As A Big Fan Of TV Procedurals, I Didn’t Realize How Much I Missed Will Trent Until The Thrilling Season 3 Premiere
Welcome back, Will Trent!
Spoilers ahead for Episode 1 of Will Trent Season 3, called “I’m a Guest Here.”
The long wait for Will Trent to return to primetime finally ended in the 2025 TV schedule, with the Season 3 premiere on January 7. The show had a big cliffhanger to pay off on, after the Season 2 finale ended with Will leaving town with nothing but Betty and a bag after arresting Angie. (The Season 2 finale is available streaming with a Hulu subscription.) He somewhat unwillingly returned to help the GBI in the Season 3 premiere when a suspect demanded to speak with him, and the plot certainly thickened from that point forward.
It wasn’t the case that reminded me why I’d missed this cast of characters so much, though; it was the unique kind of humor that tends to be missing from other procedurals. And I watch a LOT of procedurals.
That’s not to say that Will Trent is, has ever been, or will ever be a slapstick comedy, but the show finds the humor in very realistic situations. The laughs don’t come in the form of characters cracking jokes every few minutes. The laughs in the premiere came from Ormewood nagging Faith to eat her crackers, from Will’s new life in Tennessee, from Will and his old friend chilling out with his grandma with armed cops outside, and even from the strongest relationship of the show being the one between Will and Betty.
I even love Faith giving Will the cold shoulder for how he left… mostly because I’m confident enough in their friendship that they’ll get back to normal-ish once Will returns to the GBI. After all, the crime procedural called Will Trent can’t exactly proceed with Will Trent spending his days taking racy photos for a living in the middle of nowhere, Tennessee. Plus, Gina Rodriguez’s new character got a fun introduction.
And look, I love my Law & Orders. I love my FBI action and my One Chicago exploits and even Criminal Minds: Evolution despite its less procedural status on streaming nowadays. I’ve watched more SVU marathons on cable than I care to count. But dang it, Will Trent is fun in a way that sets it apart from others in the crime/procedural drama, and I’m so glad that it’s back now.
Plus, there’s plenty more to look forward to, and not just because Scandal alum Scott Foley didn’t debut his new character in the first episode back. The Season 3 premiere seems to have been half of a two-parter, and the promo for the next episode indicates that Will could be hurt by the end… and I don’t just mean hurt emotionally by all the comments on his scruff. Take a look:
Well, it’s a good thing that he was seemingly wearing a vest in the promo for the next episode, after he refused to do so on Faith’s orders in the premiere! See what’s next with new episodes of Will Trent on ABC’s Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET, ahead of High Potential Season 1 at 9 p.m. ET and The Rookie Season 7 at 10 p.m. ET. If you want to revisit earlier episodes of any of these three Tuesday shows, you can do so by subscribing to Hulu.
