[This episode contains spoilers for the final episode of High Potential]
If you haven’t been watching High Potential, the latest crime drama out of America created by Drew Goddard, then the good news is, you can now binge-watch all 13 episodes of season one on Disney +. The season finale, which aired on Thursday April 10th in Australia, may have ended on a double cliffhanger, but luckily, the show has already been renewed for season two. While we don’t have a release date yet, production on the new episodes has already started, meaning we might get new episodes as early as the end of this year. The show, which is based on the French show, HPI, is one of five adaptations of this concept in various languages, and has a 96% approval rate on Rotten Tomatoes; it was one of the most watched new series for American production company, ABC, in the last six years.
High Potential follows Morgan Guillory (Kaitlin Olson), a cleaning woman at the LAPD with a kind of neurodivergence she refers to as HPI. This stands for High Potential Individual, meaning that she has an extremely high IQ, a basically infallible memory, and the ability to see patterns where others see something random. If the condition sounds made up for the sake of “entertainment”, it actually isn’t, with some sources online saying that it can occur in individuals with an IQ higher than 130, and it ultimately has a lot more to do with the way they reason more than purely being to do with their intelligence.
In episode one, we see Morgan dancing on desks in the empty bull-pen of the Major Crimes unit when she spots an inconsistency on the murder board for an active case. She can’t help herself, and so makes a few changes. The next day, when the detectives working on the case see what she has done, they track her down, and after she helps them get some traction on this stalled and high-profile case, she is offered a consulting position helping Detective Adam Karadec (Daniel Sunjata) and his team.
Morgan takes the job, not only because she and her family need the money, but because she has a cold case of her own that she’s been unable to solve. She strikes a deal with Lieutenant Selena Soto (Judy Reyes) to enlist her help in tracking down a missing person. Soto and Morgan’s research into what really happened to Roman, Morgan’s ex and the father of her oldest daughter, who proves the through-line that connects the thirteen episode arc. There is, of course, also the will-they-won’t-they energy between Morgan and Karadec for that, but if past shows of this kind are anything to go by (Castle, Bones), the moment the characters give in to their feelings will be the beginning of the end.
What sets High Potential apart from other ‘murder of the week’ style shows featuring a civilian consultant is Morgan herself. Olson (also a producer) plays her as a tough and spiky, confident but also scrappy type, someone who has been pigeonholed both by her intelligence and by her appearance; too smart for the cool kids, too blonde and made up for the smart kids. The former challenge is something she shares with her middle child, Elliot (Matthew Lamb), a boy who is more interested in documentaries and puzzles than hanging out with kids his own age. Morgan is a good mother, though she struggles to connect with her eldest daughter, Ava (Amirah J), who is struggling with her feelings about being abandoned by her father. Morgan, who is initially reluctant to take the job at the LAPD because she can already tell no one other than Soto takes her seriously, is motivated to say yes out of a desire to prove to Ava that her dad would not have abandoned her willingly.
From there, it is up to Morgan to fight for respect from her new law enforcement colleagues, something she does week by week by not only noticing small details that other detectives miss, but also by being quick to drudge up obscure facts from her photographic memory. These are often shown in quirky cut scenes, such as drawings of churches being planned to face a certain direction or scenes of children around the world playing different sorts of jacks, with Morgan interposed over the top as if the viewer is supposed to be seeing inside her mind’s eye. This, coupled with the fun soundtrack and Morgan’s bright, colourful outfits (often featuring short skirts and high heels that us mere mortals would struggle to chase suspects in) give the show a bright, shiny feel. Viewers may find some of the set-up of the show cheesy, and yes, it feels a little bit like it’s been done before, but the mysteries act like puzzles to solve, where all of the clues are there for eagle-eyed viewers. The most entertaining part of the show is trying to guess whodunnit before Morgan reveals the answer.
In the season finale, Karadec receives an email that’s been sent to the LAPD tip line containing a cryptic message that invites the detectives to solve puzzles in order to save someone’s life. While it seems clear that Morgan is their best bet in saving the day, it is Oz (Deniz Akdeniz), one of the Major Crimes Investigators, who has the clearest connection to the victims. Meanwhile, the season long hunt for answers in Roman’s disappearance has connected Morgan with a shady figure named Gio (Domenick Lombardozzi), who claims to have information for her, but refuses to deal with her cop friends. Morgan blitzes through a series of riddles based on children’s games to save three lives, giving the whole case the feeling of an escape room, but with much higher stakes, and leading this viewer to wonder how much money this kidnapper is spending on not necessarily killing anyone. Though there are a few logical leaps that are hard to follow (as has happened in a few episodes), the fast pace of the case gives the viewer little time to dwell on what just happened in any critical sense. It’s hard not to root for Morgan after thirteen episodes of watching her get more comfortable in her new role as Karadec’s partner – finally accepted somewhere for who she is and valued for her talents rather than treated as a freak.
Just as she thinks she can relax and take a holiday with her family, the kidnapper makes contact, making it clear Morgan was the one he was interested in all along. Meanwhile, Karadec has ignored Morgan’s wishes and gone to see Gio in her place to find out what he knows. As he calls Morgan and they swap what they know, the episode ends, leaving anxious viewers to rush to their phones and try to find out when they can watch the next instalment. Who is the kidnapper? Where is Roman? And are the two cliffhangers related? We’ll have to wait until season 2 drops to find out.
FOUR STARS (OUT OF FIVE)
All episodes of High Potential Season One are now available to stream on Disney+ Australia.
