High Potential Season 1

Shastine Matsunaga Nol 26’ / Emertainment Staff Writer

Spoilers Ahead!

The latest procedural to grace the small screen is High Potential (2024), a murder mystery show about an intellectually gifted mother of three who starts working for the homicide division of the LAPD. As strange as the premise may sound, this is possibly one of the best murder mystery procedurals released in recent years. The show’s first season just finished airing this past February. It is based on the French TV show HPI which stands for “Haut potentiel intellectuel”, which follows the same premise and has many of the same mysteries. This does not make High Potential a lesser show by any means. High Potential is an incredibly charming show with a perfect balance of witty humor and serious themes. It is lighthearted and charming, but is able to effectively take on a serious tone when discussing heavier topics such as personal tragedy and loss.

The show follows Morgan Gillory (Kaitlin Olson), a financially struggling mother who works as a janitor for the LAPD. She is also a “High Potential Individual.” She is incredibly smart, but when she notices a problem, it will bother her endlessly until she solves it. Due to this tendency, she has struggled to hold down a job or a relationship. She is a bubbly and lighthearted person, but is prone to disobedience when she notices something she feels compelled to examine and understand. Owing to being a mother to young children, Morgan is generally incredibly cheerful and bubbly, but this does not mean she cannot also be serious when the situation calls for it. Morgan’s inability to shake ideas from her head, rather than the kind of person she is at her core, is what causes her to struggle when it comes to people. But it is also this that lands her the job that will change her life.

In the homicide bullpen one night, she spots the evidence board for a current murder investigation and casually fixes a mistake she notices in the detectives’ logic. Come the next morning, homicide sees her correction and immediately brings her in for tampering. While the detectives are eager to arrest her and continue their investigation, Lieutenant Soto (Judy Reyes) asks Morgan to explain what mistakes she sees. Soto is intrigued by Morgan’s reasoning, and when Morgan is able to use her intellect to solve the entire case, Soto offers Morgan a job as a consultant for the LAPD.

Each episode follows a new mystery that Morgan must solve. Through Sherlock-esque reasoning sequences, Morgan puts clues together and forwards the investigation. These short reasoning sequences are scattered throughout the episode, leaving time in between where she is often mulling over evidence, trying to come up with something. These long pauses between deductions allow room for Morgan’s personal life, especially her interactions with her kids. Her teenage daughter Ava (Amirah J) is often closed off and often hides things, causing Morgan to worry about her. Morgan’s son Elliot (Matthew Lamb) inherited her high potential, which has made them very close, and they often bond over trivia that those lacking their intellect struggle to understand. Her youngest is still a baby, which adds to the chaos of Morgan’s daily life.

When Morgan begins work with the LAPD, she is paired up with detective Adam Karadec (Daniel Sunjata). From the start, Karadec cannot stand Morgan. She is uncontrollable, and never listens to him. She also particularly struggles with following procedures. This often poses a problem, especially because the law is an ever-present factor in how they operate. Most prominently, in the second half of the first episode, Morgan obtains damning evidence

against the suspect by breaking into an office. Her method of obtaining it renders the evidence illegal and thus unusable. This adds weight to Karadec’s words when he scolds Morgan, words that may otherwise com=e across as grating, as we as the audience will naturally develop a bias towards Morgan. By utilizing something as universally understood as the law, the show is able to demonstrate that Karadec’s words, however harsh, are justified.

By adding actual consequences to what may otherwise be seen as Morgan being impulsive, the show is able to give her character a way to develop as she works with the LAPD. It also provides a starting line for her slowly developing relationship with Karadec, as he begins to understand her way of thinking and begins to trust her. The banter between Morgan and Karadec is excellently written, and the clash between Morgan’s bubbly personality and Karadec’s exasperation provides great comedy. The progression of their relationship across season one is natural. Even as they become closer and trust each other more, they are still prone to purposely annoying each other and engaging in banter.

Getting a job isn’t the only reason Morgan joins up with the LAPD, however. During the first episode we learn about Morgan’s first husband and the father of her oldest daughter, Roman Sinquerra, an incredibly important character despite never making an on-screen appearance. He suddenly vanished fifteen years ago, and while Morgan’s daughter Ava believes he abandoned them, Morgan is certain he wouldn’t have left them. When Soto comes to Morgan with a job offer, Morgan agrees on the condition that Soto look into Roman’s disappearance. This is an overarching mystery throughout the season, and although unresolved, season one’s cliffhanger promises it will become a focal point in the next season. This mystery not only creates intrigue and keeps the audience watching, but also allows for a deeper understanding of the relationship between Morgan and Ava.

Morgan and her kids. Image Courtesy of Collider.The mystery of Roman’s disappearance is a source of stress for Morgan, constantly nagging her in the back of her mind. And not only does it affect her, having lost someone she loved so suddenly and without explanation, but it also affects her daughter. Ava feels ostracized for being the only one of her siblings who does not know and has no contact with her birth father. Her younger brother and baby sister are the children of Ludo (Taran Killam), another one of Morgan’s exes, who is actively a part of the kids’ lives and babysits them regularly. In addition to this, Ava often feels like she is inadequate for not having inherited Morgan’s intellect, worried that she will never have the kind of relationship with her mother that her brother has. Morgan, of course, assures her that this would never be the case, even if Ava continues to have doubts. Through this mystery in particular, the show is able to expertly thread its themes of family and love within its murder mystery procedural structure.

High Potential is about people, and the bonds they form. It is about love, both romantic and platonic, and the ways in which that love manifests. It is about the ways people can lift each other up and tear each other down. And of course, it is also about murder. And those things often go together. The mysteries reflect these themes through the motivations of the perpetrators and the behaviors of those affected by the tragedies. Compared to the other shows of this genre that I’ve seen, High Potential excels at its blending the typical procedural structure with a story about family, friendship, love and loss.