Will and Betty
Will Trent is a crime drama airing on ABC and streaming on Hulu based on the Will Trent books by Karin Slaughter, who is an executive producer on the show. The show has drawn some comparisons to Monk.
Ramón Rodríguez stars as the titular Special Agent Will Trent of the Georgia Bureau of Investigations (GBI). Trent is locally famous for rooting out a lot of police corruption, which of course hasn't made him any friends in the GBI nor in the Atlanta Police Department (APD).
It is much less well known that Trent is severely dyslexic, so he uses an audio recorder instead of a notebook to record his case notes. Despite his dyslexia, he's able to notice important clues in crime scenes that almost everyone else fails to notice.
Also starring
- Erika Christensen as APD Detective Angie Polaski, like Trent an aged-out orphan and his sort of girlfriend
- Jake McLaughlin as APD Detective Michael Ormewood, Polanski's partner
- Iantha Richardson as Special Agent Faith Mitchell, Trent's partner at the GBI, unwillingly at first
- Sonja Sohn as GBI Deputy Director Amanda Wagner, who insisted on pairing Mitchell with Trent
- And, most importantly for some fans, Bluebell, a chihuahua trained by April Macklin, as Betty, a dog Trent reluctantly adopted when the shelter couldn't assure him she wouldn't be put down.
The second episode introduced Cora Lu Tran as Nico, who was pressed into service as Betty's dog sitter. It's not clear yet how important Nico will be on the show.
Will Trent contains examples of:
- Canine Companion: Will gets one foisted on him in the form of Betty, a Chihuahua, the former pet of one of Will's recently deceased neighbors. He doesn't want her, at first, but soon starts fussing over her wellbeing.
- Category Traitor: Prior to the series, Will exposed and arrested a large number of corrupt cops within the Atlanta Police Department. Cops treat him with scorn and label him a traitor to law enforcement despite the validity of the case.
- Commonality Connection: Will Trent, Angie Polaski, and Paul Campano grew up in the same group home, which is why Will and Angie take it seriously when Paul says he recognized predatory behavior in his daughter's teacher.
- Cool Car: Will drives a 1973 Porsche Targa that he restored himself.
- Covered in Scars: Will's chest is crisscrossed with scars. One on his neck is visible at all times, even when he's wearing a collared shirt.
- Da Chief: Amanda Wagner, who gruffly keeps Will in line and forces him to play nice with others.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Will and Angie experienced years of abuse in group homes. Angie also confesses that she was pimped out from an early age. In "Unable to Locate", flashbacks to 2001 show that Will drove Angie to Florida so she could get an abortion, because she was raped by their foster father.
- Doorstop Baby: Will was abandoned as a baby and found in a dumpster. Within the group home he grew up in, the story morphed into his being found in a trashcan, resulting in the others calling him "Trashcan".
- Hyper-Awareness: At least compared to the typical cop, Will Trent is hyper aware of small details that escape their notice. He attributes this to his dyslexia, as he had to learn how to pick out objects by looking for subtle differences rather than what was written on their labels.
- "L" Is for "Dyslexia": Will Trent is so dyslexic that he can barely read and write — using a voice recorder for his observations instead. He spends a great deal of energy trying to hide this from his superiors in the GBI.
- Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: At times, Will Trent sounds like he's from the Bronx rather than from Georgianote .
- Previously on…: Most episodes so far begin with snippets from previous episodes, though obviously this couldn't have been the case with the pilot. However, it was not the case with "Unable to Locate" either.
- Race Lift: Ramón Rodríguez as Will Trent, who is described in the book as a 6' 3" blond, white guy. Given that he's an orphan, his actual race might not be all that relevant for the character.
- Secret-Keeper: Only Angie, Faith, and Amanda know about Will's dyslexia and they keep it to themselves so that Will can keep his job. Will, meanwhile, keeps mum about Faith's diabetes.
- Sharp-Dressed Man: Will wears tailored, three-piece suits that make him stick out like a sore thumb among other plain-clothed officers, who dress in lighter and looser (plus cheaper) clothing because of the Atlanta heat.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: In "Manhunt" Faith proves a man accused of killing a cop is innocent so that conviction is overturned. However, the guy still ends up going to jail for stealing a gun and a car and escaping while taking a cop hostage.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Will and Faith don't really like each other but are forced to work together.
- Title Drop: Every episode so far, except for the pilot, has some line or part of a line of dialogue for its title.
