Who is Detective Avraham Avraham, and what’s his “superpower?” in the Peacock series The Calling? Let’s dive deep.
Peacock’s newest crime drama, The Calling, introduces a different type of protagonist who challenges the hero cop trope. In the center of the narrative lies Detective Avraham Avraham (played by Jeff Wilbusch), a man deeply involved in his Jewish faith. His uncanny ability to crack open difficult cases is directly influenced by his beliefs.
Who is Detective Avraham and what’s different about him?
Avi’s first scenes are shown from the perspective of new-to-the-precinct Detective Janine Harris. She first meets him at a crime scene, where she’s surprised to watch the man take a moment to say a Hebrew prayer for the victim. In the interrogation room, Avi’s unique ability to get under a person’s skin helps break down the suspect into a full and tearful confession. When Janine asks her new colleague about his approach, his reply comes straight from the teachings of the Talmud, “[…] each person is entitled to infinite respect and concern. Every one is precious.”
On top of approaching each person with respect and compassion, even the suspects, Janine also notices that her new partner hasn’t set aside his humanity. Working in the NYPD and seeing the worst humanity has to offer can make more police detectives feel jaded. Not Avi. He appears as someone who hasn’t lost himself in a sea of despair. Despite dealing with the horrific on a daily basis, Avi uses his beliefs as a form of spiritual anchor.
As the season progresses, the show reveals more key details about the protagonist’s unique methods. He likes to sit in the victim’s rooms so he can get a feel of who they were as a person. He has a tendency to get too close and too emotionally invested in his cases. He also draws fish. While the drawings make little sense, they seem to help Avi focus his mind and come to the correct conclusions about each case. Unlike other hero cops on television, Avi is soft-spoken and portrays an almost permanently calm demeanor, a huge advantage when it comes to getting suspects to trust him enough to bear their souls.
Why did Detective Avraham join the police force?
During the first season of The Calling, we slowly find out more about Avi’s past and his motivations. The talented detective lost his father at a young age, and he believes it was murder. A young Avraham was out walking his dog when he heard his dad fall from their balcony. Despite the police classing the death as murder, the killer was never caught. Since joining the police force, Avi has yet to look into his father’s murder. It’s not directly explained why, but it’s heavily implied the detective is scared of what he may find in his parents’ case file.
Avi has several dreams and visions of his father as he investigates the season’s cases. In episode 5, he asks his Rabbi what he remembered about the deceased, whose answer reveals there was darkness looming inside Avi’s dad. In the show’s finale, the homeless professor John Wentworth is found murdered with the word “Father” written in blood in the Hebrew language, meaning Avi might be finally forced to look into his father’s case as part of a new investigation.
What is Detective Avraham’s “superpower”?
Avi appears to have visions, hallucinations of the missing people he’s investigating, and even a pair of cryptic dreams. He’s also able to reach breakthroughs in his cases by drawing fish. Yet, despite all that, there’s no real indication of Detective Avraham having any supernatural abilities. Instead, his faith and belief in humanity are his real “superpowers.” Avi frequently stops to pray at the Synagogue throughout the day, he recites the Mourner’s Kaddish over the dead bodies he encounters at work and regularly stands Shomer for deceased members of his faith. His belief, his teachings, and his appreciation for mankind are what make him a unique character.
