High Potential is, unfortunately, living up to its name

ABC’s High Potential is great fun; it is undoubtedly one of the best new offerings of the television season. Morgan Gillory (Kaitlin Olson) is an effervescent force of cleverness and brilliance—literally—using her joint blessing and burden as a high-potential intellectual to assist the police in solving cases. I have eagerly anticipated stepping back into this world for a lighthearted hour with my new favorite chaotic consultant each week; however, with the first season having officially wrapped up, the series has some major issues that need to be addressed before/when it returns for its second season, as it has unfortunately lived up to its name a little too accurately and failed to quite cross the line from incredible potential to undeniable success.

First and foremost—and possibly the worst case of this in recent years—is the series’ almost complete failure to embrace and explore its ensemble. With only thirteen episodes, time was tight and nearly exclusively devoted to Morgan. And, as interesting and captivating as Morgan is, it didn’t do the show any favors to give us nothing about the other major players. Only in the final episodes of the season did we start to learn details about some of the detectives’ personal lives, like Oz (Deniz Akdeniz) struggling with the grief of losing his father and Karadec (Daniel Sunjata) once being engaged and his old partner resurfacing. We still know essentially nothing about Daphne (Javicia Leslie) outside of work, which is somewhat appalling as Leslie was the lead of The CW’s Batwoman just a few short years ago and has the acting chops to pull off almost anything. At least Lieutenant Soto (Judy Reyes) was featured in “The Sauna at the End of the Stairs” as the team revisited a case that had haunted her for years, but again, it’s all about work and nothing remotely personal.

On that note, in addition to the lack of development of the team, and only further exacerbating the issue, is how Morgan’s skills come into play during their cases too often causes the detectives to seem completely incompetent. How were they able to solve anything before Morgan came along? The most glaring example of this is in “Obsessed” when the team gathers around a body that washed up on the beach before Morgan arrives and realizes their so-called murder victim is still alive. Soto’s reopened case also brings up these same issues, as Morgan is the only person amongst a slew of officers and detectives to notice that there is wallpaper on every electrical outlet in the bathroom except one, leading to her conclusion that the victim had been electrocuted and died earlier in the evening (and from a different cause) than everyone else had believed.

If Morgan’s skills continue to be an affront to her team’s detective-ing abilities, which is quite likely, then the series must dig into the team as individuals and give us something else to latch onto. Beautiful relationships have begun to blossom, but it has taken way too long. There’s simply no excuse for how little attention was devoted to bringing these other characters to life, and High Potential is incredibly fortunate that its leading lady—both character and star—was able to carry this first season on her back. Nonetheless, this has been such an incredible waste of an unusually stacked cast to leave them meandering on the sidelines with practically nothing substantial to do. (That said, there was a slight change in the final episodes, but nowhere near enough to right the half-sunken ship.)

Finally, let’s talk about the overarching case revolving around Morgan’s missing love and father to her eldest, Roman Sinquerra. Once more, High Potential relied on Olson to carry this and make the audience care, but this is the one instance where she wasn’t able to do so. To have this case progress nearly entirely off-screen was a mistake; not only could this have provided a small amount of time for us to see Soto in action, but it would have allowed more time for the audience to become invested and provided some stakes for the outcome. Given the small amount of time devoted to the case, and without any real exploration or explanation of what his absence meant for Morgan, the revelations—first about the diapers in his trunk, then the ultimate (and unconfirmed) moment where we learn he’s still alive—fell flat. Because, honestly, who cares? We don’t even have a face to put to the name, nor do we know much about who Roman was except his passion for art. Outside of Morgan’s daughter Ava (Amirah J), who like the team is rather underdeveloped but hasn’t been around nearly as much, thus impacting this overarching story, there’s no reason to become invested in the mystery or the outcome.

Despite these glaring issues, High Potential is still a gem. Perhaps because certain aspects of the show work so well, it’s easy to see where things have gone awry. Being stuck with an abnormally short season (at least for broadcast television), due in part to Olson’s role on It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, didn’t help. It’s still a fantastic and impressive new offering—and one that everybody should be watching—but there’s so much untapped potential that would cement this show as an undeniable success, and it starts with addressing and rectifying the aforementioned issues.