Will Trent

Score: 5/10 A Middling Procedural Hamstrung by an Unconvincing Premise

Will Trent arrives with a unique hook: a Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent with severe dyslexia who solves crimes through pattern recognition, memory, and sheer force of will. On paper, it's an intriguing concept. In practice, the show struggles to make its central conceit believable, resulting in a watchable but deeply flawed procedural that earns a middling 5/10.

The Core Problem: An Unbelievable Premise

I refuse to believe that someone could become the best homicide investigator in the force if their dyslexia was that bad that they literally couldn't read or write. This is the show's fundamental, crippling flaw.

We are shown a character Will Trent (Ramón Rodríguez) who cannot read a report, cannot write a coherent sentence, and relies entirely on audio recordings and his partner to process written information. Yet we are also told he has the highest closure rate in the bureau and is considered an elite investigator. The cognitive dissonance is immense.

Policing, particularly homicide investigation, is a paper heavy profession. Affidavits, warrants, forensic reports, case files, legal statutes, interview transcripts these are not optional accessories; they are the tools of the trade. A detective who cannot independently review a search warrant application or read a suspect's prior statement is not a detective; they are a liability. The show attempts to work around this by giving Will a dedicated partner (Faith Mitchell, played by Iantha Richardson) who functions as his reader and scribe, but this only raises further questions about departmental liability and the sheer implausibility of his career trajectory.

Dyslexia is a real and challenging condition, and people with dyslexia achieve remarkable things every day. But the show presents Will's case as so severe that basic literacy is impossible, yet expects us to accept he has risen to the top of a literacy...

I don't know where Will Trent is. My wife watches this, I read the novels and I've been looking for Will Trent for a few seasons now and he doesn't seem to show up. They have a character with his name, but that's not Will Trent. He doesn't look like the character readers know and love, and he certainly doesn't act like him.

I think what happened is ABC, and Disney looked at the novels and thought, "Will's too white, scared (literally and figuratively), athletic, and awkwardly loveable.... let's swap him out for someone more diverse and Mr. Beanish"

Credit where credit is due, they really don't drive home THE MESSAGE like so many other shows that have swapped out lead characters.... but this wasn't exactly your typical Netflix/Disney swap, if it were he would have been an obese lesbian Black woman. But he was still swapped, as were other characters, they still made it almost the opposite of the novels... but they don't constantly scream THE MESSAGE, and that is a redeaming factor.

It's watchable if you never picked up any of the books, but if you have, it's just insulting.