Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Will Trent’ Season 4 on ABC, where Will has to deal with lots of personal life changes just as an old nemesis escapes prison

After the end of Season 3 of Will Trent, Atlanta was reeling from a near bioterrorist disaster and the GBI was recovering from a hostage situation in its own offices, including seeing Deputy Director Amanda Wagner critically injured. Season 4 picks up a few months later, with Will still dealing with changes in his life, including Angie’s relationship and pregnancy.

WILL TRENT SEASON 4: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT? 

Opening Shot: “FIVE MONTHS LATER”, after the events of Season 3’s finale, we see Georgia Bureau of Investigation special agent Will Trent (Ramón Rodríguez) staring at the group home he used to live in, and angrily throwing rocks at it.

The Gist:  In reality, he’s on a pickleball court with his therapist, Dr. Roach (Margaret Cho), with his little chihuaua Betty (Bluebell) looking on. Dr. Roach figures some movement might help him unlock some strong emotions about the changes in his personal life.

For one, he’s getting to know his biological father, Sheriff Caleb Broussard (Yul Vazquez) and his family, who are not only loud but use too much salt. And while he says he’s happy for his closest friend, APD Det. Angie Polaski (Erika Christensen), who is in a stable relationship with Dr. Seth McDale (Scott Foley), and the two of them are about to have a baby, Dr. Roach knows he has mixed feelings about that.

Then he finds out that another major figure in his life, lawyer/serial killer James Ulster (Greg Germann), has escaped prison with a young inmate apprentice, and in quite violent fashion.

So just as Will is trying to face his new normal, the man who killed his mother and claimed to be his father is back in his head. We see evidence of that when Will and GBI partner Faith Mitchell (Iantha Richardson) survey the bloodbath at a steakhouse owned by one of Ulster’s former clients, a lead generated by APD Det. Michael Ormewood (Jake McLaughlin), who is stuck on desk duty while he gets chemotherapy for his brain tumor. Because of who they’re tracking, Assistant Director Amanda Walker (Sonja Sohn) comes back from her medical leave, still recovering from getting shot five months prior; she refuses to let Ulster get the better of Will.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Will Trent is in the category of quirky lawyers and crimesolvers that includes shows like Elsbeth, Matlock and High Potential.

Our Take: Where Will Trent, created by Liz Heldens and based on Karin Slaughter’s novel series, has always succeeded is by examining the lives of Will, Angie and the other main characters, with the cases they pursue filling in the gaps in between that exploration. But where the show does its best job is when Will and company investigate a case that ties into one of their complicated histories. With Germann coming back as Ulster in the first two episodes of Season 4, Will Trent is at its best.

Ulster has been one of the show’s best-conceived bad guys, and not just because he’s a charming, bloodthirsty sociopath. Because of what he did to Will’s mother, he’s essentially the key to everything that has gone on in Will’s life to that point, from spending most of his childhood in foster care, his relationships with Angie and Amanda, and even his job. Caleb, who is involved with the case due to where the prison was, doesn’t know Will well enough yet to truly understand why Will has to be involved, despite the personal connection. At this point, though, not only Angie and Amanda know why, but so do Faith and Oremwood.

Despite the deep dive into Will’s psyche, though, the show has enough room for Angie to explore being in a stable relationship with Seth, how Oremwood is dealing with his diagnosis with the help of Faith and fellow cop Franklin (Kevin Daniels), and Amanda ensuring that her temporary replacement isn’t gunning for her job.

It certainly is the sign of a show that knows its vibe and tone and is extremely comfortable with its characters and how they relate to each other. It’s also what will carry the show as we get more into a case-of-the-week rhythm, when the cases Will and company try to solve vary widely in quality.

Performance Worth Watching: Anyone who was a fan of Parenthood knows how well Erika Christensen can play the big emotions that her characters have to deal with. Angie has a lot of baggage and trust issues, even with Will, whom she thought was going to be her forever at some point. And yet again we see how subtly Christensen processes those emotions in some powerful moments in the first two episodes.

Sex And Skin: None.

Parting Shot: The APD and GBI are called to the scene of a car fire, with two bodies inside that might be Will and Ulster.

Sleeper Star: Jake McLaughlin’s Oremwood is probably the character who has had the biggest transformation over the show’s run, and watching him deal with all of the physicall and emotional roller coasters that come with cancer treatment — he knows which day after a chemo treatment is his “emotional” day, for instance — has been fun to watch.

Most Pilot-y Line: A fight between and an interrogation sequence with two women that Ulster sweet-talked while in prison was a little long — even though it was funny! — and would have been cut way back if the episode was a one-parter.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Will Trent continues to go deeper into its characters’ lives and psyches, transforming the show from an average crime procedural to one of the best character-driven dramas on any broadcast network.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.