Procedural shows are a dime a dozen on television these days. You can’t throw the proverbial rock without hitting one — whether it’s a series where various members of law enforcement team up to bring offenders to justice, or one that revolves around first responders arriving on the scene to save those in peril. In recent years, however, a new subgenre has emerged within the procedural, in which a citizen — typically one with no previous law enforcement experience — teams up with the police as a special consultant to assist them in solving the kind of cases that have perplexed most investigators. Said citizen, for the most part, also happens to possess a unique set of skills, enabling them to study crime scenes through a lens that allows new clues to emerge. CBS recently cracked this very formula with Elsbeth, starring Carrie Preston as an atypical, brightly-clad attorney who just so happens to have this unorthodox way of thinking about each case — and now, ABC seems to have its own answer in High Potential (created by Drew Goddard and based on the French crime series HPI) starring Kaitlin Olson as an atypical, brightly-clad single mother who’s brought in to assist the LAPD on their investigations.
What Is ‘High Potential’ About?
Morgan Gillory (Olson), a single mother of three, supports her family by working as a night cleaner for the LAPD Major Crimes Unit. While dancing around the bullpen to the music blasting over her headphones, she inadvertently knocks over a case file, spilling its contents all over the place. While trying to reorganize things, Morgan notices something suspicious in one of the crime scene photos, prompting her to walk over and relabel one of the team’s murder board suspects into a victim. Said murder board change doesn’t sit well with the by-the-book Detective Adam Karadec (Daniel Sunjata), who immediately drops everything to find out why Morgan felt the need to tamper with his investigation. We’ve already learned by this point that Morgan is someone who possesses “high intellectual potential,” meaning she has a much higher IQ than the average person, which allows her to retain a lot of information, including random trivia, to apply at a moment’s notice. Quite a convenient skill when you need to be on the lookout for even the smallest of clues!
Although Karadec wants to arrest Morgan for overstepping, his superior, Lieutenant Selena Soto (Judy Reyes), decides to take the opportunity to conduct a little experiment — by bringing Morgan in on their investigation, instead of pushing her out. It’s a risky move, especially since Morgan isn’t officially a cop, but she’s also picking up on things that their existing team — also consisting of junior detectives Daphne Forrester (Javicia Leslie) and Lev “Oz” Ozdil (Deniz Akdeniz) — have inadvertently overlooked. Of course, Soto’s suggestion is quickly implemented, much to Karadec’s chagrin, and Morgan’s unconventional way of thinking means that she sometimes steps out of the bounds of the law. Once she accepts her new job with the LAPD, there’s also the question of who’s going to look after her kids, including moody older teenager Ava (Amirah J) and bright middle child Elliot (Matthew Lamb) — a task that ends up falling to Morgan’s ex, Ludo (Taran Killam), since the two are still amicably co-parenting.
‘High Potential’ Allows Kaitlin Olson’s Full Talents to Shine
Olson’s Morgan might be learning the ins and outs of becoming a proper detective, but she’s going to do it her way, right down to the loud animal prints and high-heeled boots she wears to every new crime scene. It’s a distinct aesthetic that calls back to the 2021 French series on which High Potential is based, but Olson is the type of actor who can absolutely pull off her character’s unflinchingly bold style. Beyond the outerwear, though, the ABC procedural allows Olson to show off the full breadth of her talents instead of forcing her to rest on mostly comedic laurels, as her long-running role in It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia so often has. High Potential‘s Morgan might seem like a more straightforward character next to Sweet Dee, especially when paired with the kind of expositional monologuing that needs to be delivered every episode, but her quick-witted and sharp mind give Olson the opportunity to flex different acting muscles for a change. The scenes in which she gets to go toe-to-toe with Sunjata are some of the series’ best out of the three episodes provided for review. For his part, Sunjata, as a longtime veteran of the procedural genre (including this critic’s personal favorite, Graceland), plays an excellent straight man, giving Karadec a resigned weariness opposite Morgan’s perspicacious energy.
However, the show isn’t all light-hearted investigating, and there’s drama that results from Morgan struggling to balance her role as a mother with her new gig at the LAPD. It’s likely no surprise that her increased absences from home put her more at odds with her oldest child, Ava, but the tension between them isn’t only rooted in typical mother-daughter angst — partly because Ava is biracial, with a different father than her younger half-siblings, and partly because said father has been absent for years. Morgan’s convinced that Ava’s dad didn’t just walk out on them when their daughter was a baby, and starts thinking about whether she can leverage her position in the LAPD to finally get some answers to the mystery that hangs over her to this day. It’s a more emotional element to an otherwise comedic series, but it also showcases the more vulnerable side of its lead — and results in Morgan feeling less like a font of random trivia and a lot closer to human.
‘High Potential’ Spotlights Its Lead at the Expense of Its Other Characters
That said, High Potential does fall into an early trap of the genre by spotlighting its lead character at the expense of the supporting ensemble. Granted, the premiere mostly revolves around setting up the series’ premise and officially incorporating Morgan into the team, but after three episodes, there’s no real sense of who most of the other characters actually are and little to differentiate them from many of their counterparts on other, similarly-formatted shows. Slowly but surely, more details are starting to emerge about Karadec and Soto, in part because Sunjata and Reyes have moments where they can showcase more of their characters’ vulnerabilities, but Javicia’s Forrester and Akdeniz’s Oz only seem present in scenes to rattle off relevant case information, which feels like a missed opportunity above anything else. There’s still a chance for the series to course-correct this in future episodes; it would be great for the writers to lean into exploring more characters outside of work beyond Morgan, now that we already know how chaotic her home life can be.
Shortcomings aside, High Potential definitely boasts a fun episodic style, which gives us a deeper look into the advanced workings of its lead’s mind. As the team tosses around their various theories, quick cuts to little asides illustrate Morgan’s ability to process certain pieces of evidence and contextualize them with what she’s been able to retain for years. These intervals also inject bold and exciting visuals into what could otherwise be a predictable procedural formula, allowing the series to differentiate itself from its competitors on other networks. After three episodes, High Potential has plenty of time to fully live up to its title — but with Olson’s quirky, standout performance leading the way and an entertaining premise that doesn’t overstay its welcome, it’s already off to a strong start.
High Potential premieres September 17 on ABC, with episodes available to stream next-day on Hulu.
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