Will Trent is currently on hiatus, and as fans wait for season 2 to premiere, there are ten other captivating and thrilling crime dramas to fill the void left by the ABC series’ absence. Will Trent, which is based on a book series by Karin Slaughter, was an immediate hit, with its dynamic cast, intriguing cases, and messy but entertaining relationships. The first season ended with Will hunting down the man who killed his mother and a shocking connection between the Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent and Amanda Wagner.
A Will Trent season 2 renewal was confirmed a couple of weeks before its season 1 finale aired, so there are plenty more stories involving Will, Angie, Faith, Amanda, Ormewood, and Betty to look forward to in the future. Hopefully, the writers will continue to craft stories that surprise the audience and deepen the connection between these complex characters. But in the meantime, fans can pass the time before Will Trent season 2 arrives by watching ten similar shows (including an adaption from another one of Slaughter’s novels).
10 Castle
Whereas Will Trent is an adaption of a series of books, Castle is the opposite. The ABC procedural series centered around Nathan Fillion’s Richard Castle, a crime novelist who starts working as a police consultant with the NYPD when someone brings his books to life. A string of murders emulates crimes detailed in Castle’s novels, so the cops, including Detective Kate Beckett, use the author’s expertise to help solve the case. However, at the end of the series premiere, Castle decides to base his next character on Beckett. Much to her dismay, Castle begins shadowing Beckett and other detectives, and the rest is history.
Castle ran for eight seasons and was a hit among audiences. Viewers tuned in every Monday night to witness the amusing and intoxicating relationship between Castle and Beckett, cleverly dubbed by fans as “Caskett.” Castle‘s dynamics, cases, and light humor make it the perfect show to binge while waiting for Will Trent season 2.
9 The Rookie
The Rookie continues the trend of Nathan Fillion shows, as the series was Will Trent‘s neighbor on Tuesday nights on ABC in the spring of 2023. Fillion stars as John Nolan, a middle-aged rookie trying to prove his worth in the LAPD, a premise that would draw any fan of crime shows in. Five seasons later, the series just keeps on getting better and better, and is one of ABC’s most-watched dramas.
Similar to Will Trent, The Rookie‘s cast makes the show so successful. While Nolan is technically the star of the show, other characters like Lucy Chen, Tim Bradford, Angela Lopez, and Jackson West are just as (if not more) entertaining to watch, and come complete with an in-universe slow-burn romance via the Chenford pairing. Thankfully, The Rookie shows no signs of stopping and will continue with season 6.
8 The Mentalist
Similar to Will Trent, The Mentalist contains a snarky know-it-all that fans can’t help but love. Plus, both series’ protagonists have a keen eye for noticing details at crime scenes that regular investigators often miss. Will Trent and Patrick Jane are two sides of the same coin, and they are what set their shows apart from other crime series.
Jane is a consultant for the California Bureau of Investigation (so the CBI, not the GBI). As a former (fraudulent) psychic medium, he uses his skills to help agents solve murders. Although Jane doesn’t have actual psychic powers, his intuition is unlike any other, and he is an expert at reading crime scenes. The Mentalist lasted seven seasons on CBS, so there are plenty of cases and exciting romances to keep Will Trent fans busy.
7 Prodigal Son
Given Will and Angie’s past in Will Trent, the series gets dark sometimes, and if viewers are fans of the harrowing storylines, they should look no further than Prodigal Son. The FOX series revolves around a father and son duo, which sounds innocent enough, but the father in question is a convicted serial killer, and the son is who turned him in to the police when he was a child. Malcolm, who later becomes an FBI profiler, is forced to reconnect with his dad when a copycat killer emerges.
Unfortunately, FOX canceled Prodigal Son after two seasons. But the show’s 33 episodes are worth the inevitable heartbreak that always comes when a television series ends prematurely. So if Will Trent fans seek a quick binge before season 2 premieres, Prodigal Son is ideal.
6 Quantico
Before Jake McLaughlin played a detective with serious anger issues in Will Trent, he was an FBI agent in Quantico. However, McLaughlin wasn’t the show’s star — that role belonged to Priyanka Chopra. Chopra played Alex Parrish, an FBI rookie who becomes a suspect in a bombing in New York City.
Quantico utilizes flashbacks to show Alex and her fellow trainees at the FBI Academy while she tries to prove her innocence in the present day. The show takes several twists and turns, constantly keeping viewers on their toes. Quantico only lasted three seasons, but the first season is definitely the best one, as it was no true surprise that ABC canceled the series after season 3. However, Quantico is worth watching, if only for the thrills of its early days.
5 Pieces of Her
Will Trent isn’t the first time one of Karin Slaughter’s books was adapted for the screen — Pieces of Her, a Netflix series, was based on her novel of the same name. It premiered in 2022 and ran for eight episodes, but it’s a little different from Slaughter’s other creation, Will Trent. Pieces of Her‘s protagonist, Andy Oliver, is a 911 operator who discovers that her mother, Laura, isn’t who she thought she was.
The show begins with Andy and Laura caught in a shooting at a diner, and Andy sees a side of her mom that she has never witnessed before. Pieces of Her takes viewers on a wild ride as Andy goes on the run while trying to figure out the details of Laura’s past. While waiting for Will Trent season 2, it makes sense to watch other Karin Slaughter adaptation that contains suitable shocks and reveals.
4 Mindhunter
Will Trent isn’t technically a profiler, but his skills are comparable to one, and Mindhunter details the origin story of how FBI profilers came to be. The Netflix series stars Jonathan Groff and Holt McCallany as FBI agents who, along with a psychologist played by Anna Torv, study serial killers to learn more about the psychology behind their crimes. They hope that their research will aid agents in solving ongoing and future cases.
Mindhunter is based on a real story and features actors playing infamous serial killers, like Ed Kemper and Dennis Rader. It’s a thrilling series that, similar to other shows on this list, ended all too soon. Mindhunter is only two seasons. A third season was in development, but given the actors’ busy schedules and executive producer David Fincher’s other projects, Netflix put Mindhunter on indefinite hold. Fincher later confirmed that the show was over, but that doesn’t mean the first two seasons aren’t worth watching.
3 Monk
Monk perfectly balances its drama with its humor, which is why Will Trent fans will love it. The USA Network’s procedural series revolves around Adrian Monk, a former detective who loses his job when he has a nervous breakdown following the death of his wife. Years later, Monk starts to recover and becomes a police consultant.
His OCD helps him solve cases since it allows him to spot details at crime scenes that might be overlooked, similar to how Will Trent surveys a scene. Both Will Trent and Monk contain main characters who are very good at their job but have dark pasts. Thankfully, Monk ran for eight seasons, so there are plenty of episodes to watch before Will Trent season 2 premieres.
2 Elementary
There are numerous Sherlock Holmes adaptations, but the one most similar to Will Trent is Elementary. The CBS series stars Jonny Lee Miller as Sherlock Holmes and Lucy Liu as Dr. Joan Watson, and it lasted for seven seasons. Following a fallout with Scotland Yard, former addict Sherlock moves to New York City, where he is a consultant with the NYPD. Watson assists him after his father hired her to be his “sober companion.”
Elementary highlights Sherlock’s expertise in solving crimes, while also showing him as a flawed human. It’s a breath of fresh air and was highly praised by critics. Will Trent fans will want to check out Elementary during what is sure to feel like a long hiatus between the season 1 finale and the season 2 premiere.
1 Criminal Minds
If Will Trent fans are looking for a long series to fill the void during the hiatus, there are few series as capable of providing a long-term watch as Criminal Minds. Criminal Minds is one of the most popular and long-running procedural series, and although CBS previously declared that season 15 would be its last, Paramount+ revived the show for a sixteenth season, dubbed Criminal Minds: Evolution, in 2022. In total, there are 334 episodes of the series, and season 17 is in the works.
Criminal Minds centers around the BAU unit of the FBI, and the agents fly around the country to work on cases that only they can solve. The cast has changed over the years, but the episodic mysteries (and sometimes season-long cases) are still as thrilling as ever. Hopefully, viewers can say the same about Will Trent when all is said and done.
