Old School. Biblically Independent.
By Jen Maravegias | TV | January 8, 2026
The season four premiere of Will Trent helped me figure out what makes it my favorite show on broadcast television. The writing is strong and has diverged far enough from the source material that it is officially its own, separate piece of media.
The characters are compelling. Despite some of the more overwrought backstories and implausible plot points (I am never going to believe that someone with such profound dyslexia was able to work their way up the ranks the way Will has), we are drawn in by them. We empathize with Angie’s quiet panic over her unplanned pregnancy. We worry about how Ormewood’s kids are dealing with his separation from their mother and his brain tumor. Faith and Amanda’s family dynamic feels realistic. And we are always a little concerned about Will.
In the wake of last season’s shooting, Will begins seeing a therapist (Margaret Cho) whose unconventional tactics might be exactly what he needs to process his guilt and his complicated feelings about Angie and his newly discovered biological father (The Outsider’s Yul Vazquez).
The crimes the team solves are not so realistic that they provoke the same anxiety that comes from watching too much SVU. But they are not hyper-realistic like Criminal Minds, nor are they as distractingly silly as Elsbeth tends to be. Will Trent is self-aware copaganda that at least makes an effort to address some of the real-world criticisms of American police forces.
All of that matters and does a lot of the heavy lifting in making Will Trent a successful series. But none of it would work without the undeniable chemistry of the cast. The jokes would not land as well, the dark humor would fall flat, and the relationships would feel hollow if it were not so obvious that these actors genuinely enjoy working together.
That energy is palpable in the season premiere. It feels like the director captured the first-day-back-on-set vibe on camera, especially in scenes featuring Iantha Richardson and Kevin Daniels as Franklin Wilks.
There is an early scene in which Faith and Franklin keep Ormewood company during a chemo treatment, cracking jokes at his expense. The relationship between these three did not even exist until last season, yet now they feel close enough to be a meaningful part of Ormewood’s support system. You can see the actors connecting in that moment, silently communicating the shift in their dynamic. A later stakeout scene with Ormewood, Angie, and Franklin involves an uncomfortably deep conversation that is abruptly interrupted when two women start brawling on top of their car. The actors’ reactions to one another and to the chaos unfolding around them feel honest, which makes the scene funnier than similar moments in other procedurals.
There is a five-month time jump between the end of last season and the beginning of this one. We spent the summer worrying about these characters: Amanda shot in the chest by domestic terrorists who overtook the GBI office, Ormewood seizing on his kitchen floor, and Angie trying to figure out her future with Dr. Seth (Scott Foley). It is a relief that season four opens on a note of optimism, though it all goes sideways quickly with a bloody and violent prison break. Greg Germann returns as Will’s old adversary, James Ulster, who still sees himself as Will’s father, even as everything in the episode makes clear that Ulster could never truly be part of Will’s family.
It is a clever bit of storytelling that lets us feel relief at being reunited with these characters and witnessing their reunions, only to leave us hanging when Will is taken hostage by Ulster at the end of the episode and Trent’s fate is left in question, although obviously Will Trent cannot continue without Will Trent.
New episodes of Will Trent air Tuesdays on ABC and stream the next day on Hulu.
