ABC’s High Potential Is a Slick Crime Procedural Tailored to Kaitlin Olson’s Talents

There’s a lot to respect about actress/comedian Kaitlin Olson’s career, especially her television choices. Outside of her 16 seasons of the sometimes gut-bustingly funny, ‘terrible person’ comedy as Sweet Dee Reynolds on It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Olson toplined the underseen gem The Mick, stole scenes on Curb Your Enthusiasm, and continues to infuse some maternal pathos to Deborah Vance’s (Jean Smart) emotionally chilly existence as DJ in Hacks. There’s a savvy curation underscoring her steady output which translates to audiences now trusting that, if Olson’s in it, then it’s worth giving it a try. And she doesn’t break that streak with her latest, the ABC character-centric, consultant procedural, High Potential. 

Festooned in a personal uniform of mini skirts, clashing patterns, and smoky eyes—think Erin Brockovich with less cleavage—Olson’s Morgan is also a lighting rod for your eyes. Despite the bland show title, Olson taps into her signature eccentricities, which elevates this ‘case of the week’ procedural. She, and the show’s witty, sitcom-esque technique of peppering in hyper-cut visuals to illustrate exposition moments, give High Potential its hook, with the quality of the cases and the talented ensemble sealing the entertainment factor-deal.

As a single mother of three, Morgan is set up to be a seemingly average Angelino trying to pay rent with an overnight job cleaning a downtown police precinct. And then she accidentally knocks over an evidence box, and she’s transfixed with connecting the case’s dots—to the point where she leaves a note on the murder board with who she thinks is actually responsible. If you guess that’s not appreciated by the department chief Selena (Judy Reyes) or the insulted detective, Karadec (Daniel Sunjata), you would be right. So, they ID her on the security footage and bring her in to grill her about why she took liberties to ‘case tamper’ with their investigation. This is where Morgan and title coalesce as she begrudgingly admits that she’s got an obsessive compulsion to make things line up because of her 160 IQ. Her constantly-busy brain is tirelessly collecting details and facts, which makes her talent feel like anything but a ‘gift.’ But her case assessments turn out to be right, which impresses Selena, intrigues the other team cops, Daphne (Javicia Leslie) and Oz (Deniz Akdeniz), and just irritates the hell out of Karadec. 

Even these cops know when a secret weapon’s fallen in their lap, so they tentatively let her shadow them on some field reconnaissance, which lapses into Morgan inserting herself into the cases. What could be very irritating in another, less-able actor’s hands is instead delightfully playful and impishly competent by Olson. It’s like Morgan is the late adolescent puppy version of Peter Falk’s Columbo. Both are dogged and beyond insightful, but Morgan’s enthusiasm and impulsiveness separates her from her peers in this storied subgenre. Part of the show’s charm in the first three episodes provided for review is watching her chase the case, and get verbally swatted on the knuckles by Karadec when her actions might jeopardize the admissibility of evidence or the safety of a crime scene.