ABC’s ‘Will Trent’ Has the Right Procedural Romance
There’s obviously a history and ongoing relationship between Will (Ramón Rodríguez) and Erika Christensen’s Angie Polaski. But that’s been established, and the focus is on how they make their relationship work while each of them is carrying ten tons of emotional baggage from their lives. That’s a more interesting and less contrived dynamic than tuning in every week to see if they’ll sleep together.
In the most recent episode, Angie unexpectedly meets the adoptive father who raped her as a teenager. This sends her into turmoil that threatens her fragile, troubled sanity. Will confronts her at the end of the episode, and she struggles with what to say to him. There’s a real, honest moment shared between them. Will is waiting for Angie to be honest with him, but she’s not ready. Logically, she knows there’s no reason not to trust him, he’s been her means or die since they were teenagers in foster homes together. But she can’t afford to be that vulnerable again, not even with Will. It’s all written all over her face as they stand there at the sink and end up hugging, Angie reassuring Will that she’s just had a bad day.
The other relationship that plays a central role in the story is Angie’s relationship with her partner, Michael Ormewood (Jake McLaughlin). Their “won’t” relationship is in the past and they’ve been firmly on the “will” side. Now they’re navigating a working relationship with a romantic relationship from their past. That includes inviting Angie to dinner with the family so Ormewood’s wife can meet his new partner. She’s a cop’s wife, so she knew all about their previous relationship, telling Angie “Now you know I know so don’t ruin it” in one of the early episodes. Since then, the relationship between Polaski and Ormewood has been fresh, without any interpersonal drama. They have great chemistry together, banter with each other, and tolerate personality quirks that make them unsuitable partners with anyone else in the police station. They’re just two people working together! And they work well together, even without the coded language of repressed desire spoken between them.
I’m a big fan of procedurals. They’re my comfort food and my solution to insomnia. I used to watch anything old, but I drew the line at shows that felt too cult (I’m looking at you Blue Bloods) or too sensational (Criminal Minds, I watched you until I couldn’t watch anymore. Although the new season is pretty great.) I’ve also given up trying to watch all the spinoffs, with apologies to CSI: Hawaii. Bones is still my favorite show, but only for the first few seasons. What started out as an engaging mix of pseudoscience and puzzle solving turned into an overly emotional drama set in a science lab. The lingering romance between Brennan and Booth, and the shift from the case of the week to everyone’s personal lives being the focus, killed the entire show. Literally. It ended very abruptly.
So while the central premise of Will Trent is absurd—an illiterate dyslexic is a superstar detective for the Georgia Bureau of Investigation—at least I know they won’t ruin it by forcing us to watch the two awkward leads fall in love. They do fall in love, and the drama lies in watching them try to figure out how that works. I’d also be happy to see Faith Mitchell (her aforementioned enviable wardrobe) kiss someone new every episode if they want to keep doing that. Let Faith get her handsome doctor or the misunderstood criminal with the cute face. I say go for it. Just don’t let it get in the way of the mystery.
