Season Two of ‘Will Trent’ Continues To Be Charming And Implausible
It’s 2024 and activists continue to rally behind ACAB as a call to action and protest, but society still loves its cop shows. Law & Order came back, Law & Order: SVU celebrated 25 seasons this year. Christopher Meloni’s character, Elliot Stabler, was so loved and missed that he got his own spin-off with Law & Order: Organized Crime. And Law & Order also expanded into Canadian territory with Law & Order Toronto: Criminal Intent this season.
The Dick Wolf franchise is gritty and based in a world where cops are working for the citizens, sometimes overtime to solve cases that they take very personally, which we all know is not how it works. Shows like these, and the CSIs, the NCISes, FBIs, Criminal Minds, and the list goes on, are major contributors to the copaganda used the list goes on, are major contributors to the copaganda used to counter the real world experiences and criticisms of those who have to deal with law enforcement.
On the other side of that spectrum are the cozier mysteries that usually involve people outside the traditional structure of the law solving problems on their own. ABC Network’s Will Trent, although firmly based in the real world of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and Atlanta Police Department, falls more into this category than the other. It’s this feeling of coziness and the undeniable charm of the lead character, played by Ramón Rodriguez, that supersedes the ridiculous implausibility of the entire premise of the show.
For Will Trent to work as copaganda, you need to believe that someone who can’t read at all would achieve the level of success within law enforcement that this character has. We know that you don’t need a particularly high level of education to become a police officer in this country (which is part of the problem with police officers in this country.) And we know that people with learning differences, like dyslexia, do great things all of the time. But it’s ridiculous to go along with the idea that this guy has come up through the ranks and made it to the state level by somehow surrounding himself with people who protect his secret learning difference every step of the way. It’s a fantasy. Which is why it has become such a beloved part of my “head empty, no thoughts” late-night/insomnia playlist.
As Will Trent began its second season last week, they are still leaning into all of that fantasy and the easy-going rapport between the main characters that made the first season so successful. The story that over-arched last season was mainly focused on Erika Christensen’s Angie Polaski dealing with the trauma of her abusive past. This season is shaping up to be about Will dealing with his past and all of the unknowns about his parentage.
Greg Germann (Ally McBeal, Grey’s Anatomy) returned in the first episode as the man who murdered Will’s mother, and who might also be Will’s father. Susan Kelechi Watson (This Is Us) brought in some high energy and over-eagerness as an experienced bomb tech and potential love interest for Will. Her character, Cricket Watson, allows the audience to see the ways Will Trent manipulates situations to keep his dyslexia a secret. She also catalyzed a major investigation this season and created another layer of trauma for Will to process.
And there’s plenty of trauma to go around. Polaski is trying to return to work after recovering from being taken hostage by a serial killer at the end of season one. Will’s partner, Faith (Iantha Richardson), is stepping into the dating pool again. And Jake McLaughlin’s Ormewood is facing a marriage crisis. I tried to feel bad for him, but then I remembered that he cheated on his wife with Polaski at some point in the show’s backstory and I didn’t feel so bad anymore.
We can only hope that Betty The Dog and her sitter, Nico (played by Cora Lu Tran) are spared. And that the wardrobe department will continue allowing Faith, Will, and GBI deputy director Amanda Wagner (Sonja Sohn) to be impeccably styled. I wouldn’t mind more Mark-Paul Gosselaar, either.
New episodes of Will Trent airs on Tuesdays on ABC and stream the next day on Hulu.
