Will Trent?
Will Trent do what?
No, it's WILL TRENT -- like PERRY MASON -- that's the name of ABC's latest crime show. Before you lose interest, give us a chance.
Now we'd understand if you already bailed. ABC crime show. What is this another ROOKIE? As if one starring the aged dream 'boy' of aged men and women Nathan Fillion. At 51, he's THE ROOKIE. And it's played for something other than comedy -- at least THE ROOKIE: FEDS has Niecy Nash-Betts to provide some life to the tired concept.
WILL TRENT could be a tired concept but the cast carries it into something more than you've been able to expect from ABC for years now. Take Sonja Sohn who plays Will Trent's boss Amanda. Tired, beleaguered and just not in the mood for it -- for anything. Will's upset that set him up to be loathed by other members of the police force? Well, she points out that same case (where he busted bad cops) got him a promotion. Faith (Iantha Richardson) not glad that she teamed her with Will (who got her mom kicked off the force after 30 years)? Well, Amanda points out to Faith, this is a great learning experience if she'll see it as such.
Then you've got Michael played by Jake McLaughlin who was so great in BELIEVE and QUANTICO. He doesn't play guys like Michael, though. Michael is not trust worthy -- not when he's questioning a student who, let's be honest, he's beating up outside the kid's dorm room and not when he's happy a former female partner is being paired with him again -- the previous problems are alluded to when she brings up his wife. Jake manages to stretch into the role and fill it out -- our only fear is that the writers might try to clean Michael up to make him more like the type of character Jake usually plays.
Mark-Paul Gosselaar is in the cast and we did a cheer over that followed by a sad note. He usually plays the good guy characters like Jake McLaughlin does. In this one, he's a man cheating on his wife who also loathes Will (they were in the same orphanage as children). Maybe the fact that he's playing a different will change the outcome of this series? Mark-Paul has evolved into a very strong actor and we've enjoyed him in several TV shows over the last years -- TRUTH BE TOLD, PITCH and THE PASSAGE -- but not one of them has lasted more than one season.
Erika Christensen has been in hundreds of films and TV shows in the last two or so decades. She was in THE BANGER SISTERS with Goldie Hawn and Susan Sarandon, FLIGHT PLAN with Jodie Foster, KIMI with Zoe Kravitz, LIE TO ME, THAT 70S SHOW, TEN DAYS IN THE VALLEY , , , Now she's playing Angie on Will Trent. Angie used to partner with Michael but it went bad. She moved on over to vice and she's undercover trying to take down a drug ring when we see her for the first time. After possibly destroying that case (or maybe not), she gets re-assigned and is back partnering with Michael.
Out of the office? She's with Will. They knew each other as kids. Now they have an on-again-off-again relationship that's always in a state of flux.
As great as everyone above is -- and they are great -- the series belongs to Ramon Rodriguez who plays Will Trent. Whether he's interacting with Betty (his new dog) or with humans, he seems right in every response and move he makes -- even when they take you by surprise. He's delivering the kind of performance that should bring some Emmy attention back to broadcast TV.
It's a star making role and he delivers and then some.
But will the audience show up?
It's airing on Tuesdays and had so little attention that, until Saturday night, it didn't even have a WIKIPEDIA entry. Debuting last week, it did better than THE ROOKIE: FEDS had done in that same time slot. Still, it's probably going to require strong word of mouth for it to get a second season.