Trent was different right at the beginning because it explored Will and Angie’s traumatic past in the foster care system and how their experiences propelled them into law enforcement. Will was ridiculed for his dyslexia in foster care, and he’s still embarrassed that he can’t read properly.

Will felt a kinship towards children, and Angie related to teens who had been sexually abused or trafficked. The series featured many storylines about foster care, abuse, and sexual trauma in Season 1, but they’ve delved more into Will’s trauma in Season 2 and his longing for a family.

This has been an overlying arc for Will, but the series has expanded on it by showing more flashbacks of Will’s trauma and intensifying his need to bond with his mother’s side of the family.

While Will Trent Season 1 established the series and characters, Will Trent Season 2 has delved more into their characters. Sonja Sohn mentioned that Amanda’s centric in Will Trent Season 2 Episode 5 kicked off the deep dive into the characters’ arcs.

It demonstrates how certain issues trigger the characters, and “every principal character has a story arc featured in the episodes that take you into their world.” according to Sohn. Amanda’s arc ventured into a topic not discussed much — female cops who are assaulted on the job.

So often, they’re trying to prove their worth that they hide what happened to them, but no one understands that pain.

Will Trent has done so much about sexual trauma now with both Angie and Amanda, and it’s added depth to these women and showed how far they will go to protect other survivors.

Knowing more about the characters helps viewers relate to them. In the books and even in Will Trent Season 1, Det. Ormewood was often portrayed as an angry jerk. It added dimension once they peeled back a few layers about his family life, so I’m anxious to know more.

The series has dropped a few hints about Faith Mitchell but hasn’t delved too much into her history yet, other than one centric in Season 1 concerning her ex-husband.

Faith is as fierce and loyal as her mom and Amanda, but learning more about her roots and triggers will add even more layers.

The Cast Features a Believeable Connection.

While the series typically showcases two cases — a series one for the GBI and a more humorous one for the APD, the best episodes have been when everyone teamed up and worked together to clear someone’s name.

The cast has such a wonderful rapport, and while they seem to be on opposite sides, they all want justice.

Will Trent often manages to add humor, and some of the funniest scenes included Will and Det. Ormewood digging up a chest of files to prove that Sam and Faith were innocent in Will Trent Season 1 Episode 9.

Angie, Faith, and Det. Ormewood made a reluctant but winning team as they worked together to discover Chuck Murray has a shed with hundreds of photos of Amanda with red X’a. It was very creepy, and Will had suspected it.

Will Trent Utilizes Big-name Actors in Guest-starring Roles.

Since Will Trent began, the series has used big-name actors to lead in important storylines. In the series premiere, Mark-Paul Gosselaar and Jennifer Morrison portrayed Paul and Abigail Campano, whose daughter had been kidnapped.

Paul was also one of the foster kids Will grew up with who used to bully him. Gosselarr and Rodriguez shared such a fun vibe that the two seemed more like frenemies or family by the end of Will Trent Season 1.

Several of Will’s family members have also been well-known actors, including Greg Germann as James Ulster and John Ortiz as his long-lost uncle, Antonio Miranda.

The series also has employed big-name actors for fun storylines.

Recently, Susan Kelechi Watson appeared as bomb expert Cricket Dawson, and the fans loved her so much that they were devastated that her arc was so short that she died.

Phaedra Parks appeared as an Ex-Wive of Atlanta in one of the funnier storylines, similar to the Real Housewives of Atlanta. The role was just as catty and dramatic.