High Potential Review: An Inspired Kaitlin Olson Elevates ABC’s Brainy Crime Procedural
Another fall TV season is upon us, which means a fresh batch of network procedurals that can roughly be described as The ____ Who Solves Crimes. (Lucifer, The Devil Who Solves Crimes! Sleepy Hollow, The Ichabod Crane Who Solves Crimes!) ABC‘s latest entry in the genre, High Potential — premiering Tuesday, Sept. 17 at 10/9c; I’ve seen the first three episodes — is basically The Genius Single Mom Who Solves Crimes, and it honestly doesn’t do much to reinvent the procedural wheel. But it’s still a satisfying underdog tale with a sly sense of humor, thanks to a fantastic lead performance from Kaitlin Olson.
Olson stars as Morgan, a single mom juggling three kids who works as a cleaning lady at the LAPD’s Major Crimes department. She’s dusting desks and bopping along to her headphones one night when she discovers a break in a case they’re working on, writing it out for them to see the next morning, Good Will Hunting-style. At first, the cops bristle at Morgan’s brazen overstepping, but they learn that she actually has an IQ of 160 and an uncanny ability to spot odd details that have slipped through the cracks. (She’s like Sherlock Holmes in a fuzzy animal-print coat.) So they strike up a partnership, with Morgan using her formidable intellect to help the cops solve cases that have left them stumped.
With a pilot script from Lost and Daredevil alum Drew Goddard (and based on a French series), High Potential is more lighthearted than grim, closer to Monk or Psych than Criminal Minds. Morgan is a walking Wikipedia, citing local meteorological patterns and ancient history to help nail each week’s culprit. (We get to peek inside her complex thought process through crisp crime-scene reenactments.) She’s also blunt, arrogant and stubborn, rubbing the cops the wrong way at almost every turn — she’s annoyed, actually, that everybody else doesn’t see the solution as quickly as she does — but she gets results. And seeing her run intellectual circles around a room full of veteran detectives without breaking a sweat is a fun, fizzy treat.
The crimes here are pretty pedestrian, with suspects confessing at convenient times, but Olson’s mischievous glee elevates the whole show. Morgan is a unlikely crime-solver: She looks like she spends her nights drinking wine and watching Bravo, but she’s actually watching documentaries and accumulating obscure trivia. She doesn’t see her big brain as a gift, though. More of a compulsion, actually: “If I see a mistake, I need to correct it.” It’s a great role for Olson, whose comedy chops are well-honed from her time on It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia and The Mick. Here, she not only fires off sarcastic one-liners with ease, but she also shows a surprising vulnerability in Morgan’s chaotic home life, hinting at a mysterious past trauma that she has long since buried.
The rest of the characters are thinly drawn so far — Daniel Sunjata plays Morgan’s reluctant LAPD detective partner, with Judy Reyes as a more sympathetic cop — and the episodes tend to fall into predictable patterns. (The cops doubt Morgan, she proves them wrong, rinse and repeat.) There’s a larger mystery here, too, of course, about why the father of Morgan’s oldest child vanished, because every TV drama is required to have a larger mystery to slowly peel away. But despite its formulaic tendencies, High Potential works on the strength of Olson’s joyful performance. It’s still a network procedural, at the end of the day, but it’s smart and funny enough to be a particularly good one.
THE TVLINE BOTTOM LINE: Kaitlin Olson is fantastic as an unlikely genius in ABC’s lighthearted new crime procedural High Potential.
This was actually the only new show I was interested in viewing.
And the award for the Best Dressed Cleaning Lady goes to ……
For any show where the protagonist is supposedly a genius, the writing itself has to be really smart. “Numbers” was a good example. (On the other hand, I still remember a medical series in which a supposedly genius doctor bragged that he had attended “John Hopkins” Medical School — it was canceled not long afterward.) It sounds as if this show does a decent job on that account, so I’m in.
If she ever gets her hair out of her face, I might watch…
So… ABC does ELSBETH, basically.
First thing I thought of, too – Elsbeth with a bucket of suds. Another quirky “I do it better than seasoned detectives who resent me” type show. Worth a look but as for it being original? CBS is already there.
No, it’s a French show remake. For some reasons whenever American television does this they try to hide the fact or mention it as little as possible (probably cause the general American audience is biased against foreign products for some reasons). The original show has already aired for 3 seasons, definetely more than Elsbeth.
Every American remake I’ve seen has said “Based on” and the show it was based on during the credits of the show. Can you please name 1 example where this hasn’t happened?
High Potential is more lighthearted than grim, closer to Monk or Psych than Criminal Minds
More like (or the exact premise) of foreign import ‘HIP’ which is playing on Hulu right now. I’m enjoying it. Let’s see if they also duplicate the episodes.
Because it’s based on it.
How could you not mention that this show is an American version of a French show! That show crackled with dynamic characters and good acting. This version is a pale imitation compared to the original.
they mention it
How do you know that, since it hasn’t aired yet?
I’m enjoying the French HIP on Hulu. After watching actress Audrey Fleurot play the French lead, I can understand why Kaitlin Olsen is in the American version. It seems like it’s just in her wheelhouse. The character has a high IQ but perhaps a low EQ or emotional intelligence and thus who can’t control their impulses, withstand temptations, or delay gratification.
This easily can be paired with Will Trent and The Rookie when they return. All three should pair similarly together
Here I thought CBS was the king of lighthearted procedurals with So Help Me Todd (RIP), Elsbeth, and soon Matlock. I am looking forward to High Potential, but with Poker Face also in this category of show, it does seem to be crowded.
I like Elsbeth, so I’m sure I’ll like this one too.
I feel like this article could have used a mention of when the show will air.
“premiering Tuesday, Sept. 17 at 10/9c”
And apparently repeating THREE times in the next five days: Wednesday at 10, Friday at 8, and Sunday at 8.
The preview looks good.
I’m gonna love this show..It has captured me..Can’t wait til the next episode..!!!!
Watched it, loved it, looking forward to the next episode!